The Power of Self-Control and Why It’s So Important for Your Success

The ability to control your emotions and to not let them run you is called self-control. It is one of the most desirable qualities a person can have. It is also one of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5: 22 -23 NIV):

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.. …”

According to Wikipedia self-control is “an aspect of inhibitory control, is the ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behavior in the face of temptations and impulses. As an executive function, self-control is a cognitive process that is necessary for regulating one’s behavior in order to achieve specific goals.”

Why self-control is so important for your success in life and as a Christian — Like this post? You can save it to Pinterest or share with your friends!

If we let our emotions run our lives, it has the potential to wreak complete havoc in our lives. Emotions cloud intelligence and often prevents us from doing what we know we should do. Self-control equals self-discipline.

Suppose you don’t like what your boss says to you and you just respond according to how you are feeling at the time and have an emotional outburst. What’s going to happen? I can almost guarantee you that you’ll be sitting without a job soon. This very thing happened to a young man I happen to know. His boss gave him an instruction that he didn’t like and he got physical with his boss. He head-butted his boss! He had absolutely no self-control whatsoever. He lost his job that very same day.

Self-control is essential for success in any field. If we were to conduct a study on successful people we would find that they all possess the quality of self-control in the highest degree. No wonder the Bible says it’s one of the fruits of the Spirit. It is meant for our good and worth cultivating. God would never steer us wrong.

Marriage

Self-control is just as important in marriage as it is on the job and in business dealings. If a wife responds overly emotional to every single thing that her husband does to offend her and vice versa, then soon the marriage boat will be a sinking ship. It takes strength of character to control your emotions and to think logically and with reason about a situation before responding to it.

Being able to control one’s fleshly desires is just as important in order to remain faithful in a marriage. Self-control is thus an essential element in any successful marriage.

Leadership

As a leader in any capacity self-control is especially vital to be able to effectively lead a team. If the leader of the team falls apart at every twist and turn or have emotional outbursts then you can be assured that the rest of the team will feel unsure and be unstable which will lead to low productivity, inefficiency and ultimately failure. They are looking to the leader for stability.

Obesity and alcoholism

When it comes to eating habits or alcohol consumption, then once again self-control plays a vital role. People who suffer from obesity often have low self-control when it comes to food. One piece of cake leads to another and another and so on.

Get help from above

Failing to control yourself will lead to failure in all areas of your life. So how do you acquire the necessary self-control to lead a successful life? The answer is the Holy Spirit of course. Ask good ol’ God for help. He’s our heavenly Father and He wants to help and guide us. If you ask Him for self-control then you can be assured that you are asking for something that is according to His perfect will for your life. It is one of the fruit of the Spirit after all. So go ahead, pray and ask in faith.