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Personal Development · 3 min read

How Can I Create Better Results?

Learn how self control and personal discipline shape better results. Discover simple steps to guide thoughts, words and actions so you achieve goals and success

Chris Farmer, Founder of Corporate Coach Group

“Your results depend on five forces, yet only one sits in your hands: self control. Guide your thoughts, words and deeds, turn plans into action, choose benefit over short thrill, and better results will follow every time.”

Chris Farmer — Founder, Corporate Coach Group

How Can I Create Better Results?

How Can I Create Better Results

Everyone wants to have better results. Presumably you would like to have, a nicer car, a nicer house, a nicer income.

Everyone wants their lives to be better, in the sense of enjoying better results. So the big question is, what is it that determines the quality of your results?

Your results are being driven by five factors.

  1. Your own actions.
  2. The actions of others.
  3. The political system in which you are operating.
  4. Mother Nature.
  5. Random chance: Luck.

The most important one of the above list is number 1.

Your own action is the most important one of the five factors, because:

  • You cannot control the actions of others.
  • You cannot control the political system.
  • You cannot control Mother Nature.
  • You cannot control random chance.
  • But you CAN control your own actions.

Control yourself and you will be able to control your results

If you can control yourself, then over the long stretch, you can control your external results.

If you cannot, or will not, control yourself, then your results will be governed by the other four factors; other people, the political system, Nature and chance events.

And you do not really want your results to be governed by what other people are prepared to give you, or what you can claim from the government, nor by random chance.

You don't really want to have to rely upon random chance. What should you rely upon? Your own self.

Self-reliance

You need to control yourself and determine your own results. You can do that if you:

  1. Control your thoughts. Be careful what you think about.
  2. Control your language. Be careful what you talk about and be careful how you word your message.
  3. Control your diet. Don't eat and drink the wrong things.
  4. Control what it is you aim at. Choose your goals very carefully.

Make sure that the thing you want is actually beneficial, not just pleasurable.

Many things that are pleasurable are not beneficial

Revenge may be pleasurable but it is not beneficial.

Cream cakes are pleasurable but they are not beneficial.

Many things that are beneficial are not very pleasurable

Running is not very pleasurable but is beneficial.

Studying is often not pleasurable, but is very beneficial.

Your results are a product of your actions, and your actions are a product of yourself and your own thinking.

As James Allen put it: "A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; He cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mould and master his own will: People seek guidance of him who is master of himself."

Plato said: "The first and best victory is to conquer self."

And Leonardo da Vinci said: "You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself. The height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment."

If you would improve your results, then you can begin by first, improving yourself.

Take a look at this personal development programme

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self-control

Self-control is the personal development skill that lets you guide your thoughts, words and deeds in the moment, hold them to clear long-term aims, choose gain over quick pleasure, and keep the same steady rule in every setting. Lose any one part and real self-control is gone.

CG4D Definition

Context: Personal development
Genus: Skill

  • Guides own thoughts, words and actions at will
  • Holds behaviour to clear long-term goals
  • Chooses beneficial gains over short pleasure
  • Applies the same rule across all life settings

Article Summary

Your results depend on five forces, yet only one sits in your hands: self control. Guide your thoughts, words and deeds, turn plans into action, choose benefit over short thrill, and better results will follow every time.

Chris Farmer, Founder of Corporate Coach Group

Written by Chris Farmer

Founder & Lead Trainer, Corporate Coach Group

Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has over 25 years experience designing and delivering leadership and management training across both the public and private sectors. His programmes are structured, practical and built around real-world performance. Read more about Chris and the story of how the Corporate Coach Group was founded.

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Key Statistics

The 2024 LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report states that 89% of UK firms rank self-discipline as the most important soft skill for staff progress.

A January 2024 YouGov poll finds that workers who write clear goals are 42% more likely to gain a pay rise within 12 months than those who do not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this topic

Your own actions do. When you use self control to direct what you think, say and do, you steer outcomes towards better results.
Besides your choices, results shift with other people’s actions, the political climate, natural events and random luck. You cannot control these, so rely mainly on self reliance and discipline.
Luck and politics sit outside your reach, change without warning and often disappoint. Self control lets you plan, act and adjust, giving steady progress and better results over time.
Begin small: watch your thoughts, choose clear words, skip junk food and set one realistic goal. Repeat each act daily. Success grows out of these simple, controlled steps.
Beneficial actions improve long-term health, wealth or skill, even if they feel hard now. Purely pleasurable acts give quick thrill, like cream cakes or revenge, yet harm later progress.
Running, studying and mindful thinking often feel dull or tiring, yet they build fitness, knowledge and calm focus. Keep them regular and they feed better results.
A clear goal directs your attention, filters choices and sparks action. With a fixed target, self control can line thoughts, words and deeds toward one success path.

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