Self Discipline and motivation are not the same.

I saw somebody post this on reddit's fitness community when asked what to do when you lose motivation:

"Don't use motivation. It's useless and it comes and goes. Self discipline and responsibility keep you going when you don't want to."

I think it's really important to separate motivation and self discipline. It's one thing to go out and exercise because you are motivated to be healthy and attractive. But for most people, this motivation isn't consistent enough to keep them putting the effort in regularly. Sometimes you just don't feel like exercising, whether you're tired or don't feel like driving to a gym or you whatever, and you aren't really tempted enough by the prospect of a future healthy you. You lose motivation, even if only temporarily. And you lose your consistency just like that.

When that happens (and it does) it's self discipline that catches you. It's not enough to rely on motivation alone. Motivation is helpful--like a bonus force that makes you feel better about putting yourself in the gym or abstaining from eating too much. It's nice when it's there. But self discipline is always available. It's ultimately what you have complete control over, even though it's tough to draw on it sometimes.


Ever since I read this I feel like I understand a lot more about taking action. I didn't really think about it before, and I guess I kind of conflated the two. But now I know that previously, when I went to work out, I was pretty much only guided by motivations that, while admirable, were quite long term. For long term goals like overall health, I needed more than just that motivation, because after a few weeks of tepid results, I'm pretty bummed and my motivation is mostly gone. I needed to summon the self discipline to push on anyway. I didn't consciously think of them as different, so I struggled.

Anyway, my point is that it's important to be self conscious of self discipline for the times when you feel unmotivated. I usually remind myself when feeling unmotivated that my self discipline is being tested, and I then decide to be responsible. Maybe instead of just searching for further motivation when we feel down, we should focus on drawing on our discipline instead.