First and foremost, what is the difference between Motivation and discipline? Motivation is what gets us going (a goal), while discipline is what keeps us focused consistently on attaining that goal. They are both equally important. In my previous blog posts, I provided tips on how to achieve goals, or the benefits of having goals. It is also important to remember that while motivation is temporary, discipline endures.
All the goals I set for myself, like exercising and eating healthy, needed to be accompanied by action, and this is where discipline played an important role.
Why is discipline so important?
Because, even if we lose the motivation (and we all do, at one point or another), discipline will keep us going. That’s why it is important to establish a plan of action and act on it daily. You will form a habit and keep moving towards the goal even when motivation fades.
For example, when we make our new year’s resolution, the most popular goal is to lose weight & get in shape for the summer so we can wear nice summer dresses or be healthy in general. While this goal sounds lovely, it cannot occur without having a strict exercise routine and a diligent count of calorie intake. If we fail to establish an exercise routine then the motivation to lose weight will soon be lost, most likely before January 31st. And we still have 11 months to go!!
I think the hardest part of pursuing a goal is to win the battle with ourselves on those days when we do not feel like following the action plan (lack of motivation). On days like these, I find myself procrastinating to the level that it makes me feel sad. As I mentioned before, motivation and discipline are both equally important in achieving any goal, big or small. If I wait for motivation to kick in every morning to start working towards my goal, then I think I would be waiting for a very long time. While this motivation may come during the new year, it quickly dissipates as the year progresses. To avoid this, I have to be disciplined to follow through with the action plan.
In many ways, this situation sounds similar to “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”
Should I be disciplined enough to find my motivation or motivated to be disciplined?
How to Get Out of this Chicken or Egg Dilemma
- Establish a Goal – Do you want to be healthy? Do you want to be physically fit? Do you want to travel more? Do you want to have a hobby? Do you want to earn extra income to live comfortably? If you are like me, you want to do all of the above and maybe you can.
- Prioritize a Goal – Since I do not have the time to do everything in a day or all at once, I must prioritize based on what will help me achieve other goals. For me, being in good health and keeping physically fit will help me pursue other goals later on. Therefore, I am choosing to focus on my health. Maybe I will have a hobby that will help me achieve my goal to stay healthy. Perhaps I can join a sport that will help me stay physically fit. I should not be overly ambitious, as that may cause me to give up. My motto is “one thing at a time”.
- Plan of Action – Nothing will happen without action. While I am good at planning, (for example, I will buy beautiful planners, color pens, sticky notes for my arts & crafts), I often miss out on the action part. How many of you can relate? This is why I remind myself not to be overly ambitious as I will most likely give up. I do not have a challenge when it comes to sticking to healthy food choices but I do have a challenge of keeping up with an exercise routine. So I decided to do 15 minutes of exercise every day. I know that 15 minutes does not seem long enough but there is a power in accumulating 15 minutes each day, and slowly building up to 20, 25 and 30 minutes per day. Small steps can lead to a big impact.
- Check- in – When I am following a strict routine to accomplish a goal, I check in with myself on a regular basis. It offers a great sense of achievement when I show up every day and work towards my goal. Whether I am following an exercise routine or making healthy meal choices, I am working towards the goal. Before I notice any change, I acknowledge how I feel and that is a true motivation to carry on. It is the discipline to take small actions and create big changes.
- Reward Yourself – I truly believe healthy living should be a lifestyle, integrated in my life in a way that I do not feel the need to take a break. However, there are little pleasures of life which I utterly enjoy such as freshly baked cake with masala chai or trying different coffee shops. I know they may not sound very adventurous but it is such small things that provide us with the greatest joy. Imagine, if I eat a slice of freshly baked cake every single day, do you think it will start showing up somewhere on my body? You bet! Similarly, a simple pleasure once a week adds so much value to my routine. So do not forget to reward yourself.
- Avoid Distractions – This is a tough one, especially with the smartphones that we have. I start off with one good video and before I know it has taken one hour of my precious time. By then I am exhausted from doing absolutely nothing other than endless scrolling. It sucks up any motivation I had to begin with and I feel totally wasted afterwards. I love to watch recipe videos, interior designing, pet videos, motivational videos, how to draw, and how to start a blog. Afterwards I do not remember anything I learned. This is what I call a true distraction which steals my time and my dreams. You might have your own, and it is important to identify them and reduce or eliminate them. To combat this endless phone scrolling, I put my phone on charge or place it in the other room. It is guaranteed then that the phone will ring. It is not easy to eliminate some distractions but we must keep trying. Avoiding such distractions is a form of discipline.
As a final thought, I say that without discipline in life, motivation is lost. The very nature of motivation is that it fluctuates. Some days you have lots of it, and other days, you have very little. This is where discipline comes in. It is an uphill battle to achieve anything if we do not bring some form of discipline in life. I have provided some tips that I use in my daily life to stay focused through discipline. I admit some days, no matter what I do, I cannot get myself to complete tasks. Instead of feeling guilty, I let it be and prepare for the next day mentally by reading or listening to audiobooks on the topic. I hope you find the tips useful and integrate them in your life to achieve the goals you might have set for 2024.
