Self-control

Self-control is like a muscle, right?  It's valid to exercise it?  But DAMN I want to go pick up my new glasses!  It's surprisingly hard and easy at the same time to deny myself something.  You know?
Self-control is not a value, it's a habit.
A boy in a Yeshiva in Israel was in danger of being tossed out. The Rosh Yeshiva had given him "one more chance," and based on his past record, it would not take long before this boy would do something serious enough to indeed warrant his dismissal. He approached his mashgiach (sort of like a guidance counsellor).
"I really want to be in Yeshiva. I like it here. But I have absolutely no self-control. I know I won't be able to keep the rules; it's as if there's someone inside of me that constantly pushes me to do things I know I shouldn't do. My days here are limited."
The mashgiach responded by telling him to take something small and insignificant to work on, not necessarily related to the Yeshiva rules. "Work on stopping to crack your knuckles. It's small, it has nothing to do with Yeshiva, but you'll see that even this small act of stopping yourself from doing something you want to do will give your neshama the feeling of what it's like to exercise self-control. Before you know it, you'll experience a different sort of self-empowerment, not the type that says 'I can have whatever I want whenever I want it,' but the empowerment that comes from saying, 'I am in control, and I won't let myself constantly fall prey to self-defeating acts that feel good momentarily but that end up destroying me in the long run.'"