Willpower and discipline lead to self-realization?

Question

Its easy to know the right (or responsible) decisions to make, but so much harder to make it.

This is because the majority of the time, what we WANT to do is not necessarily what we SHOULD do.

Quieting our urges and desires and doing the right things is how we develop good habits, and is called "Breaking down resistance".

Doing this takes willpower and discipline. So then, exercising these two qualities are the biggest steps in being all that we can be.

What are your thoughts?

Answer 1

Life being One, the interests of the part should be those of the whole. In his ignorance man thinks he can successfully strive for his own interests, and this wrongly-directed energy of selfishness produces suffering. He learns from his suffering to reduce and finally eliminate its cause. The Buddha taught four Noble Truths:

The omnipresence of suffering;

its cause, wrongly directed desire,

its cure, the removal of the cause,

and the Noble Eightfold Path of self-development which leads to the end of suffering.



The Eightfold Path consists in Right (or perfect) Views or preliminary understanding. Right Aims or Motive, Right Speech, Right Acts, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Concentration or mind-development, and finally, Right leading to full Enlightenment. As Buddhism is a way of living, not merely a theory of life, the treading of this Path is essential to self-deliverance. ‘Cease to do evil, learn to do good, cleanse your own heart; this is the Teaching of the Buddha.’

Answer 2

And then out of nowhere it comes. Is it the whim of God in all of its sublime, though capricious circumstance or the flutter of a butterfly's wing  upon the winds of time?

The best laid plans of mice and men oft go a stray and leave us naught but grief and pain for promised joy.

----- Robert Burns (Ode to a Mouse)

Answer 3

Our entire lives are formed by the decisions we make...choices....when we know they are not good choices and still choose them..we must be willing to pay the consequences.  We as human beings have been given the intelligence to make right decisions.  ..but many of us choose to NOT!!!

ALL urges and desires subside....discipline will prevail if it is our desire....

CONSEQUENCES.......Thinking about them and the outcome will form character

Answer 4

My thoughts:

There are so many factors that contribute to self-actualization, and it's impossible to prioritize them, because such a list would first require a specific definition of terms such as "self-realization", "self-actualization" or "being all that you can be".  These are very personal terms, and they differ from one individual to another.

I would, however, agree that self-discipline and willpower can arise from personal growth, and can lead to personal growth.