Your Problem Isn't Motivation

We’ve all said a time or two or a hundred, that we couldn’t stick with a plan or get something done because we lack motivation. Motivation has been blamed countless time for our constant inaction and procrastination. The thing is motivation will not always be there for you. Sorry to break the news to you but you will not always have an abundance of motivation. This is where the need for discipline comes in.

I’m sure you would agree that most everything that we do daily (work, cook, clean, exercise) is done out of discipline and responsibility and not due to motivation. Frankly, if I relied on motivation to get things done I’d never go to work, the dishes would never be washed and everyone in my house would eat cereal for every meal, every day.

Motivation operates on the erroneous assumption that a certain mental or emotional state is necessary to complete a task. Simply stated it becomes a form of procrastination waiting on a feeling or mood to act.

Discipline, by contrast, separates action from moods and feelings. Eventually the motivation may come BUT most often discipline is what will keep you moving forward to reach your goals. Just think if you had the discipline to do everything you know you should do, even when you did not feel like doing it, how much more successful you would be at achieving your goals.

Here are a few tips to create discipline:

1. Make the commitment.

If you really want to achieve your goals, then you must make the commitment to be disciplined. It’s that simple. Being disciplined isn’t something you have, it is something you do. Discipline every habit in your life. Discipline is developed. It comes one moment at a time. Decide to focus on the commitment that you have made and ignore the mood associated with the activity.

2. Start with the small tasks.

A great way to feed and nurture the habit of being disciplined is to focus on completing small tasks you know you should do such as making your bed before you leave the house, keeping your home or work space clean, keep your car clean, take the garbage out or pick up after yourself. As you discipline yourself to do the small tasks, you will become more disciplined in doing the bigger, more important things.

3.         Follow through.

Make decisions ahead of time and stick to it. If you decide to exercise 3 days a week, then do not allow yourself to talk yourself out of it. If you are going to take on an important project don’t second-guess yourself when the time has come to start. The decision is made -- so follow through.

Without follow through you have no discipline. Here is a warning. Your mind is often your greatest enemy when it comes to following through, it will try and talk you into inactivity. You must win this battle and keep up on all that you have planned to do. I’ll admit starting is often the most difficult part of follow through but if you can just get yourself moving the momentum will keep you going.

If motivation is all we needed to achieve our goals, absolutely nothing would get done for most of us. Discipline is the key and motivation will follow. For example, the results you get from the discipline of exercise and eating healthy are guaranteed to motivate you to continue to exercise and eat healthy.

If any of this has resonated with you or you have thoughts to add please comment below.