Reading Comprehension – How to improve your self-discipline

Welcome to the ABA English blog!

If you haven’t done so yet, we suggest you check out our course. You can sign up now for free!

Ok, today’s class is to practice reading AND learn how to improve your self-discipline.

Self-discipline – the ability to make yourself do things that should be done.

The following article is inspired by zenhabits. He offers 5 ways to improve self-discipline.

Self-Discipline in 5 Sentences

1. Have a powerful reason — when things get difficult, “because it sounds nice” or “to look good” aren’t going to cut it.

What does this mean? Well, you need very good reasons to keep motivated. Why do you want to learn English? A good answer is “to travel the world” or “to find a great job”, a bad answer would be “because everyone else does”.

2. Start tiny, with a simple but unbreakable promise to yourself to do one small thing every single day.

What does this mean? This means that it’s better to start with small steps than very big goals. If you want to learn English, then do one exercise a day. But make a promise that every single day you will do a little bit. Soon, you will know a lot more!

3. Watch your urges, and learn not to act on childish whims.

What does this mean? Imagine you are about to study for an hour but then your brain says “I want to watch TV”. Be careful! Remember your promise, do the work and watch TV afterwards.

4. Listen to your self-rationalizations, and don’t believe their lying ways.

What does this mean? This is what happens when we say “I will do it later”. But later you are tired so you say “I will do two exercises tomorrow”. But tomorrow you will also have an excuse so in the end, you never study.

5. Enjoy the habit, or you won’t stay with it longer than a week’s worth of sunrises.

What does this mean? If you really hate doing something, sooner or later you will stop. So it is important to make it fun! If one day you don’t want to study grammar, ok, then watch a movie in English with subtitles. Our ABA course is designed to be fun, because we know how important it is!

Vocabulary

Something  is not going to cut it – to be able to do something well enough — usually used in negative statements. It means that something is not good enough.

Tiny – very small.

Unbreakable – not able to be broken : not breakable.

Urge – a strong need or desire to have or do something.

Childish – of a child or typical of a child. Silly.

Whim – a sudden wish, desire, decision, etc.

Habit – a usual way of behaving : something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way.