#self-control

#self-control

Virtues such as compassion, patience, and self-control may be beneficial not only for others but also for oneself, according to new research my team and I published in the Journal of Personality in December 2025. Philosophers from Aristotle to al-Fārābī, a 10th-century scholar in what is now Iraq, have argued that virtue is vital for well-being. Yet others, such as Thomas Hobbes and Friedrich Nietzsche, have argued the opposite: Virtue offers no benefit to oneself and is good only for others.

Goals are standards that individuals use to evaluate how well they are doing now relative to where they want to end up. Goals basically guide our choices. Once you have a goal, the hard part is figuring out the steps that will get you from point A to point B. The following guide can help you make well-defined and achievable goals. It also provides clues about the various ways that goal achievement fails (Berkman, 2018; Matthews, 2015).

Anger is a bad habit that people tend to pick up from their parents. When a child who was raised at Plato's house was returned to his parents and witnessed his father shouting, he said, 'I never saw this at Plato's house.'

I give myself an imaginary amount to spend — say, $500 — then wander into stores I enjoy and pick out favorite items. But I don't purchase anything! I get all the rush of shopping and the satisfaction of choosing without spending.

Self-control is one's ability to navigate between multiple competing desires such as between listening to your mother or shoving your sister.