English Art/Literary Esoteric practices

Hello everyone,

Man from a psychological standpoint of development is not what he should be. He does not possess the self-mastery, the **self-directing** power of concentration that is his by right.

He has not trained himself in a way to promote his self-mastery. Every balanced mind possesses the faculties whose chief duties are to engineer, direct and concentrate the operations of the mind, both in a mental and physical sense. Man must learn to control not only his mind but his bodily movements

What does "self-directing" mean? If the power of cincentration is self-directing doesn't it mean that it (power of concentration) should act automatically, on its own, without any efforts from Man?

Thank you.