HN Explorer

Ask HN: What's better, motivation or discipline?

9 points by RichardHeart ↗ HN
Motivation is there sometimes, and not there others. Discipline is always there for you. Discipline is like a muscle, you have to train it against heavy weights in order to grow it. Also like a muscle, you get most of your gains on the last rep, which is the hardest rep. I made a short video about this on the YoutTube in my profile.

Once you have developed your discipline muscle, you can use it all kinds of places. If you trained against cigarette smoking, you'll probably find that it works great for turning down food you shouldn't eat too.

9 comments

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Swizec
Motivation gets you started discipline keeps you going
bsvalley
Isn't it a weird question to ask? It would be like asking What is better? Hawaii? or Ferrari?

You can't compare/chose between the two.

RichardHeart
Ferrari in Hawaii like Magnum P.I. They're not mutually exclusive though. I'm often asked at dinner whether I want chicken or beef, and I'm able to decide and be quite happy with the decision.
Smaointe
There's an article that goes into motivation versus discipline [1] that holds a similar view to what you're saying - motivation is like waiting to get into Olympic form, whereas discipline is what gets you to Olympic form.

[1] http://www.wisdomination.com/screw-motivation-what-you-need-...

anotheryou
"In summary, motivation is trying to feel like doing stuff. Discipline is doing it even if you don’t feel like it.

You get to feel good afterwards."

not sure I want to feel good about my career/life afterwards...

I as allways we need the compromise. Disciplin where short-term affirmation just won't happen, but doing something you are motivated to do in general.

Sevii
Systems seem to be all the rage these days.
rl3
For creative endeavors, you need both.
emptyVal
If it's motivation to the point of obsessiveness you're more effective than most disciplined people, however that is also harmful. However if someone is extremely disciplined they can match the former, and use it for many many other things.

I am the former not the latter. Ideally one should have both.