To effectively accomplish tasks, you have two primary approaches at your disposal. The first, more commonly pursued yet ultimately misguided path, involves attempting to motivate yourself. The second, slightly less favored but entirely correct route, centers around developing discipline.
This is a situation where adopting an alternative mindset immediately leads to better results. While the term “paradigm shift” is often overused, it genuinely applies here – it’s an illuminating realization. What’s the distinction?
Motivation, in a broad sense, hinges on the incorrect assumption that a specific mental or emotional state is a prerequisite for task completion. That’s entirely backwards. Discipline, on the other hand, decouples outward actions from moods and emotions, thus ingeniously bypassing the issue by consistently enhancing them.
The implications are profound. Successful task fulfillment generates the inner states that habitual procrastinators mistakenly believe they must possess to commence tasks initially. To simplify further, you don’t wait until you’re in peak condition to begin training. You train to reach that peak condition.
When action becomes contingent on feelings, waiting for the perfect mood transforms into a particularly sneaky form of procrastination. I’m personally well-acquainted with this, and I wish someone had illuminated this distinction for me two decades, fifteen years, or a decade ago – well before I had to learn the hard way.
If you delay tasks until you feel like doing them, you’re in trouble. This precisely explains the vicious procrastination cycles we often find ourselves trapped within.
At its core, chasing after motivation hinges on the unrealistic notion that we should only engage in activities we’re naturally inclined to do. This approach poses the misguided question: “How do I muster the desire to do what I’ve logically decided on?” Unproductive.
The more appropriate inquiry is: “How can I detach my emotions from my actions and fulfill my conscious intentions without succumbing to resistance?”
The aim is to sever the link between feelings and actions and proceed regardless. The result? You’ll experience a sense of accomplishment and enthusiasm post-activity.
Motivation gets this reversed. I am wholly convinced that this flawed perspective primarily contributes to the prevalent “lounging around in pajamas, indulging in Xbox and procrastination” phenomenon sweeping developed nations.
There are psychological drawbacks to relying on motivation as well. Since real-life demands occasionally involve less-than-exciting tasks, “motivation” struggles to generate enthusiasm for objectively unenthusiastic activities. The only solution aside from lethargy is to put oneself in an artificially excited state, an impractical and thankfully false dilemma. Attempting to ignite enthusiasm for inherently monotonous and soul-draining tasks is essentially a form of intentional psychological harm, a chosen madness: “I’m incredibly passionate about these spreadsheets, can’t wait to tackle annuity future value equations! My job is just amazing!”
Don’t regard self-induced hypomania as the ideal driver of human endeavors. Compensatory depressive episodes are bound to follow since the brain won’t endure abuse indefinitely. There are limits and safety mechanisms. Hormonal aftereffects exist.
The worst outcome is succeeding in the wrong pursuit – temporarily. A far superior scenario is preserving one’s sanity, often misconstrued as moral weakness: “I still dislike my meaningless paper-pushing job; I must be doing something wrong.” “Cake still trumps broccoli, and weight loss is elusive; maybe I lack willpower.” “I should buy another motivation book.” Nonsense. The critical error lies in approaching these matters in the context of motivation. The answer is discipline, not motivation.
Another practical issue with motivation is its fleeting nature, necessitating constant replenishment. Motivation is akin to manually winding a crank to release a burst of energy. At best, it stores and converts energy for a specific purpose. While it suits specific instances – one-offs where ramping up mental energy upfront is necessary, like Olympic races or prison breaks – it’s a poor foundation for regular, day-to-day functioning and consistent, long-term outcomes.
In contrast, discipline functions like an engine that, once ignited, continually supplies energy to the system. Productivity isn’t reliant on specific mental states. For consistent, long-term success, discipline outperforms motivation, surpassing it, outshining it, and sustaining itself.
In summary, motivation aims to generate the desire for action. Discipline is taking action irrespective of your current inclination. A positive outcome follows. In short, discipline is a system, while motivation is akin to goals. There’s a symmetry. Discipline is relatively self-perpetuating and steady, whereas motivation is sporadic.
How do you foster discipline? By building habits – start as small as possible, even microscopically, gain momentum, reinvest it in progressively larger changes to your routine, and create a positive feedback loop. Motivation counteracts productivity. Discipline is what truly matters.
