You’re four weeks in. You’ve found your groove. Big things are happening. Doors are opening in front of you, the wind is at your back, the sun at your face, the seas are calm! Though it may seem like you’re good to go, now is not the time to lose focus. Indeed, now is the time to double down on your focus, to push harder and dig in deeper.
So here’s your thought for the day.
Develop discipline; decrease your need for motivation.
Motivation is all about how you need to feel before you work. It’s incredibly effective. There’s nothing quite like watching an inspiring YouTube video to get you up out of your chair and to the gym. There’s nothing like a motivational quote to catalyze your healthy dietary choices. Few tools are as effective as motivation. And yet, there’s one major problem – what happens when there’s nothing around to motivate you into positive action? What happens when you can’t get yourself to feel like doing the thing you need to do?
On the other hand, the thing about discipline is that it is not a matter of reward at all, it’s a matter of habit, focus, and perseverance.
Unlike motivation, it can be conjured in even the most unmotivated of settings. Discipline is the opposite of motivation; it disregards how you feel about the work, and forces you to do the thing you ought to do either way. It’s less fun, but it’s equally as effective as motivation and it’s a resource that is much more readily available.
The thing about a challenge like this is that it represents a concentration of effort. The challenge’s efficacy depends upon the intense inundation challengers subject themselves to. One off day in one-hundred is a much smaller deal than one off day in thirty. There’s less wiggle room in a concentrated challenge such as this.
So today, or tomorrow, when the weather is bad, after you’ve had a terrible day at work, while your friends are out for drinks and pizza, after a lousy night’s sleep… seek not the motivation to do what’s right, but rather, have the discipline to get your butt up out of your chair, own your health, own your decisions, own your life and do the right thing.
Motivation makes you feel good so you can get the job done. But here’s the last little secret – that good feeling is fleeting. With discipline, you’ll do the job one way or the other, and the sense of accomplishment and pride you’ll take away from it will be with you for a long, long time.
Stay disciplined. Stay focused. Stay strong. Onward!
