Self-Punishment as a method to develop self-discipline?

this is a tuff question i believe very one has problems with self discipline i mean we are on Nofap which for me its been pretty tuff.Now to answers your question , i think you should try Fasting it helps to an extent the thing is that Nofap is a mental thing its really a battle of thoughts and feeling that dopamine rush one gets from that masturbation and release , if you can and should replace your thoughts your daily habits it will take time what do you enjoy when your not watching porn ? reading ? clean your room keep a tight regimen its tuff trust me but its doable... best of luck

 

Skinner's experiments did show two ways of reinforcing behaviour - positive using rewards and negative using punishment. Both ways work but positive reinforcement (rewarding yourself for doing things) in generally seen to be more effective than negative reinforcement.

So try to incorporate rewards. Before you do something you want to do, say that you won't do it until you do something that you need to do (say, tidying your room up). The enjoyable activity now becomes a reward for the less enjoyable. In fact, having a clean room is kind of a reward in itself.

I would say that cold showers and intermittent fasting are two really good ways to strengthen willpower.

Remember that life is not all about pleasure. Our modern day society has developed this sense in us. We can get sexual reward from a click of a mouse. We can get food pleasure from high fat, high sugar food 24 hours a day. This was not how we evolved, it's not what we're designed to do.

Some people find a lot of benefit in meditation - maybe give it a shot?

 

Positive reinforcement > negative reinforcement. Always

Sure some people respond effectively to being shouted at, talked harshly to and so on. Nothing wrong with that, but why wouldn't you want to feel good about yourself in the process of succeeding?

Treating yourself negatively (punishment, negative self-talk, etc) will foster negative energy in your mind. Why would you deliberately make yourself feel shittier than you already do? Seems incredibly counter-intuitive to me.

Talking positively to yourself and rewarding yourself for doing chores or trying your best, sets you up for a positive learning experience regardless of results. Cheering is way more motivating than belittling. IMO.

 

Hey Pluto,

my room was a mess too and my discipline in all areas of life pretty bad. What has helped me so far were habits. Every morning I have a sequence of things I do. By now its automatic and does not cost me any discipline but I still get the reward. I started with five actions with each not longer than two minutes. For instance: 2 minutes of tidy up (I used a timer) and filling my water bottles to drink (about 2 minutes) and making the bed. Thus my initial list was only 10 minutes worth of actions - very easy to complete. Takes little discipline. I always thought about that I would be able to do it when I had the worst day ever because I wanted to do it was a habit - every day. I have a sheet of paper where I cross of each action and I can see my progress for the last weeks. Once I was doing 10 minutes of tidying a day. That gave me a general tidiness in my room. Slowly I became more tidy in general. And now I have my folders and files oragnized, my drawers, many computer folders and even the basement.

Try it and let me know.