Motivation versus Discipline

You go to an inspirational talk, have a meeting with your coach, or watch a big city Marathon on TV…motivation is high! You are hungry to improve, eager to get better at life, and inspired by the achievements around you. 

Then, the 5am alarm goes off and you roll over, hit snooze, and miss your workout. Or perhaps you get a last minute “urgent” brief from your boss; or another invitation to a weekend brunch. Motivation is nowhere to be seen, and apparently neither is your discipline. 

So, which comes first? Motivation or discipline? Which do we need in order to keep showing up every day, to work towards our goals. Arguably you need both! But they work in tandem. 

For starters, your goal needs to be honest yet exciting, and you should certainly know why you have set it. This is where your motivation comes into play! Motivation can be used to navigate what you want versus what you don’t want. 

But discipline, this is where the magic happens. It just doesn’t always appear that way. But no elite runner or athlete has succeeded on motivation alone. Motivation dips, that’s totally human, we cannot be 100% all the time. Discipline is what keeps things in place, and ensures that you show up, day in day out. Without discipline, the best laid plans will fall through. 

So, how can we improve discipline to help us when motivation starts to wander? 

Be accountable to someone:

This can be in the form of a coach, a PT, or even a partner or friend. If you have someone checking-in on you, or ready to meet you for a session, you are more likely to attend and you are more likely to work harder. 

Reflect:

Spend some time each week thinking back about what worked well and what didn’t go so well. Then ask yourself why, and then why again. 

Have systems:

Implement systems based on your reflection. Perhaps you noticed that you have been missing your morning sessions, but identified that it’s because you have been watching more Netflix than usual before bed. Or you miss a core workout because it's not bolted onto another session. Take action and accountability.

Once you start working on your discipline, you will notice that performance starts to increase, which in turn, boost motivation! It’s basically a fun continuous loop.