Self-Discipline Over Motivation
We all have different goals that we might want to accomplish in our lives. And accomplishing these goals can play a very important role in the way of contributing to our personal happiness and feelings of success.
We can set either big or small goals for ourselves and they can relate to anything and everything, from our weight to our finances, our relationships with others, our plans for the future, our personal daily habits, and more.
Toward the end of every year, millions of people get inspired to set goals for themselves to work toward achieving in the new year to come.
Each of us has at least one area in our lives that we surely hope to see some sort of change or improvement in. And it's not likely that we are going to feel satisfied in our lives if we feel that we have been stuck in the same position and never feel like we are reaching any new level, accomplishing anything new or different.
We might have goals to start our own business someday, to become the supervisor or manager of where we work now, we might want to get married, to save for retirement, to have our own home, to become more self-sufficient, to gain more friends, get accepted onto a team or into a certain school, to explore a new place, to invent something that can improve the lives of many, and much more.
Setting goals is the easy part. And for some folks, they seem to have a much easier time going about achieving their goals than many others do.
I used to think that motivation was the key factor when it came to accomplishing goals and achieving success in a number of different areas in life. And we could easily be motivated by a desire to look better, feel better, or to enjoy a higher standard of living in life than we currently do etc.
However, motivation doesn't last forever, and it's not motivation that is going to get you up when you don't feel like getting up, to work toward achieving your goal that you've set for yourself. If you are going to rely on motivation to inspire you to work hard at something daily until you achieve it, then you might find that quite frequently motivation has you falling short.
When we imagine some end goal we have in mind for our lives, we might not always be able to rely on that motivation to stimulate our effort on a continual basis for an extended period of time; that's where self-discipline comes in. Self-discipline is what is going to help us to make the decision to resist daily temptation that might prevent us from moving toward achieving our goal.
Working toward change requires effort and for many that effort doesn't come easy. It's not easy to stay away from eating things that we would like to, or to stop spending money that we shouldn't, or to sacrifice our fun time to study or do something that won't show any reward until much later down the line.
It takes strength to exercise self-control and so it's not the easy choice to make.
We have become so accustomed these days to instant gratification that it has no doubt contributed greatly to the erosion of self-discipline for many. Why wait for the house, boat, car, and clothes etc, even if we can't afford it now? We can just put ourselves into debt and work for the next 20-50 years to pay it all off. And then by that time we don't even enjoy the item anymore and we will likely have a lot of regret and bitterness for the whole that we dug for ourselves, but by that time it's too late.
For those of us who appear to be more seasoned in exercising self control, they have frequently suggested that the only way for a person to improve their self-control and self-discipline is to do it on purpose, be intentional about it, and be dedicated to doing it repeatedly. Know and accept that it isn't going to be easy, but it might get easier for you to continually make that right decision over time, the more often that you choose to do it.
For example, say that you want to make the goal to quit smoking. It might be really hard at first to say no to that cigarette, but the more that you do it and the more time that passes, it's likely that you will find it easier to make that decision for yourself.
When it comes to task of trying to strengthen and improve our own self-control, a variety of suggestions have been made as to how to go about climbing that mountain. First we should know that our self-discipline can be improved upon, we need to clearly think about what we want to control or stay away from (prioritize), make a plan to stick to, get more sleep, try to remove temptations from our lives, reward ourselves for small accomplishments, and more. It's up to the individual to find out what is going to work best for them and to then put that into action.
Pics:
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Tumblr via 38.media.tumblr.com/ce2ca73b1d44a4f0a9622e63a8ebcdc3/tumblr_nhgydadsVP1rbgu1so1_500.gif
Wolf of Wall St via Giphy giphy.com/gifs/film-leonardo-dicaprio-the-wolf-of-wall-street-136fzgvXxZ9dSg
Simpsons via shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/13-thoughts-you-have-when-using-standing-desk
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Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2014/06/18/5-proven-methods-for-gaining-self-discipline/#5310a9853c9f
http://www.cbc.ca/life/wellness/a-study-on-self-control-may-prove-the-struggle-is-as-real-as-it-feels-1.4234142
https://news.osu.edu/news/2017/07/06/hands-self-control/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/287005
https://www.inc.com/rhett-power/the-one-key-to-success-self-discipline.html
https://www.fastcompany.com/3032513/6-scientifically-proven-ways-to-boost-your-self-control
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Action creates motivation, NOT the other way around. Get moving first. Motivation is not really necessary. Read `ACTION' - Nothing Happens Til Something Moves. by Robert Ringer. Enough said.
We all got motivated now and then,true to that,and our motivation falls along the way...i believe some people are self motivated sum are self discipline,we lack to recognize our natural born Gift,something that we are born with,no one gives us our Gift,we can't even go to college to get that.Every human being was born with a gift,its all about controlling our resources through your Gift..our culture makes our career more important than our Gift,our prosper y its not in our job its in our gift...our job its what they paid us to do,our gift its what we born to do,our job its our skill,our Gift its our area of expertise from the Higher power (The Creator) Everyone who discover his/her Gift dominate
very nice post, i certainly do struggle with the self-discipline part.i will be motivated to do something and be supercharged for up to a month but then have this mental emotional block that slows me down and eventually stops me. Its hard to work for something that only has rewards much later on.
... or could be said that when you don't have the passion, rely on your will power to pull you through ...
Precisely. Don't wait for perfect conditions, or the perfect plan, or to be ready, just make a start, however small, and return to the matter regularly and frequently, making improvements and gains, no matter how small.
Even if it doesn't get any easier, and it may in fact get harder and or more time consuming as you build upwards and outwards towards your goals, it will get easier to at least do something, however small, because it now is self evident that you can because you already did.
If unpracticed, set simpler goals or smaller targets lest falling short or failing altogether defeats self discipline. This will aid in identifying and learning management techniques for dealing with external factors, eg: social, environmental (everything around you, noise, electrical supply, weather, etc), competing/conflicting interests, that negatively influence or obstruct progress.
If you can't get started, reducing the number of factors, complexity, and the expectations for outcomes will go a very long way to make it much easier to just do it! :)
Emboldened by success, however humble , you may just find yourself keen for another shot, with spare time up your sleeve and very recent positive experience at the present point in time. There's nothing like the power of positive confirmation to reinforce your self determination and discipline.
I followed and upvoted you.
You just have to get out there and make change , there is no if or what. I'm going to the gym after my pregnancy for the first time tomorrow , In a way I'm going to motivate myself to change my body but it's actually because I'm tired of being called fat . So it's a give or take
You're right. Motivation rises and falls Instead of depending solely on motivation, developing discipline and building constructive habits are more practical.
good luck to all post interesting thanks to you