Motivation Is a Powerful Force & No Substitute for Discipline
Discipline = Consistency = Results. Consistency, while often considered boring, is a key ingredient when it comes to getting results and it doesn’t come without a healthy dose of discipline. Most of us, myself included, would often like to substitute motivation for discipline. Before we start dissecting why motivation is not a substitution for discipline in creating consistency, let’s break down the terms. Britannica gives us these definitions.
Consistency: the quality or act of staying the same at different times.
Discipline: the ability to keep working at something that is difficult.
Motivation: the condition of being eager to act or work.
So when we have motivation around something it feels easier to do the task, right? As the definition states, we are eager to do the work at hand. When we are filled with motivation the challenging things feel less challenging. High levels of motivation can numb the dread of doing something we see as difficult. So why wouldn’t we rely on motivation? Because like the moon, it waxes and wanes. Don’t get me wrong, motivation can be a powerful tool to get us going and out of the starting blocks as well as provide some helpful boosts along the way. It’s when we rely solely on motivation that consistency suffers. If you’ve ever felt like you’re consistently inconsistent, you might want to check in with discipline.
Motivation can turn on the ignition and discipline is what gets us to our destination. Think about taking a bike ride. Motivation is the ease of coasting down a hill whereas discipline is what gets us up the hill. Relying on motivation alone can set us up for a volatile and bumpy ride and ultimately frustration. Discipline is essentially the practice of self-control and choosing what leads to our desired outcomes over the immediate temptation. It is a learned skill and most of us have learned to use it in certain areas of our lives on a daily basis already. We go to work, we brush our teeth, we wash our clothes or perhaps we have a hobby to which we dedicate time and energy. All of these things are practices we have chosen to do because we want the outcome they provide. Some of the practices may have felt hard at first and there are probably still times we don’t want to do them, but we want the outcome so we flex our discipline muscle and do it. We have developed the self-control to put our time and effort into it when other things vie for our attention or motivation isn’t present.
As you reflect on daily disciplines, you might begin to think yes, I have developed discipline in my life. So why is it so hard to apply it in areas like diet and exercise when I know that practicing the discipline will help me get the outcome I want? I’ve found it often comes down to two things: immediate temptation and delayed gratification. Because diet and exercise are the two biggies I hear in my field when it comes to consistency and discipline, I’ll use them as examples.
Let’s start with immediate temptation. When it comes to diet, for most of us the temptation of tasty, not so healthy choices are abundant on a daily basis. Temptation can be in our own homes, the places we drive by, the co-workers candy dish, the inner aisles of the grocery store and the list goes on and on.
As many of us may still be recovering from the holiday food hangover, we know the availability of tempting foods makes a difference. Carving out time for exercise is often rivaled by the many other demands of the day, tending to all the to-do’s or resting and watching your favorite show. This is why controlling our environment can be so helpful when it comes to developing discipline. The less temptation, the less we have to dip into the will power bucket. Make the choices you want to make the easy choice. Keep your house well stocked with healthy items and plan and prep meals and snacks. Schedule your exercise into your day/week. Schedule it at a time when you feel most confident that you will get it done. Some may find exercising first thing in the morning before the day becomes filled with distractions the best option while others find it easier to fit it in right after work or during lunch.
Then we have temptation’s partner in crime, delayed gratification. Eating healthier and exercising are often practices we look to create with the goal of losing weight, improving fitness or improving biomarkers. Most of us know these things take time and it doesn’t make it any easier to stay the course when progress is slower than we want or motivation wanes. This is when tracking can be a wonderful, objective tool to measure efforts and progress to keep us accountable. If you are looking to increase vegetable intake, tracking your food can give you hard data to see what your vegetable intake looks like. Perhaps you are looking to improve your fitness. Establishing a benchmark workout provides a repeatable, measurable way to gauge progress. And of course, when we see our doctor we can note changes in our biomarkers. When we are seeking an outcome that takes time, tracking can help us stay focused on present efforts and identify progress. This can be helpful to sprinkle in some motivation along the way. 🙂
So hopefully it is clear that I do not disvalue motivation by any means. Quite the contrary, it’s a wonderful thing and I will ride that wave every time it comes in. Having said that, I also know I am asking for inconsistency and ultimately frustration if I rely on motivation alone. Leaning into motivation isn’t a bad thing at all, just remember not to lean into it so much that you fall over when it wanes. (A gentle reminder that discipline does not equal perfection.) Even the most disciplined of us can deviate from time to time and that’s ok, we’re human. It is discipline that will bring us back to ’being disciplined’.
“What lies in our power to do, lies in our power not to do.”
~Aristotle