It Is Better to Conquer Yourself than to Win a Thousand Battles

The title of this article is a quote from Buddha:
“It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours.”

These words point to an important truth: conquering yourself is most important, more important than many other goals.

You can win many battles, which means that you can achieve many goals, but goals might lose their importance, or you might lose what you gained.

However, once you conquer yourself, the victory is yours. It concerns your innermost being.

How do you conquer yourself, and why do you need to do so?

What do you gain by winning over yourself? Let’s delve a little into this topic.

What Does Conquering Yourself Mean?

• Conquering yourself means conquering your bad and negative habits and being in control of your thinking, desires and reactions.
• It means rising above your ego and becoming more considerate, helpful and kind.
• It means self-control and self-mastery.
• Conquering yourself means becoming a more conscious being.
• It means rising above one’s base instincts and rash reactions.
• It means the will and discipline to make wise decisions and follow them through despite laziness and inner resistance.

The main keys that give you this ability are your willpower and your self-discipline.

Don’t stop reading at this point! Willpower and self-discipline are not as difficult to develop as you might think, and the rewards are really great.

The rewards of conquering yourself are more inner calm and poise, using your reason and common sense before acting, being in control of yourself and your reactions, and acting more wisely.

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
– Buddha

How to Conquer Yourself

You do not need to fight yourself, limit yourself, or act harshly toward yourself. These are not the right means to conquer yourself.

You need to foster more love toward yourself, and the desire to improve yourself, be a better person, become stronger and more efficient, and think before acting.

To do so, you need inner strength, and to get inner strength, you need a certain degree of willpower and self-discipline.

How to you go on increasing your inner strength?

You do so by practicing exercises geared at increasing your willpower and self-discipline.

This is a topic which I have covered in several of my articles on this topic, as well in my book titled, Build Up Willpower and Self Discipline, where you can find complete tutorial, guidance and exercises for strengthening your willpower, self-discipline, inner strength.

“To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.”
– Buddha

Here are a few tips on how to get inner strength:

1. Think before you act.
2. When you wish to eat junk food, ask yourself whether it’s a wise thing to do, and whether your body needs it.
3. Before retaliating when you feel hurt, wait for a few seconds and take a few deep breathes.
4. When you have a task that needs to be done, but which you defer doing, tackle it immediately, no matter how inconvenient it is.
5. When you get angry at someone, and whish to say some nasty words, curb yourself and don’t do that.
6. Sometimes, decide to use the stairs instead of the elevator.
7. When traveling buy bus, get one station before or after your destination and walk the rest of the way, despite your desire to get off at the closest station to your destination.
8. Here is something which most people might find difficult to do. Once or twice a day, avoid looking at your text messages and social media accounts for at least 15 minutes. Can you do that?
9. Do you feel lazy sometimes? At these times, persuade yourself to get up and exercise, take a walk, or do something useful.
10. In simple words, do not accept laziness, procrastination and outing off things. Acting in this way would add considerably to your inner strength and help you become more disciplined.

Self-Mastery and Self-Control Are Important

I would like to repeat Buddha’s quote:
“It is better to conquer yourself, than to win a thousand battles. Then, the victory is yours.”

The quote says that having self-control and self-mastery are worth more that other achievements.

Self-mastery and self-control are the keys to success in any area of life, in business, studying and even relationships. They are alsp essential for self-improvement, meditation and mindfulness.

Without these skills, you would be a drifter, affected by every whim, by people, and by circumstances.

To conquer yourself means to be more conscious, more aware, and more alive. It means rising above the ego.

Mastering yourself would take you a long way toward mastering your life.

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
– Buddha

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”
– Buddha

“Endurance is one of the most difficult disciplines, but it is to the one who endures that the final victory comes.”
– Buddha

“The wise are disciplined in body, speech, and mind. They are well controlled indeed.”
– Buddha

More inspiring Buddha quotes.