No. 200 - THE LAW OF SELF-CONTROL

No. 200

Jim Davidson...NEWSPAPER COLUMN

THE LAW OF SELF-CONTROL

Have you ever been discombobulated? I have, many times. This word means to be confused or upset. For some reason this word came to mind when I began to think about the Law Of Self-control, which is what I want to invite you to think with me about for a little while. If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that in the past Ive discussed various natural laws that can become success laws if understood and applied in the right way. Success is desired by almost everyone but unfortunately millions of people never take the time to learn the laws or principles that govern or determine success.

The truth is, we live by the grace of God but while we are here on this earth there are things we can do and acts we can perform on a routine basis that will make us more successful and in most cases, happier as well. Of course, whether its success or happiness or both, a lot depends on our priorities, but thats another column. But back to the word discombobulated for a moment. I am always inspired and even amazed at the amount of control that some people have over their body. Ill never forget Gold Metal Winner Mary Lou Retton who hit two perfect 10s in a row during the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Obviously, space will not permit too many examples but think of the high wire walker or flying trapeze artists in the circus or the fantastic ice skaters that have been around for years. My point is that you cant have this kind of control over your body if you are discombobulated. To be successful in most any endeavor we must have the mind and the body working in perfect harmony to achieve maximum results. However, there is still another aspect to consider here and that is to have a high degree of control over our lives. At this point, it should be rather obvious why our personal success depends to a large degree on our knowledge, development and proper use of the Law Of Self-control.

To elaborate a little more and to make it clear, we know by the process of experimentation that we have control over various parts of our body. A simple command will tell us to move our hands, fingers, legs, feet and even our eyes. But have you ever thought about the fact that a simple command will not cause your heart to stop beating? Its between these two extremes that lie all the rest of our self-control. While we have great control over our limbs, we have less control over our tongue, and in diminishing order our ideas, feelings, emotions and our instincts.

At this point I believe you can see that its here that our greatest potential lies. According to the dictionary, self-control means to exercise direction, restraint, motivation and government over our organs, our faculties, our emotions, as well as our personalities. At this point what Im going to say may be so simple that you may have a tendency to pass it off without a second thought. Hopefully, you wont do that because a little time spent each day in this area could pay great dividends. Please consider these final thoughts and what they could mean to you.

The key to achieving greater self-control is training and the greatest accomplishment is to train the mind to extend and increase its authority over the body. The first step toward self-control is planning. We must know what we wish to accomplish and also what our resources and shortcomings are. Then once a day we should sit down, plan, think, analyze and reason. If you will discipline yourself to do this on a consistent and regular basis, your self-control is bound to increase. Then to a larger degree, we will be masters of our own fate, and will be able to do more with our God given talents and abilities. (Jim Davidson is a motivational speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)