Motivation & Discipline In Your Life
Staying Motivated!
That is a tough one for me, how about you!
Motivation only stays with you for a short period of time. Without motivation, do you find yourself stuck in the same behavior as before, and no change has taken place in your life? Do you find yourself beating yourself down because you made a commitment and could not keep it because of the lack of motivation?
Are you feeling a lack of discipline in your life? Find yourself struggling with disciplining yourself to do the things you need to do to complete your goals? Does other things to get in the way of you working towards the life you desire to live?
In this article, I will discuss motivation as well as discipline and its role in our life. I’m going to start by discussing the definition of motivation and discipline. Then we will move into where motivation comes from and how to use motivation to get going. Since motivation is not long-term, we will discuss disciplining yourself to keep working on your goals.
How do you use motivation as a catalyst for change?
According to the dictionary, “motivation is the general desire or willingness of someone to do something, also, the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.” Writing down your goals gives you the motivation, the desire to work towards those goals.
In addition, write down your ‘why’.
For example, you’re motivated to exercise to lose weight. Your doctor may have said, “Okay. I need you to lose 40 pounds, so you don’t develop any more health issues.” That could be your motivation. His suggestion can give you that general desire or willingness to do something, cause you to change, cause you to grow, and cause you to act and behave in a particular way. The desire to lose weight, that’s motivation. So, motivation gives us the desire to work on our goal, but it will take discipline to see it through.
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Discipline
Discipline is training yourself to do something or develop something by instruction and exercise. Let’s go back to the goal of exercising. When you wake up in the morning, you may not feel like exercising, but you’re going to control those feelings and overcome that desire to stay in bed by getting up and putting yourself into the position to begin an exercise. Disciplining yourself to work on your goals, change your life, go from stagnation to growth, and thrive will take self-discipline.
I often hear the words, ‘I do not feel motivated, or I’m not motivated. So they use the lack of motivation to keep from working on their goals and or responsibilities.
So let’s talk for a second about motivation.
What starts motivation?
First of all, motivation starts from a desire to do something. Once you decide what you’re going to do, you have to begin to visualize yourself doing it. Say, for instance, you made a goal to read one book a week; you have to visualize yourself doing it. You have to think about doing it. You have to create a positive mindset around reading one book a week.
What you’re doing is new for you, so it’s not going to happen automatically, and you may not automatically feel like doing it. I want you to begin to use the ‘5 Second Rule’ and move into action. The 5 Second Rule was developed by Mel Robbins, who wrote the book 5 Second Rule. Generally, that means within five seconds of thinking about doing something, move into action and do it. So, let me give you the example of me exercising and how it started.
Example:
A few years ago, when I was recovering from hitting my lowest point in life, I did not have the motivation to get out of bed, period. Nothing within me wanted to move, and I just wanted to stay in bed and sleep, but there was a gym nearby. And it was free.
Deciding to start exercising, every morning when my alarm came on, I moved out of my bed within five seconds. Placing my feet on the floor, I lifted myself with my arms and got out of my bed; made it up, and then went to the gym. The gym was close, so I walked to the gym around 5:00 AM, whether it was dark or not.
That’s the five-second rule, just getting up and moving your body into action within five seconds of that thought. It’s important to know that motivation comes quickly and leaves quickly. Like I said before, when you are motivated to do something, you have about five seconds to move into action, and that’s before your brain begins to tell you why you should not do it.
Your Brain will Make Excuses
Once your brain begins to give you all the reasons and excuses not to do whatever it is, you set your mind on doing it; you will have to push yourself to move and override your brain.
Understand that the brain’s job is to protect us, keep us safe, and feeling good. When we’re trying something new, your brain will first be against it because it is foreign to the brain. There’s nothing within your brain that sends signals saying that this activity or this experience is safe. So, in essence, your brain becomes afraid of trying new things and does whatever it is to keep you from doing it.
Remember, move into action within the first five seconds before your brain has the opportunity to talk you out of it. Once your brain begins to talk you out of it, you will then have to rely on discipline to get you going.
Example:
- You have a desire to do something.
- You decide when you are going to do it.
- Utilize the 5-second rule to move into action.
Let’s recap about motivation before we move on into discipline.
- First, you’re going to start with your thoughts. You’re going to decide what you’re going to do or which goal you’re working on.
- Then you’re going to visualize yourself doing it. When it comes to the time for you to do or work on that goal, you will use the ‘5 Second Rule’ to get you moving and get you experiencing whatever your goal is; 5 Second Rule.
- You will move into action.
Now that you understand what motivation is let’s talk about the role discipline plays in your life.
Ready to move into the life you dreamed about? Get the tools you need to move out of stagnation into a life that is thriving.
Self-Discipline
Self-discipline is the ability to control one’s feelings, overcome one’s weaknesses. It’s the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it. Let’s go back to my example of exercising. Motivated to exercise, using the ‘5 Second Rule,’ I put myself into action once those five seconds were up, but after a while, motivation faded. So, I begin to discipline myself.
My goals were around exercising; Exercise helped to boost my moods. I exercised no matter how I felt, no matter what my brain thought of (it constantly told me to say in my comfortable bed, under my lovely warm covers, and go back to sleep). Even when walking to the gym in the dark, my brain would come up with all kinds of scenarios that could go wrong, but I kept at it. I kept doing it. No matter what, I disciplined myself to continue exercising.
Write Out Your 'Why'
How do you discipline yourself to reach your goals when you lose motivation? One important thing to remember is your ‘why.’ I always have people discuss their ‘why.’ Why did you create that goal? What will be the results once that goal is accomplished?
Remembering your ‘why.’ Not only remember the goal and your ‘why’, but make sure you write it down to see what you are working towards daily.
Take your goal/s and write down steps that you will need to take to complete that goal, and you may even need to take those steps and turn them into baby turtle steps to achieve your goal.
Example:
Goal: Exercise 5 days a week. WHY: Boost my mood.
Sub-Goals: Cardio 3 days a week, Strength training 2 days a week.
Mini Sub Goals:
- Monday – Run – 30 minutes – Yoga – 30 minutes
- Tuesday – Upper Body Strength Training – 45 minutes
- Wednesday – Kickboxing – 45 minutes
- Thursday – Lower Body Strength Training – 45 minutes
- Friday – Run – 60 minutes
This is my goal of exercising 5 days a week, broken down into small steps.
Write Out Your Goals, Schedule & Post It Somewhere
Another step that can help you to discipline yourself. Now you have to write out your goals and write out your ‘whys’. Posting them where you can see them, also make sure that you schedule your goals. You plan things you desire to do to help maintain that discipline. Write it in your calendar. Don’t just keep it in your head because you will forget it. Look at it daily to remind yourself of what you need to get done. Write out your goal, write out your ‘why’, post it where you can see it, schedule it in your calendar.
Reward Yourself When You Complete a Goal
The last thing that will help you with discipline is to reward yourself when you complete a goal. Even when achieving your small baby turtle goals, reward yourself. You work hard towards your goals, living the life that you desire, and living out your life’s purpose. Reward yourself when you complete a goal; why? Because you’re worth it.
Rewarding yourself helps build confidence, helps build resilience, helps boost our moods, and gives us the strength and energy to keep going, so reward yourself.
That’s all I have for discipline at this time, so let’s go over it again.
- Decide on a goal.
- Write out your goal and schedule it in your planner.
- Reward yourself when you complete a goal.
Even if it’s just a baby turtle step goal, you’re going to reward yourself with something beneficial.
Today we’ve discussed motivation and discipline. We’ve discussed several tools to help you motivate and discipline yourself. To work towards your goals, to complete your goals, to work towards a life of growth and thriving. To live out your life’s purpose, so take the necessary steps you need in order to begin your journey of growth.
Until next time.