My take on motivation versus discipline

"Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites, and passions." - Stephen Covey

What's the difference between motivation and discipline? I like to think of discipline as "what to do" and motivation as "why to do". Self-discipline is often likened to teaching yourself self-control and shaping your behaviour, so that you're not a slave to your, often fleeting and fickle, motivations.

Motivation is “why to do”

Firstly, motivation is the WHY behind your goal or intention. It’s the little voice in the back of your mind prodding you to get up and do something when your whole being says no. Motivation is a lifelong skill that can be improved through self-awareness and certain proven strategies. The better you are at knowing your own motivation drivers, the more effective you’ll be at getting the results you want out of life. Your “why to do” can be anything, really. From achieving a certain mark on an assignment, making a certain amount of money from a small business you started, and so on. It is the reason you started and the reason you keep going.

Discipline is “what to do”

Self-discipline is the ability to correct or regulate your behaviour for the sake of improvement. Whilst motivation is more emotion-driven, will is based on thinking and reasoning to act as a catalyst for action. Discipline is what helps you get back on track when you’ve messed up. It is the force that helps you do things repetitively for long-term benefit, long after the “motivation“ you may have had has waned. Self-discipline is like a muscle that gets stronger the more you train it.

Motivation is decoration; discipline is your only chance at success

I wouldn’t say that motivation and discipline are necessarily mutually exclusive, but we need to shift the way we think about how these two desirable qualities work.

How this perspective change will shift your productivity

Often, when we talk about setting and achieving a goal, we mention the motivation for what got us going on the journey. And that’s great. In fact, we NEED that initial nudge to get us going.

However, the problem is that the ball won’t keep rolling once it hits an uphill slope. Yes, motivation is a wonderful thing to take advantage of when it strikes and it should be used when it’s around. But motivation is finite and fleeting. We can’t beg, force, or manipulate it into sticking around longer than it wants to.

It feels incredible to want to make a huge change, but change is extremely difficult. The excitement of motivation will wear off much faster than any true plan can be created for executing on that excitement.

This is where discipline becomes absolutely pivotal.

We are creatures of habit

As much as we don’t want to admit it, humans are extremely automated in their daily lives, everyday activities and tasks. When last did you think carefully about the process of getting out of bed and ending up making yourself a cup of coffee or ending up in front of your desk ready to start working? There are several things that you don’t even consciously think about in your daily patterns.

However, this needn’t be a scary realisation. In fact, the automation processes of the human brain were made from an evolutionary process that is highly selective and it can be advantageous. Indeed, tapping into those hardwires is exactly what discipline is.

Habit is beauty

By understanding how we establish and practice habits on a daily basis, we can figure out how to implement beneficial ones (and remove less beneficial ones).

When we begin something new, we must focus a lot of our brain power on it because it’s out of the ordinary and we are learning how to do that thing. This is discomfort, something with which our brains are not comfortable. But as we repeatedly do it, we need to devote less conscious brain activity to it until it becomes second nature - a habit!

Motivation will fire the engine… at first. Discipline will keep you going when you think it’s out of gas.

Set yourself up for success, not failure

The first action might be so small as to seem ridiculous. If your goal is to start going to the gym, you can literally start with driving to the gym, parking, walking in and out, and leaving.

Before long, you’ll find yourself feeling silly for taking the time to go to the gym and not working out. As a result, you start staying a bit longer, maybe walking on the treadmill for a couple of minutes, maybe lifting some light weights here and there.

By setting the bar extremely low, you’re decreasing the risk of failure. Yet, you did set a bar so low that, if you don’t reach it, you’ll automatically want to do better. It becomes an internal checkpoint for you to meet because it’s so simple.

Once we’ve achieved that small habit change, we want to add onto it. In this way, we start achieving those goals we initially set for ourselves.

How long before I form a habit?

The research on this varies, but it seems to fall in the range of 21 days for a new habit to form and

66 days for that behavior to become automatic.

When setting new habit goals, keep this in mind. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Your brain is working extremely hard to form those new neural pathways. This is why it’s so important to stick to only one new habit at a time.

Form habits. Create discipline. Stop worrying about when motivation come, because at some point it will leave you.

I want to conclude with a brilliant post I read on The Higher Self Instagram account recently. It said:

Self-discipline is all about choosing your growth over temporary pleasures. Mastery over your attention is a powerful skill, it’s the only thing that can help you switch your thoughts and actions. The prime reason for indulging in temporary pleasures extensively is not being self-aware. Without self-awareness you are in a state of ignorance. If you make mastery over your attention the priority, you will be able to manifest your vision with ease.