SELF CONCEPT The self-concept is the accumulation of knowledge about the self, such as beliefs regarding personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles. Beginning in infancy, children acquire and organize information about themselves as a way to enable them to understand the relation between the self and their social world. This developmental process is a direct consequence of children's emerging cognitive skills and their social relationships with both family and peers. During early childhood, children's self-concepts are less differentiated and are centered on concrete characteristics, such as physical attributes, possessions, and skills. During middle childhood, the self-concept becomes more integrated and differentiated as the child engages in social comparison and more clearly perceives the self as consisting of internal, psychological characteristics. Throughout later childhood and adolescence, the self-concept becomes more abstract, complex, and hierarchically organized into cognitive mental representations or self-schemas, which direct the processing of self-relevant information.
Understanding your self-concept It is the understanding and knowledge you have of your own existence. It is how you see yourself in relation to others and to your surroundings. To have a positive or healthy self-concept you must:
 Know yourself
 Love yourself
 Be True to yourself In order to meet the challenges of today's complicated world, we must build a solid foundation of self-knowledge, self-love and self-confidence.
Constituents of a healthy self-concept
 The ability to know yourself; to be able to assess your strengths, weaknesses, talents and potential.
 The ability to love and accept yourself as you are, knowing that you can improve and develop any aspects of yourself that you choose.
 The ability to be honest with yourself and be true to who you are and what you value.
 The ability to take responsibility for your choices and actions. You develop a healthy self-concept through self-assessment, planning, and effort. You acquire the necessary life skills that can help you take on the challenges that life presents and you integrate them with the your knowledge and experience. When you maintain a solid self-concept nothing can rattle you or take you off your stride. You are confident and assured because you know that you are able to handle the adversities and challenges that come your way.

SELF DISCIPLINE Discipline is freedom. For many people discipline is a dirty word that is equated with the absence of freedom. In fact the opposite is true. As Stephen R. Covey once wrote, “the undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions”. And in the longer term, the undisciplined lack the freedom that comes with possessing particular skills and abilities Plato once said, “The first and best victory is to conquer self.” Self-discipline is the ability to conquer oneself and control one’s actions. One of the main characteristics of self-discipline is the ability to forgo instant and immediate gratification and pleasure, in favor of some greater gain or more satisfying results, even if this requires effort and time. Self discipline gives you the power to stick to your decisions and follow them through, without changing your mind, and is therefore one of the important requirements for achieving goals. The possession of self discipline enables you to choose, and then persevere with actions, thoughts and behavior, which lead to improvement and success. It also gives you the power and inner strength to overcome addictions, procrastination and laziness and to follow through whatever you do. Contrary to common belief, self-discipline is not a severe and limited behavior or a restrictive lifestyle. It expresses itself as perseverance, the ability not to give up despite failure and setbacks, as self control, and as the ability to resist temptations and distractions that tend to stand in the way of attaining aims and goals. Life often presents challenges and problems on the path to success and achievement, and in order to rise above them you have to act with perseverance and persistence, and this requires self discipline. This ability leads to self confidence, self esteem and inner strength, and consequently to happiness and satisfaction. Self discipline is vital for overcoming all negative habits. It is also an important requirement for studying and learning, for developing any skill, and for success in self improvement, spiritual growth and meditation.
DEVELOPING SELF DISCIPLINE
1. Self-Knowledge Discipline means behaving according to what you have decided is best, regardless of how you feel in the moment. Therefore the first trait of discipline is self-knowledge. You need to decide what behavior best reflects your goals and values. This process requires introspection and self-analysis, and is most effective when tied to written expression.
2. Conscious Awareness Self-discipline depends upon conscious awareness as to both what you are doing and what you are not doing. Developing self-discipline takes time, and the key here is you are aware of your undisciplined behavior. This gives you the opportunity to understand how it blocks your path for success and help you to take decisions that is in better alignment with your goals and values.
3. Commitment to Self-Discipline It is not enough to simply write out your goals and values. You must make an internal commitment to them. If you struggle with commitment, start by making a conscious decision to follow through on what you say you’re going to do – both when you said you would do it and how you said you would do it.
4. Courage Self-discipline is highly dependent on courage. Don’t pretend something is easy for you to do when it is in fact very difficult and/ or painful. Instead, find the courage to face this pain and difficulty. As you begin to accumulate small private victories, your self-confidence will grow and the courage that underpins self-discipline will come more naturally.
5. Internal Coaching When you find yourself being tested, I suggest you talk to yourself, encourage yourself and reassure yourself. self-talk that has the ability to remind you of your goals, call up courage, reinforce your commitment and keep you conscious of the task at hand.