How Greater Success is Found in Abstinence

When I was in college, I heard a powerful message that changed my thinking. The speaker was a young, beautiful woman who looked to be in her twenties. I was initially captivated by her beauty and stylish clothes, but what she had to say had a far greater impact. She spoke about choosing to be abstinent from sexual activity before marriage. I sat and paid rapt attention to her every word as she spoke about the empowerment that comes from choosing to be abstinent, because I had never heard a young person encourage the youth to be abstinent, nor did they look like this model and beauty pageant winner did. Her name was Lakita Garth, and her message of how to succeed using three key principles has stayed with me since that fateful day during my freshman year. Her key points to achieve success in waiting until marriage were to delay self-gratification, have self-discipline and self-control, and I learned that they can be applied to any area of our life that we want to succeed in.

Delay of Self-Gratification

I have read stories of millionaires who sacrificed in the beginning, and avoided purchasing expensive items that were out of their budget. They had the foresight to understand that they were delaying the instant gratification of having what they wanted now, to build a future that would enable them to experience far great gratification, because they could then afford to buy what they wanted. Their focus was not on now, but their eyes were on the prize: obtaining financial wealth. In order to achieve success in any area of life you have to sacrifice some of the desires that can be detrimental to achieving your goals like spending impulsively, procrastinating, or just plain quitting when the going gets tough. If you are focused on being healthy, you have to delay the instant gratification of not exercising or eating unhealthy foods. Of course it feels good momentarily to give in to our desires, but in the long run it just puts us further away from achieving our goals.

Self-Discipline

Success requires self-discipline. It takes discipline to say no to procrastination and say yes to giving your best effort and going the extra mile. You have to learn to master your thoughts and actions and gear them towards success, and that requires work. It takes discipline to remain positive about achieving goals that seem impossible. Or to remain positive when others rain on your parade with negativity. Discipline is required to get up everyday and put forth the necessary action to make your dreams come true, and endure the race until the end, when your goal is accomplished.

Self-Control

How many people are drowning in debt because they lacked the self-control to not continue to impulsively purchase items that were not essential to their lives? Debt, obesity, and constant negative thinking are the result of a lack of self-control. Gain control of the destructive behaviors that impede your ability to succeed.

Start Succeeding Today

Ms. Garth's message about living an abstinent lifestyle can be applied to any area of our life that we need to control in order to have an optimal outcome, whether it be losing weight, obtaining good health, attaining wealth, having patience to wait for a suitable partner for a relationship, or achieving any positive goal.