Motivation is fickle, discipline is about doing the action when you’re not motivated and don’t want to.
Motivation comes and goes. Discipline shows up for work every day, rain or shine.
I’ve worked on long term projects, and it’s the discipline that lets you power through those tasks you don’t want to do. It’s required to finish anything of substance.
One thing that’s really helped me build discipline is the gym. It’s hard, I usually don’t want to go. But even on the days I don’t feel it, I go and get a workout in, even if it’s not a great workout. Even if I just go for a walk in the park or on a treadmill some days.
Once you do something consistently enough, it becomes habit, and develops its own inertia, to the point where it can become harder not to do it. I think habit and consistency are important in maintaining discipline.
And the experience I was mentioning is well summed up by "develops its own inertia". You become fine tuned at adjusting activity to keep inertia in some range, avoid the zero which would cost you long time to recover that inertia, but don't over work yourself. Cause a life of overworking is dreadful, the key is finding the sweet spot. I even think we're build for that, the right kind and amount of stimulation keeps life interesting.
Discipline is just another word for motivation. You are motivated to start, and are motivated to keep going. The only reason you call it discipline is to give yourself the illusion that you can’t lose it, but you can
When you have motivation, you don’t need discipline. The work comes naturally because you want to do it. When that fades, and it will, discipline is the only thing keeping you from quiting.
Motivation comes and goes. Discipline shows up for work every day, rain or shine.
I’ve worked on long term projects, and it’s the discipline that lets you power through those tasks you don’t want to do. It’s required to finish anything of substance.
One thing that’s really helped me build discipline is the gym. It’s hard, I usually don’t want to go. But even on the days I don’t feel it, I go and get a workout in, even if it’s not a great workout. Even if I just go for a walk in the park or on a treadmill some days.
Once you do something consistently enough, it becomes habit, and develops its own inertia, to the point where it can become harder not to do it. I think habit and consistency are important in maintaining discipline.