What? I do not need motivation? Well, what the hell am I doing here, then?

Well, it is about this quote:

You don’t need motivation, you need discipline.

It is a great quote because it reveals one of the biggest problems with the whole motivation and self-development topic: A lot of people start reading books and blogs, listening to podcasts and audiobooks because they hope that one day the magic moment comes. That moment in which you just start to WANT to do all the exhausting and boring tasks.

But guess what? That won’t happen!

The problem with this mindset is that it simply does not work this way. Motivation does not mean that suddenly you want to do all the stuff that you did not want to do before. That may be the goal but it can’t be reached by reading quotes and hoping for change.

What does change your motivation is action and only through action will you achieve results. What you need therefore is not motivation but discipline. As strange as it sounds, you DO know what you have to do in order to reach your goals.

For some of us it is learning for school/university, for others it is doing sports in order to get in shape, for others it is learning a new language, excelling at work or simply traveling new places. Whatever it is that you want to do eventually, I am pretty sure that you know of a way to get there. You know the steps you have to take (e.g. reading the god-damn books, going for the run, finishing your lecture) but you wait for the spark that makes you magically want to start.

I’ll tell you a secret: That spark is not coming voluntarily, it never will! You have to force it out of its comfy living space called procrastination. You have to turf the laziness out of your life, not in theory but by taking action.

You can do that only by starting to work on your goals and it is way more important to actually start doing that than to make big steps. Making one small step every day will move you way further than planning a big step for months without action. The thought of “There is no point in such a small change” is a poisonous thought that you have to eradicate from your brain! There is always a point!

Going for a ten minute run? Hell yeah! Learning ten minutes today instead of “Starting tomorrow with a big learning session”? DO IT! Making that damn call that will only take minutes but you have been putting off for weeks now? Do not think about it, just do it.
That’s the point of discipline over motivation. Motivation is a pretty vague term and it’s definition can vary wildly between people. Discipline however is simple: Doing stuff, because it has to be done. You do not have to like or love the task. You have to do it, you have to get used to it, you will make it your routine. Believe me, some weeks down the road it will feel like you always have been doing the tasks and you are wondering why you were struggling in the first place.

So let this posts message be simple: Get out of your head, pick a goal you have, chose a task to work on said goal and GET GOING!

I wish you all the best,

/phil