On the matter of Self-Discipline:

    All my life I have been very bad at speaking in front of a group. Not that I felt nervous, especially, because I have done a fair amount of amatuer acting. After the first few times, I was never afraid to get up on stage and act a part. But giving a speech was always catastrophic.

  There came a point when I decided I had to do something about this. I was at a meeting where the speaker was part of the group and I asked him how he learned to speak so well. He advised me to join Toastmasters. So I did.

  I was surprised to find that public speaking was really rather easy. You see, I had always thought it was something you were born with - either you coud do it or you couldn’t — and I couldn’t! But I discovered public speaking was simply a series of techniques — and techniques can be learned.

  I didn’t have to use self-discipline to force myself to do it. I just had to prove to my sub-conscious that it was easy. And it became easy. Now I feel quite comfortable standing up in front of a group and speaking.

  All because I told myself I can do this.

  If you want to make reaching your goals difficult, just tell yourself frequently that it is difficult, that you need self-discipline to overcome temptation, etc. If you want to make achieving your goals easy, just tell yourself frequently that it is easy and all you have to do is want them.

  Your subconscious is a magical thing, and it will do magical things for you -- if you let it.