Motivation and Discipline

How to get anything done….

If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it.

1. The first is to try to motivate yourself. This is the more popular option. And, it is devastatingly wrong.
2.  The second — somewhat unpopular but entirely correct — choice is to cultivate discipline.

What’s the difference between the two?

Motivation	Discipline
Motivation, broadly speaking, operates on the assumption that a particular mental or emotional state is necessary to complete a task.	Discipline, by contrast, separates outwards functioning from moods and feelings and thereby ironically circumvents the problem by consistently improving them.
Action is conditional on feelings. You wait for the right mood to start doing stuff, it’s an invitation to the dreaded procrastination loops we all know about.	Successful completion of tasks brings about the positive state of mind that chronic procrastinators think they need to initiate tasks in the first place.
Motivation is waiting until you’re in Olympic form to start training.	Discipline is training to get into an Olympic form.
At its core, motivation is insistence that we should only be doing things we feel like doing.	Discipline aims to cut the link between feelings and actions, and do it anyway.
“How do I get myself to feel like doing what I have rationally decided to do?”.	“How do I make my feelings inconsequential and do the things I consciously want to do?”.
There are psychological problems with relying on motivation. Trying to drum up enthusiasm time and again is literally a form of deliberate psychological self-harm.	Discipline makes you feel good and buzzed and energetic and eager afterward.
Motivation usually comes in short, periodic bursts. It has a tiny shelf life and needs constant refreshing.	Discipline is usually self-perpetuating and constant.
Motivation is like winding up a crank to deliver a burst of force. At best, it stores and converts energy to a particular purpose.	By contrast, discipline is like an engine that, once kick-started, continuously supplies energy to the system.
There are situations where it is the correct attitude, one-off situations where spring-loading a lot of energy up front is the best course of action.	Discipline is the basis for regular day-to-day functioning and consistent long-term results.
Motivation is trying to feel like doing stuff.	Discipline is doing it even if you don’t feel like it.
Motivation is analogous to goals.	Discipline, in short, is a system.

Summary

Productivity has no requisite mental states.
For consistent, long-term results, discipline trumps motivation.

How do you cultivate discipline?  

By building habits.
Start as small as you can manage, even microscopic, and keep gathering momentum. Re-invest it in progressively bigger changes to your routine, and build a positive feedback loop.

Forget motivation…  What we really need is discipline.

Excerpts from a blog post by Zbyněk Dráb
Blog URL: http://www.wisdomination.com/

Also available as a presentation on SlideShare:
www.slideshare.net/gautamsoman/motivation-vs-discipline