The Motivation Myth

Most people think that motivation is something you need to have in order to accomplish things. Well that is simply not true. If you are waiting for motivation to get started on anything, then you are ultimately waiting on a feeling. And if you are waiting on a feeling, then you will never be consistent with anything, because feelings are always changing. If you want to be consistent in what you are doing, then you need to be disciplined. Instead of waiting around until you feel motivated, having discipline means YOU are in control of yourself and YOU will get things done on your own.

Motivation typically comes from an outside source, such as: encouraging words from someone, an inspiring story, and/or a song that gets you amped up and ready to go. But you cannot rely on outside sources for motivation. Sometimes you can hear an encouraging word, read an inspiring story, and/or hear an upbeat song and you just simply are not in the mood, aka: you are waiting for a feeling of motivation that may or may not be there at the time depending on certain factors within yourself.

Motivation is not the key to getting things done; the key to getting things done is discipline. Motivation only lasts for a short amount of time, but discipline can be used any time, any where!

When you rely on motivation, you are more apt to listen to yourself when you have a rough day or when you don't have enough energy to push yourself. You listen to yourself saying, "I'm too tired," "I'll do it tomorrow," and/or "I'm not good enough", and you fall into that trap of letting yourself go and giving up. But when you have discipline, you actually talk to yourself. And by talking to yourself, you are able to say things like, "You can do this!", "You are more than capable," and/or "Don't stop now! Keep going!". When you are disciplined, you talk to yourself to get you through things and to push yourself - even when you don't feel like it.

Like Jocko Willink says, "Discipline fills the gap when motivation fails."

Of course motivation can still be a great indicator of giving you the push you need to get going and to feel the energy it provides to get you there, but motivation can only go so far. When you start to lack motivation and/or the motivation runs out on you, that is where discipline comes in.

A perfect example of this is getting out of bed. When your alarm clock goes off, you hit the snooze button - right? When you hit the snooze button, you are listening to yourself say, "Just 5 more minutes" or "I'm so comfortable, I don't want to get out of bed just yet." But when you talk to yourself and tell yourself to get out of bed and push yourself to actually do it, you are getting ahead of your day and taking charge by disciplining yourself to get out of bed when the alarm goes off.

Another example is working out. We may feel motivated some days to exercise, but most of the time (especially after a long day), we do not want to lift a finger. So when motivation is lacking, what will get you up and going to make sure you keep your body moving? That's right, discipline. Nothing gets done on motivation alone. Motivation may get you there, but discipline is what keeps you going.

So motivation should be used as a starting point and/or a vessel to get you from one place to another, but in order to stay at the chosen position (where you want to be), you need to have discipline. Motivation may help you get started, but discipline will be what gets you results.

- Dean