Motivation vs. Discipline
It's easy to think of motivation as that thing within us that keeps us focused on our goals. After all, how can we accomplish anything without motivation?
One problem with this line of reasoning is that motivation itself is somewhat beyond our control. We're either feeling motivated or we aren't, and often without any clear reason.
This can cause us to actively search for external sources of motivation, which inappropriately shifts the responsibility onto others as though they somehow hold the key to our success.
Motivation points you in a direction
...but ultimately gets you nowhere.
Perhaps it'd be worthwhile to reconsider the role motivation plays in our lives. Rather than assigning it the task of keeping us moving toward our goals, it may be better to recognize it as little more than an emotional response to the goals themselves.
To put it another way, while it may feel good to think about what we want for our future selves, the feeling alone doesn't seem to reliably lead to action, not to mention success. Consider our behavior regarding career decisions, family goals, and even simple everyday activities like hobbies and chores. We want to do the things that matter to us, yet they often don't get done.
Discipline does what motivation cannot.
If motivation is effectively analogous to a desirable goal, then it's not unreasonable to reconsider ideas which don't excite us. But where does that leave us in terms of approaching those which do?
For this, the former role of motivation in our lives can be adopted by self-discipline, and here's why:
Discipline is a skill we can develop. Like other skills, we can work on developing our discipline every day, improve over time, and rely upon it as needed. This means that discipline is within our control, and recognizing this allows us to take responsibility for it.
Discipline fuels motivation, but not vice-versa. While motivation can occasionally appear spontaneously, it generally increases as we gain momentum toward our goals. However, it's discipline which gets us moving, and which is uniquely capable of creating this momentum.
Discipline is resilient. Unlike motivation, discipline is effective even when our energy is low and we're not at our best. Discipline means we do it anyway.
Rather than waiting or searching for motivation, consider learning to work toward things you care about even when you're not feeling up to it, and you will have begun to develop discipline.