This is probably the best post to hit HN all month. It's a thing that I notice over and over again, the ability to execute and persevere is strongly correlated with individuals that show (self)discipline. The ability to get out of bed (even when you don't want to) to work real hard (even when faced with a hundred or more distractions, or on something that you may not even like) and the ability to keep a long term goal in the cross hairs even when the going gets tough has 'discipline' written all over it.
And over time that translates into success. (For sure people will think of it as achieved 'overnight' but don't let that bother you.)
Motivation is something that gets mistaken by many for discipline, but in fact motivation is what makes you go downhill faster, discipline is what gets you uphill and most of the times you'll be going uphill.
I dunno - I think that it makes some good overall points, but paints too black & white a picture that, if you follow it literally, will eventually lead to a breakdown where you can't accomplish anything.
I think a better perspective is to think of yourself as having a "discipline budget". (This is actually born out by a lot of fMRI studies, which show that when you will yourself to do something unpleasant or difficult, your brain expends a lot of glucose, and when glucose levels drop below a certain level, you simply can't exert any willpower at all, and often end up making questionable judgment calls without any awareness that you're doing something stupid.) And then your conscious job is to figure out how to spend that discipline budget in the way that will give the greatest returns to you - recognizing, of course, that no matter what you try to achieve there will always be parts that are unpleasant and that you just need to power through. But then, this also recognizes that you are not superman, and sometimes you have to drop the difficult stuff and re-charge just as your natural self.
When you think like this, you pick your projects and profession carefully. You understand that you better pick something that you mostly enjoy, because most of the time, you're going to be running on cruise control and it's a lot easier to do that when you're going downhill than uphill. But you also understand that even if you do that, there are going to be some things that you have to do that are just work, they're not going to be fun, and you might as well get them done with without fussing or stressing about them.
Isn't that what being your authentic self is about, anyway? Understanding who you are and what you're good at and then choosing a place within the world where that naturally fits, but also understanding that the world is not automatically going to mold itself to your preferences and that no matter where you choose to go, you're going to have to do some shaping of yourself as well.
Running any company, of any size usually has more 'uphill' bits in it than 'downhill' bits. I used to think otherwise but over the decades this one factor kept staring me in the face: it was so much fun in the beginning, where did that go? And then I realized that it was fun in the beginning because it was the beginning! Everything was fresh and new, nothing had entered maintenance, no technical debt, all sales and hardly any support and then little by little normality crept in and what was effortless became a serious effort indeed.
I think it takes about 3 years to establish an actual business and by the time you're there most of your 'motivational energy' will have burned out or dissipated and you'll be going on discipline exclusively for the majority of the time.
There's nothing wrong with that, that's where the money is made.
And that's why many people choose not to run businesses, and that's fine too. Some make money in other ways, and some don't mind that they don't have a whole lot of money.
If you're succeeding in your businesses, that probably means that it's close enough to "enjoyable" for you to make it worth your while (if not - man, I'm sorry).
I knew folks at Google who had zero interest in ever founding a company. Why? Because they knew exactly what it entailed, and figured they wanted to spend their budget on things like hard technical problems or dealing with office politics rather than on building a business. Ultimately, I decided that wasn't what I want, and a good portion of the reason why is that I wanted the challenge of stretching myself in ways that I couldn't inside a large corporation. But that's a choice as well - I looked at the schleps needed to have some level of sustainable self-determination within Google vs. the ones needed to have some level of sustainable self-determination in a company, and decided I wanted the latter. I don't actually disagree with any of the facts you've put out, I'm just pointing out that one shouldn't immediately leap from those to the article's conclusion.
Do you have any references to the fMRI studies? I've never gone to the source for that sort of thing, and would appreciate a lead in getting started (not really sure where to even start looking).
The idea that we can biochemically run out of what powers willpower is a neat one. I feel like that implies there's something we can do to just replenish it, but making assumptions like that about complex things like brain chemistry is a great way to look smart while being not-smart.
Do you know of any adults who have successfully cultivated discipline? Based on those I've known since elementary school and still know today, perhaps 80% of the discipline I see in people can be explained by how much discipline they had at 10 years of age.
Ok, so what can one do? I have a genetic discipline disorder, as 23andMe could confirm you, if I could be bothered to do the screening. I possess exactly ZERO self-discipline, and in retrospect, I guess I never had any. I own my career to not having enough discipline to do my math homework at 13 - that's when I picked up programming. The lack of self-discipline is becoming an obstacle in professional lie though. How does one fix this?
Start small and don't expect results any time soon.
How small? I.e touch the phone when you wake up until you count to 20.. do it for a week. Add another small task (i.e clear kitchen table before going to sleep) and work on both of them. Try to do each task for 4 weeks minimum. After six months you will be doing so much of the small stuff that I will begin to impact your life in a really positive way, and you're self-discipline will grow.. Big time.
I'd suggest to stop thinking of yourself as someone without self-discipline. It's very hard to behave in a way if you believe it's against your nature.
For example, I've always considered myself to be a smoker. I tried quitting dozens of times, but I always gave in because I knew I was a smoker deep inside. But at some point, I realized that there's nothing about me that makes me a smoker. And then it was easy to quit smoking.
It's possible to change yourself. Nothing really prevents you from becoming a disciplined person. The first step is realizing you don't have to be a procrastinator (or whatever you consider yourself to be).
IE, get external forces working in your favour. You could use a coach or psychologist. Commit to tasks. Make sure they check up on you. Work closely with others. Pair programming or an environment where someone is waiting for you to finish something so they can start something else. Seek environments where you can't hide procrastination. discipline thrives in public.
That's what works for me. When the task is boring, the guilt of letting other people hanging pushes me to finish it. It doesn't quite work for personal improvement, though, at least for me.
This seems like awful advice to inflict yourself as a burden (pair programming, always seeking review and validation) rather than being self disciplined, autonomous and professional.
His basic philosophy is to anchor a very small habit to one you already do. For example, is there one thing you always do first at work? Make coffee, open email? Then choose a tiny habit you would like to form (it should take less than 30 seconds) and do it right after that normal routine habit. (I don't know, maybe write down one task you promised someone you would do and pin it on your monitor). Then after you have done the tiny habit, give yourself a small celebratory high-five. (Cheesy as it sounds, the tiny habit where I didn't do this little celebration didn't stick after the week long program).
Check out and sign up for his 1 week program (its free).
Yes. My boss is one of them. Cal Newport writes quite a bit about doing deep work. [1] Tobias Lutke of Shopify seems to be another. [2]
Most people are similar to how they were when they were in school, because most people don't deliberately put themselves in contexts in which they are forced to grow and develop.
Discipline, in my opinion, is seldom something that you develop entirely for its own sake– rather, it tends to be something that you develop to achieve some greater goal. Along the way you may find that discipline is a worthy pursuit by itself, but few people wake up at 20 and go "Jeez, I want to be really really disciplined!"
It's more like, you have some itch you want to scratch, and you realize the only way to do it is to train yourself.
I'm a different person due to the supplements and food I eat. I'm obsessed about always improving my nutrition and supplement stack. It's paying off in terms of how much work I'm capable of doing. "Give your body the right food and it will do the right thing" is something I believe in.
That combined with the routine of going to a 9-5, then afterwards going to a coworking space for my startup, I'm really getting a lot of work done. Before I would stay at home and do the bare minimum of contract work, waste time on the internet, and dream about doing a startup. I'd say I'm about 3 times as productive as I was when I worked from home.
Listing everything I do for nutrition probably won't help anyone - people can't be told to add/remove certain foods without a strong belief that it will be beneficial to them. It's like politics. You can't convince a die-hard conservative to suddenly become a liberal with a comment on the internet.
For example if I went back in time I could tell my teenage self everything about nutrition. Unfortunately it would be pointless. Even though I'd listen, without the years of experimentation, forming beliefs and learning I would never have the discipline to think "These foods are poison. Other people can eat them, but not me."
So it's a long process and I think people should discover what works for themselves. But since you asked, here's what I eat and don't eat as of now...
NEVER EAT: HFCS, DAIRY, processed foods, greasy foods, red meat, brominated/bleached flour, unfermented soy (especially soybean oil), alcohol, artificial flavored foods or things that you don't recognize the ingredients, basically avoid all restaurants even supposedly healthy ones
EAT: Tons of organic vegetables/fruit, things cooked in coconut or olive oil, organic chicken, organic eggs, sprouted wheat, high-quality spring water, home cooking flavored with herbs/spices instead of sugary/salty sauces, foods with high omega 3s or high antioxidants, cook everything yourself using basic ingredients
Things that are listed "never eat" I make no compromises for no matter the pressure... "Oh hey - it's our company's annual pizza taste-testing competition, you can make an exception this time can't you? Don't you want some of this amazing pizza with cheese, soybean oil and brominated wheat flour in it. NO!?! What's wrong with you? Are you going to risk your job by not participating???"
YES - I will quit my job before eating pizza... it's poison to me, I won't eat it.
I channel some of my motivation into cultivating discipline. I also apply discipline to periodically remotivate myself.
In practice this means I'll do a hackathon to build something I want, while limiting myself to using one new technology that has to be relevant to my startup.
To stay motivated I pitch everyone I can because nothing motivates me as much as other people getting excited.
As someone that used to lack motivation and discipline, this has kept be going on my startup for 4+ years.
"The ability to get out of bed (even when you don't want to) to work real hard."
If you have problems getting out of bed, I recommend that you work on it first.
If you have problems getting out of bed it is because you don't sleep enough, or if you are fat or old you can interrupt your sleep at night(sleep apnea).
Both motivation and discipline is needed for success, but the basics are your food, exercise and rest.
If you don't sleep well, eat what you need, exercise, or rest, your body will prioritize it over anything else.
As an exercise, try not to sleep for two days, and try to think in something, it is really hard.
Do the same two without eating. Write down what you perceive in detail.
Try to stay in bed one entire day if you believe exercise is not important.
You will learn how your body reacts to extreme situations and you will be able to identify the same perceptions much more attenuated in your normal life.
If you have problems getting out of bed it is because you don't sleep enough,
or if you are fat or old you can interrupt your sleep at night(sleep apnea)
Losing weight requires discipline. I know because I have none and I'm fat.
"If you have problems getting out of bed it is because you don't sleep enough, or if you are fat or old you can interrupt your sleep at night(sleep apnea)."
Or because you are depressed, or any number of other reasons.
Writing it off as something as simple as being fat, old, or not sleeping enough is oversimplifying something.
"As an exercise, try not to sleep for two days, and try to think in something, it is really hard."
This is how I got through my university exams, not staying awake studying for 2 nights before, that would imply I revised, but I cannot sleep for the few nights before an exam, I usually head to lie in bed with hot chocolate around 3am and watch TV until 7, then get up and load up on cappucino.
"Do the same two without eating. Write down what you perceive in detail."
Again, there are people who, for whatever reason, hyperactivity, lack of appetite, or some faddy diet, do not eat for a couple of days, and manage to function perfectly fine.
"Try to stay in bed one entire day if you believe exercise is not important."
Load up 120GB of David Attenborough documentaries, and you wont get out of bed for a week.
Thanks for this, I needed to read something like this. I seriously burn out on ideas halfway through execution because I rely too much on motivation, but lack the required discipline.
Ah, but what is discipline?
Shifting the vocabulary burden around doesn't accomplish much.
Discipline easily translates to will power
(to do even in the face of adverse circumstances).
But haven't we learned recently to consider will power a finite resource?
Something that cannot be switched on at will arbitrarily[0]?
The author himself escapes this accusation only by the skin of his teeth in
the next-to-last paragraph:
How do you cultivate discipline?
By building habits – [...]
Habit. This word, comparatively unprepossessing as it may sound, sits really
at the core of the discourse[1].
Whenever my thoughts stray to punishing myself for lack of discipline,
I try to remember to leave that martial outlook towards life
to the Spartans[2] and reflect peacefully on my habits instead.
[2] In this way, trying to force discipline may easily lead to results that are as
devastating as those that the author foresees for motivational strategies.
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
~ Aristotle
Very good article. I'd like to add that motivational posters and nice one-liners from famous people are nice for a nice fuzzy feeling but ultimately doesn't do that much for me.
I forced myself to go to a job I hated. I lasted two months. Each day I spent more and more time reading shit on my phone in the bathroom. My breaks got longer and longer. When they started to call me out on this I just quit.
You had other options: get the job done, then quit, and get it done in record time so you can quit faster. Chances are that if you had gone that route that in the end you might not even have quit.
I agree completely that discipline is the key to building good habits, and after you have a set of good habits maintaining them is relatively easy.
However, motivation is a little more important than the author is making out, and that's in setting an initial direction. Why would you be disciplined if you don't know what you want?
Let motivation tell you what you want, and discipline let you get there.
I have been thinking, reading and writing about motivation / discipline / procrastination / akrasia for years now. I'm always looking for really good material on the subject. Unfortunately for some strange reason, most of the posts I've seen that get to the front page of Hacker News are woefully oversimplistic.
Even discipline is something that requires some sort of motivation to cultivate. It is something that you have to want to do, and getting yourself to want to do something isn't (in my opinion) nearly as trivial as a lot of people pretend it is.
So screw motivation, screw discipline, what you need is a comprehensive, holistic solution that encompasses almost everything– that's why it's so difficult to change your life.
1- You need to figure out your expectancy of accomplishing tasks. Discipline won't help you if you bite off more than you can chew.
2- You need to figure out what's valuable to you. There's not much sense in getting disciplined at doing something you hate. PG wrote in one of his essays- paulgraham.com/love.html, I believe, where he talks about a doctor who became a doctor because she was so focused and disciplined– despite the fact that she never actually loved medicine.
3– You need to engineer your environment + choose the right peers. This is way more than half the battle, and it also involves taking more drastic action than a lot of people are comfortable with.
4- You need to chop up your tasks into things that have nearly-immediate feedback, because otherwise hyperbolic discounting makes things seem irrelevant and unimportant to us (especially bad if you have ADHD).
5- You need to have a vested interest in doing all of the above. That means having some sort of reason or motive... which you might also call "motivation."
TL;DR:
Motivation / discipline / getting-stuff-done is a lot more complicated than "screw X, do Y".
PS:
"Screw X, do Y" seems to be a rhetoric device writers use when want to drum up strong feelings in people, dividing people into Camp X and Camp Y. Once you learn to see it, it actually gets rather boring and underwhelming. If you skip all the rhetoric, what the writer is saying is to develop habits. "Start small", that's it.
Would've been more interesting to read a post about the specific development of habits. Because, often you'll find, you end up needing some motivation to getting around to changing your habits, too.
>I have been thinking, reading and writing about motivation / discipline / procrastination / akrasia for years now.
Would you mind sharing your blog? I love to read about those kind of things. I don't write (in public) about them but I feel like it's fun and useful to think/meditate about.
>Screw motivation, screw discipline, what you need is a comprehensive, holistic solution that encompasses almost everything– that's why it's so difficult to change your life. You need to figure out your expectancy of accomplishing tasks, you need to figure out what's valuable to you, you need to engineer your environment, you need to choose the right peers, and you need to have a vested interest in doing all of that in the first place.
The one thing that compasses this all is, in my opinion, this:
1) The ability to break things down to their bare minimum
2) The ability to execute those tasks
3) Keeping the goal in sight, always.
Humans are stupid. I am stupid. We are all stupid. We forget trivial stuff. We have to constantly remind ourselves why and for what we are doing something. This is not bad per se, just a lot of people don't. A lot of things can help you in your goal. Motivated peers are, to me, a HUGE motivator. People should also critically examine what exactly makes them happy.
Amen. Also loved the book 'The Willpower Instinct' [1] in that respect. No magic solutions; just a collection of insights into the multitude of relevant dynamics at play here.
Also good seems to be The Procrastination Equation [1]– the key insight is that there are (at least!) 4 variables involved in why we don't do things that we say we want to do:
* Expectancy, which is your own estimation of how likely you are to complete a task
* Value, which is how important something is to you
* Impulsiveness, determined by the environment that you're in
* Delay, which is the amount of time between whatever you're doing, and the consequence or implication of the thing you're doing.
Getting things done requires dealing with all of the above variables. "Screw Motivation, You Need Discipline" essentially addresses Impulsiveness- it says to be less impulsive, by cultivating good habits. Sure, but that's just 25% of the battle.
I did it and it really worked out quite well. The guy who runs it BJ Fogg, also has some quite interesting insights into habits and habit formation.
The habits I worked on were to load my personal kanban every morning while I make coffee, and also to plan my 3 most important todos on it while I have my first smoke of the day. This has resulted in a huge increase in my productivity. Give it a shot.
Thank you for sharing your understanding - personally I found this much more useful than the parent article.
It is certainly true that discipline is required for accomplishing a task, but to focus on that alone, trying to make your "feelings inconsequential", is frankly unwise.
Before you can succeed at achieving something you must know:
* What you are trying to achieve
* Why you are trying to achieve it
This is the source of the motivation.
Incidentally, asking "why" is a good way to find out the "what" one level below the current task - something that in my experience is a very useful tool to understand yourself and what you want in life.
Once you have "what" and "why" you can determine "how" (i.e. plot a route) and then it is time for discipline (i.e. just walk the route). But it is much easier to be disciplined if you have the real motivation that comes from a clear understanding of "what" and "why".
It may also be the case that you realise that the reason you have to force yourself to do something is that you shouldn't be doing it. If you hate your job and the spreadsheets that come with it then why are you doing it? The answer could be simple: "money" but in that case there is always the possibility to do something else to achieve that - it is incredibly liberating!
Blindly focusing on discipline is a sure way to one day wake up and realise that what you have been doing is of no importance and that is a hard realisation to come to. If you are lucky, then it is still not too late to do something about it, but the best thing is to never get to that situation in the first place.
Anyway, just my 2 pence - it's worked out pretty well for me so far... ;-)
I think part of the discipline problem is the solipsism of our times.
In an army, your environment provides discipline and (often) fosters motivation for (for example) fitness. A fitness class reduces the need to discipline & self motivation to getting yourself to the class. After that, the environment takes care of itself. Self discipline and self motivation is a problematic subset of discipline and we're not really wired to run on it exclusively.
This is part of why you need a partner to start a startup. Having discipline and motivation together is easier than alone. It's why I don't think online education can replace institutional education (though I think it can make it much better) as the default mode. It's why even in one-on-one sports like tennis or boxing young athletes are on "teams."
When in college, I saw my friends, who were once in the military, power through learning at time frustratingly difficult subjects. It didn't take long to see that their consistent efforts yielded progress in excess of what the rest of us "self-motivators" were making. I don't know why that came as a surprise. After all, my Dad, who was a staff sergeant, raised three boys by himself-our mother died when we were 3, 2, 6 mos-while running an architecture firm.
Some may say we need a holistic approach in how we get ourselves to do what can be unpleasant but also life and career enhancing tasks; I think that makes things more complicated than they need to be. The times when I've applied the disciplined approach to work have been my most productive. Other people's mileage may vary.
> Having discipline and motivation together is easier than alone. It's why I don't think online education can replace institutional education (though I think it can make it much better) as the default mode. It's why even in one-on-one sports like tennis or boxing young athletes are on "teams."
I'm very passionate about this!
I think people completely misunderstand what online education is going to be like. Currently, it tends to be approached from a "Just like school but in the cloud" POV.
That's like saying online music is "a record store but in the cloud"- it's not! There's streaming and remixes and downloads and all sorts of interesting things that are enabled by the new model that simply weren't present before.
Similarly, "online education" isn't about sitting through video lectures and then doing tests. It's about reaching out to real people, building real relationships, working on real projects. It's simply self-directed learning, with the guidance, help and support of peers.
There are a lot of things you can learn to do online, and a huge part of it is getting into the right communities, building relationships with the right people, etc.
As someone struggling with motivation even more than the average first world person, this hit right at home. Lacking the motivation to cook, do the dishes or the laundry is one thing. Lacking the will power to do generally "fun" stuff like going outside, hanging out with friends, dating, creativity is another.
Hitting the gym is one of the few activities I still pursue with a relative consistency but wouldn't be there without the minimal self-discipline required to get my butt of my chair or bed and go even when I don't feel like it. In fact that's the hardest part; huffing and puffing for the next hour or so is easy in comparison.
I don't know other people's experiences so this is all just my subjective view.
I am so sick of all the bulls* posted on social media. Places like r/getmotivated or Facebook sites with daily quotes about motivation... Imagine a head shot of a marble statue of Napoleon Bonaparte, dark background and white floating text with a nice font that reads "If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing. - Napoleon"
It does literally nothing except to incite a state of mind that is more temporary than cigarette smoke fading into the air.
Discipline (+ coffee?) is the only thing that reliably brings you anywhere. I am a grad student with multiple jobs and looking at stupid pictures or videos to do my work is not even remotely helping me. What helps me is managing my time such that I can sleep more than 4-5 hours a night. I have difficulty with that and no "motivational app/ website/ media" will truly help me with that struggle. I am not doing the jobs next to grad school because I enjoy being stressed... I don't have a choice.
I completely agree with this article. I would like to share a story of my own journey in this.
For a long time I had wanted to lose some weight and to remove some bad habits. It dawned on me that I could eliminate the habit altogether by scaling back to extreme levels. For example, I completely stopped eating sugary foods such as chocolate for 8 months. I stopped buying coffee from coffee shops every day. I replaced my meals with crazy simple meals such as rice, tamago kake gohan, potatos, eggs and vegetables. It is surprisingly easier to just cut something out of your life and then add things back as necessary.
It occurred to me if you can do this, you can do anything. You're replacing daily motivation - which can be depleted (ego depletion) - with a unwavering commitment everyday - to eat simple things or forego things you did not even think twice about before. You just don't do X. There is no way for you to self justify any more.
It is surprising how after a while, you do not really even miss the daily coffee or chocolate because you feel happy that you were disciplined enough to give it up. You're strong.
In my case, my journey cross fertilised another goal: to cut down on expenses. It is shocking how much money we all spend for very little benefit!
I am sure someone will reply saying 'life is for living' and all that. The question is, are they strong enough to do the same?
Being a professional is knowing how to get into a high quality productive mode regularly and consistently.
It might mean doing things you don't want to currently do at that time but it is fueled by long term goals over short term goals.
That said, part of that process is knowing where to target your motivation. Creativity can take motivation and that does play a role in design and developing products.
Discipline is not really a conscious choice since you can enhance it through medication. So if you have the right makeup then you don't need motivation to do things while others can get roughly the same effect by taking Ritalin.
"A choice", i. e. free will, and something that can be changed via medication aren't mutually exclusive. I'd think most people would agree that getting up early is somewhat in your control, but it gets a lot easier if you have an energy drink at 4am.
There's the theory (see the book by Baumeister) that willpower is like a muscle. It can both get tired and be trained. So the right mindset might not be "I will be disciplined today" – because you will fail and feel bad about it as you would fail if you just decided to lift that huge boulder. But if you chose to expend your willpower on something small but challenging, you may be able to train it and, after a while, be able to lift that heavy boulder.
Yes, I was a bit too simplistic in my post. But the point is that a person who builds discipline like a girl builds muscle will be out of the competition no matter what he does. In such cases it is better to focus on other things to circumvent the shortage of discipline, such as finding more motivation etc, in the same way as girls shouldn't do jobs where they have to lift heavy objects.
Discipline is not really a conscious choice since you can enhance it through medication. So if you have the right makeup then you don't need motivation to do things while others can get roughly the same effect by taking Ritalin. Motivation however is something that can help everyone which is why it is so much more powerful.
"I do not consider self-inflicted episodes of hypomania the optimal driver of human activity. A thymic compensation via depressive episodes is inevitable, since the human brain will not tolerate abuse indefinitely. There are stops and safety valves. There are hormonal hangovers."
This article gets some important things backwards in order to take on its overconfident alpha dog tone.
Notably absent is how goals are chosen. Certainly some goals are better than others? And won't we be more motivated to pursue good goals and less motivated to pursue bad goals? And then mustn't we pay attention to a lack of motivation as the sign that we've chosen our goals poorly?
That said, I agree that discipline is important because even when you've chosen good goals, there will be hard, boring work required to achieve them.
Wow, this hits so close to home for me. I have intentionally been trying to cultivate better habits to underpin my own efforts to become more disciplined and effective, and in fact, I wouldn't have even been awake yet[1] to see this on HN if I hadn't been taking steps in that direction already.
From what I've observed, the most successful/effective/<insert positive adjective here> humans of the present and past (and presumably, the future as well) have been know for the rigor of their habits and schedules[2]. I'm curious to know what steps some of my fellow HNers have taken to cultivate better habits/routines for themselves.
I'll leave you with a quote from the legendary artist Chuck Close:
“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”
Did you ever notice that nobody ever talks about how to cultivate disciplne? If it wee as easy as "just go do it" than everyone would.
The latest analogy of discipline is of a muscle. Do more and it gets bigger, right? Not exactly. While true in some aspect, it leads to bad choices on later decisions you make, at least in creative work.
Three ways to improve discipline:
1. Develop a mindful meditation practice. It will produce more awareness, which in my experience helps me get started and work through to the edge of where I am making bad decisions, and recognize if I'm bored or actually tired and adjust accordingly. You will know if it helps you within a few weeks.
2. Develop a choice minimal lifestyle. Arbitrary choices seemingly come from the same pool as discipline. Where possible, turn choices into a habit. "I start at 9 because I start at 9' not because I choose to start at 9." It seems odd but it works.
3. Closely related, excersise will increase your mental endurance, which is as good as discipline in many cases. Diet also increased it -- while a quick glycogen hit can help for 15 minutes, I have found great benefit to dropping sugar and simple carbohydrates out of my diet while working. It's worth seeing if it works for you.
I will roundly reject your 3 steps to discipline, as they are wishy-washy and completely irrelevant to actually creating self discipline.
Here's a few steps that might help someone who isn't trying to be a massive poseur.
1. Be really really hard on yourself. Tell yourself constantly that you are not good enough, and you MUST do better, in fact it's pathetic how little you have accomplished.
2. Work, work, work, work, work... think you have time for fun? Think again smart girl|boy, now, WORK HARDER.
3. Develop a sense of humor about the horrible pain you are putting yourself through. That way, you'll be able to pile some more on, while telling yourself to wipe that stupid grin of your face.
Also eat well, otherwise you may get sick or fat or die... all of those things would be pathetic, beat yourself up some more.
Alternatively, join the army.
Of course, you can side step all this pain and suffering and just get on with it! Now get back to work!
(I hope my parent commenter understands this is firmly tongue in cheek, but I'll point that out anyway.)
(PS. of course, much truth is spoke in jest.)
(for a real response, see Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.)
I'm not saying that Covey doesn't have good points, but they are better fit to the manager schedule, not the maker schedule.
What I am saying is that that "just do it" method of discipline building is rather useless for creative work. I have seen my fair share of people who have failed with this advice.
Meditation has been the best practice to cultivate discipline for me. Where it reveals itself is when you start down a road of procrastination, a conversation with yourself to avoid doing something, you can just stop that internal chatter and get back to what you should be doing. "Just doing it" is the product of that meditative mind.
Traditionally, discipline was often "improved" by a third party.
Sometimes I'm really grateful for my Dad who insisted chores were done and done properly, I was out of bed on time, and that homework was done to spec. I resented it at the time, and I guess I still do in a way, but I've never had a problem getting work done, and probably have him to thank for that.
Now, if he had just taught me to be a better negotiator and womanizer....
> The author argues that discipline is what gets you started and motivation is what keeps you going.
I don't see that argument anywhere in the article -- it seems mostly to be that motivation and discipline serve the same purpose, but discipline is more reliable and better.
But then, I don't see the original article as being worth the electrons used to transmit it, its a rant that neither seems to have any grounding nor seems to have any correspondence with my experience.
I'd say the idea that motivation being very important in getting something started and both motivation and discipline playing important roles in keeping going is true.
Daily Rituals (book) which covers the work habits of ~160 famous writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians. Nearly every single one had a strict schedule to force work into specific time slots rather than letting inspiration strike, they tended to be morning people, and they tended to work shorter days but worked everyday. While still anecdotal, an interesting read on how many great minds spent their work days; nearly each one seemed to follow this same notion that you favor discipline over motivation.
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[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 193 ms ] threadAnd over time that translates into success. (For sure people will think of it as achieved 'overnight' but don't let that bother you.)
Motivation is something that gets mistaken by many for discipline, but in fact motivation is what makes you go downhill faster, discipline is what gets you uphill and most of the times you'll be going uphill.
I think a better perspective is to think of yourself as having a "discipline budget". (This is actually born out by a lot of fMRI studies, which show that when you will yourself to do something unpleasant or difficult, your brain expends a lot of glucose, and when glucose levels drop below a certain level, you simply can't exert any willpower at all, and often end up making questionable judgment calls without any awareness that you're doing something stupid.) And then your conscious job is to figure out how to spend that discipline budget in the way that will give the greatest returns to you - recognizing, of course, that no matter what you try to achieve there will always be parts that are unpleasant and that you just need to power through. But then, this also recognizes that you are not superman, and sometimes you have to drop the difficult stuff and re-charge just as your natural self.
When you think like this, you pick your projects and profession carefully. You understand that you better pick something that you mostly enjoy, because most of the time, you're going to be running on cruise control and it's a lot easier to do that when you're going downhill than uphill. But you also understand that even if you do that, there are going to be some things that you have to do that are just work, they're not going to be fun, and you might as well get them done with without fussing or stressing about them.
Isn't that what being your authentic self is about, anyway? Understanding who you are and what you're good at and then choosing a place within the world where that naturally fits, but also understanding that the world is not automatically going to mold itself to your preferences and that no matter where you choose to go, you're going to have to do some shaping of yourself as well.
I think it takes about 3 years to establish an actual business and by the time you're there most of your 'motivational energy' will have burned out or dissipated and you'll be going on discipline exclusively for the majority of the time.
There's nothing wrong with that, that's where the money is made.
If you're succeeding in your businesses, that probably means that it's close enough to "enjoyable" for you to make it worth your while (if not - man, I'm sorry).
I knew folks at Google who had zero interest in ever founding a company. Why? Because they knew exactly what it entailed, and figured they wanted to spend their budget on things like hard technical problems or dealing with office politics rather than on building a business. Ultimately, I decided that wasn't what I want, and a good portion of the reason why is that I wanted the challenge of stretching myself in ways that I couldn't inside a large corporation. But that's a choice as well - I looked at the schleps needed to have some level of sustainable self-determination within Google vs. the ones needed to have some level of sustainable self-determination in a company, and decided I wanted the latter. I don't actually disagree with any of the facts you've put out, I'm just pointing out that one shouldn't immediately leap from those to the article's conclusion.
The idea that we can biochemically run out of what powers willpower is a neat one. I feel like that implies there's something we can do to just replenish it, but making assumptions like that about complex things like brain chemistry is a great way to look smart while being not-smart.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-brain-uses-glucose-to-fu...
http://psr.sagepub.com/content/11/4/303.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3624962/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3195474/
For example, I've always considered myself to be a smoker. I tried quitting dozens of times, but I always gave in because I knew I was a smoker deep inside. But at some point, I realized that there's nothing about me that makes me a smoker. And then it was easy to quit smoking.
It's possible to change yourself. Nothing really prevents you from becoming a disciplined person. The first step is realizing you don't have to be a procrastinator (or whatever you consider yourself to be).
(I'm only half-kidding)
IE, get external forces working in your favour. You could use a coach or psychologist. Commit to tasks. Make sure they check up on you. Work closely with others. Pair programming or an environment where someone is waiting for you to finish something so they can start something else. Seek environments where you can't hide procrastination. discipline thrives in public.
Basically.. cheat.
http://tinyhabits.com/
His basic philosophy is to anchor a very small habit to one you already do. For example, is there one thing you always do first at work? Make coffee, open email? Then choose a tiny habit you would like to form (it should take less than 30 seconds) and do it right after that normal routine habit. (I don't know, maybe write down one task you promised someone you would do and pin it on your monitor). Then after you have done the tiny habit, give yourself a small celebratory high-five. (Cheesy as it sounds, the tiny habit where I didn't do this little celebration didn't stick after the week long program).
Check out and sign up for his 1 week program (its free).
Most people are similar to how they were when they were in school, because most people don't deliberately put themselves in contexts in which they are forced to grow and develop.
Discipline, in my opinion, is seldom something that you develop entirely for its own sake– rather, it tends to be something that you develop to achieve some greater goal. Along the way you may find that discipline is a worthy pursuit by itself, but few people wake up at 20 and go "Jeez, I want to be really really disciplined!"
It's more like, you have some itch you want to scratch, and you realize the only way to do it is to train yourself.
[1] http://calnewport.com/blog/2012/11/21/knowledge-workers-are-...
[2] http://visakanv.com/marketing/tobi
That combined with the routine of going to a 9-5, then afterwards going to a coworking space for my startup, I'm really getting a lot of work done. Before I would stay at home and do the bare minimum of contract work, waste time on the internet, and dream about doing a startup. I'd say I'm about 3 times as productive as I was when I worked from home.
For example if I went back in time I could tell my teenage self everything about nutrition. Unfortunately it would be pointless. Even though I'd listen, without the years of experimentation, forming beliefs and learning I would never have the discipline to think "These foods are poison. Other people can eat them, but not me."
So it's a long process and I think people should discover what works for themselves. But since you asked, here's what I eat and don't eat as of now...
NEVER EAT: HFCS, DAIRY, processed foods, greasy foods, red meat, brominated/bleached flour, unfermented soy (especially soybean oil), alcohol, artificial flavored foods or things that you don't recognize the ingredients, basically avoid all restaurants even supposedly healthy ones
EAT: Tons of organic vegetables/fruit, things cooked in coconut or olive oil, organic chicken, organic eggs, sprouted wheat, high-quality spring water, home cooking flavored with herbs/spices instead of sugary/salty sauces, foods with high omega 3s or high antioxidants, cook everything yourself using basic ingredients
Things that are listed "never eat" I make no compromises for no matter the pressure... "Oh hey - it's our company's annual pizza taste-testing competition, you can make an exception this time can't you? Don't you want some of this amazing pizza with cheese, soybean oil and brominated wheat flour in it. NO!?! What's wrong with you? Are you going to risk your job by not participating???"
YES - I will quit my job before eating pizza... it's poison to me, I won't eat it.
In practice this means I'll do a hackathon to build something I want, while limiting myself to using one new technology that has to be relevant to my startup.
To stay motivated I pitch everyone I can because nothing motivates me as much as other people getting excited.
As someone that used to lack motivation and discipline, this has kept be going on my startup for 4+ years.
If you have problems getting out of bed, I recommend that you work on it first.
If you have problems getting out of bed it is because you don't sleep enough, or if you are fat or old you can interrupt your sleep at night(sleep apnea).
Both motivation and discipline is needed for success, but the basics are your food, exercise and rest.
If you don't sleep well, eat what you need, exercise, or rest, your body will prioritize it over anything else.
As an exercise, try not to sleep for two days, and try to think in something, it is really hard.
Do the same two without eating. Write down what you perceive in detail.
Try to stay in bed one entire day if you believe exercise is not important.
You will learn how your body reacts to extreme situations and you will be able to identify the same perceptions much more attenuated in your normal life.
Or because you are depressed, or any number of other reasons.
Writing it off as something as simple as being fat, old, or not sleeping enough is oversimplifying something.
"As an exercise, try not to sleep for two days, and try to think in something, it is really hard." This is how I got through my university exams, not staying awake studying for 2 nights before, that would imply I revised, but I cannot sleep for the few nights before an exam, I usually head to lie in bed with hot chocolate around 3am and watch TV until 7, then get up and load up on cappucino.
"Do the same two without eating. Write down what you perceive in detail." Again, there are people who, for whatever reason, hyperactivity, lack of appetite, or some faddy diet, do not eat for a couple of days, and manage to function perfectly fine.
"Try to stay in bed one entire day if you believe exercise is not important." Load up 120GB of David Attenborough documentaries, and you wont get out of bed for a week.
If you run out of fuel, the engine cant help you find more. That's why I think the OP is somewhat wrong.
Note: It's from a PUA dude but this isn't about PU, it applies to all areas.
But haven't we learned recently to consider will power a finite resource? Something that cannot be switched on at will arbitrarily[0]?
The author himself escapes this accusation only by the skin of his teeth in the next-to-last paragraph:
Habit. This word, comparatively unprepossessing as it may sound, sits really at the core of the discourse[1].Whenever my thoughts stray to punishing myself for lack of discipline, I try to remember to leave that martial outlook towards life to the Spartans[2] and reflect peacefully on my habits instead.
[0] Except, tongue-in-cheek, if you add sugar.
[1] Lest I leave an opening: It already is in Covey's seminal 1989 'Seven Habits', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Eff...
[2] In this way, trying to force discipline may easily lead to results that are as devastating as those that the author foresees for motivational strategies.
Just discipline they said!
However, motivation is a little more important than the author is making out, and that's in setting an initial direction. Why would you be disciplined if you don't know what you want?
Let motivation tell you what you want, and discipline let you get there.
Even discipline is something that requires some sort of motivation to cultivate. It is something that you have to want to do, and getting yourself to want to do something isn't (in my opinion) nearly as trivial as a lot of people pretend it is.
So screw motivation, screw discipline, what you need is a comprehensive, holistic solution that encompasses almost everything– that's why it's so difficult to change your life.
1- You need to figure out your expectancy of accomplishing tasks. Discipline won't help you if you bite off more than you can chew.
2- You need to figure out what's valuable to you. There's not much sense in getting disciplined at doing something you hate. PG wrote in one of his essays- paulgraham.com/love.html, I believe, where he talks about a doctor who became a doctor because she was so focused and disciplined– despite the fact that she never actually loved medicine.
3– You need to engineer your environment + choose the right peers. This is way more than half the battle, and it also involves taking more drastic action than a lot of people are comfortable with.
4- You need to chop up your tasks into things that have nearly-immediate feedback, because otherwise hyperbolic discounting makes things seem irrelevant and unimportant to us (especially bad if you have ADHD).
5- You need to have a vested interest in doing all of the above. That means having some sort of reason or motive... which you might also call "motivation."
TL;DR:
Motivation / discipline / getting-stuff-done is a lot more complicated than "screw X, do Y".
PS:
"Screw X, do Y" seems to be a rhetoric device writers use when want to drum up strong feelings in people, dividing people into Camp X and Camp Y. Once you learn to see it, it actually gets rather boring and underwhelming. If you skip all the rhetoric, what the writer is saying is to develop habits. "Start small", that's it.
Would've been more interesting to read a post about the specific development of habits. Because, often you'll find, you end up needing some motivation to getting around to changing your habits, too.
Would you mind sharing your blog? I love to read about those kind of things. I don't write (in public) about them but I feel like it's fun and useful to think/meditate about.
>Screw motivation, screw discipline, what you need is a comprehensive, holistic solution that encompasses almost everything– that's why it's so difficult to change your life. You need to figure out your expectancy of accomplishing tasks, you need to figure out what's valuable to you, you need to engineer your environment, you need to choose the right peers, and you need to have a vested interest in doing all of that in the first place.
The one thing that compasses this all is, in my opinion, this:
1) The ability to break things down to their bare minimum 2) The ability to execute those tasks 3) Keeping the goal in sight, always.
Humans are stupid. I am stupid. We are all stupid. We forget trivial stuff. We have to constantly remind ourselves why and for what we are doing something. This is not bad per se, just a lot of people don't. A lot of things can help you in your goal. Motivated peers are, to me, a HUGE motivator. People should also critically examine what exactly makes them happy.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10865206-the-willpower-i...
* Expectancy, which is your own estimation of how likely you are to complete a task
* Value, which is how important something is to you
* Impulsiveness, determined by the environment that you're in
* Delay, which is the amount of time between whatever you're doing, and the consequence or implication of the thing you're doing.
Getting things done requires dealing with all of the above variables. "Screw Motivation, You Need Discipline" essentially addresses Impulsiveness- it says to be less impulsive, by cultivating good habits. Sure, but that's just 25% of the battle.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Procrastination-Equation-Putting-G...
http://tinyhabits.com/
I did it and it really worked out quite well. The guy who runs it BJ Fogg, also has some quite interesting insights into habits and habit formation.
The habits I worked on were to load my personal kanban every morning while I make coffee, and also to plan my 3 most important todos on it while I have my first smoke of the day. This has resulted in a huge increase in my productivity. Give it a shot.
It is certainly true that discipline is required for accomplishing a task, but to focus on that alone, trying to make your "feelings inconsequential", is frankly unwise.
Before you can succeed at achieving something you must know:
* What you are trying to achieve
* Why you are trying to achieve it
This is the source of the motivation.
Incidentally, asking "why" is a good way to find out the "what" one level below the current task - something that in my experience is a very useful tool to understand yourself and what you want in life.
Once you have "what" and "why" you can determine "how" (i.e. plot a route) and then it is time for discipline (i.e. just walk the route). But it is much easier to be disciplined if you have the real motivation that comes from a clear understanding of "what" and "why".
It may also be the case that you realise that the reason you have to force yourself to do something is that you shouldn't be doing it. If you hate your job and the spreadsheets that come with it then why are you doing it? The answer could be simple: "money" but in that case there is always the possibility to do something else to achieve that - it is incredibly liberating!
Blindly focusing on discipline is a sure way to one day wake up and realise that what you have been doing is of no importance and that is a hard realisation to come to. If you are lucky, then it is still not too late to do something about it, but the best thing is to never get to that situation in the first place.
Anyway, just my 2 pence - it's worked out pretty well for me so far... ;-)
In an army, your environment provides discipline and (often) fosters motivation for (for example) fitness. A fitness class reduces the need to discipline & self motivation to getting yourself to the class. After that, the environment takes care of itself. Self discipline and self motivation is a problematic subset of discipline and we're not really wired to run on it exclusively.
This is part of why you need a partner to start a startup. Having discipline and motivation together is easier than alone. It's why I don't think online education can replace institutional education (though I think it can make it much better) as the default mode. It's why even in one-on-one sports like tennis or boxing young athletes are on "teams."
Some may say we need a holistic approach in how we get ourselves to do what can be unpleasant but also life and career enhancing tasks; I think that makes things more complicated than they need to be. The times when I've applied the disciplined approach to work have been my most productive. Other people's mileage may vary.
I'm very passionate about this!
I think people completely misunderstand what online education is going to be like. Currently, it tends to be approached from a "Just like school but in the cloud" POV.
That's like saying online music is "a record store but in the cloud"- it's not! There's streaming and remixes and downloads and all sorts of interesting things that are enabled by the new model that simply weren't present before.
Similarly, "online education" isn't about sitting through video lectures and then doing tests. It's about reaching out to real people, building real relationships, working on real projects. It's simply self-directed learning, with the guidance, help and support of peers.
There are a lot of things you can learn to do online, and a huge part of it is getting into the right communities, building relationships with the right people, etc.
Hitting the gym is one of the few activities I still pursue with a relative consistency but wouldn't be there without the minimal self-discipline required to get my butt of my chair or bed and go even when I don't feel like it. In fact that's the hardest part; huffing and puffing for the next hour or so is easy in comparison.
I am so sick of all the bulls* posted on social media. Places like r/getmotivated or Facebook sites with daily quotes about motivation... Imagine a head shot of a marble statue of Napoleon Bonaparte, dark background and white floating text with a nice font that reads "If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing. - Napoleon"
It does literally nothing except to incite a state of mind that is more temporary than cigarette smoke fading into the air.
Discipline (+ coffee?) is the only thing that reliably brings you anywhere. I am a grad student with multiple jobs and looking at stupid pictures or videos to do my work is not even remotely helping me. What helps me is managing my time such that I can sleep more than 4-5 hours a night. I have difficulty with that and no "motivational app/ website/ media" will truly help me with that struggle. I am not doing the jobs next to grad school because I enjoy being stressed... I don't have a choice.
For a long time I had wanted to lose some weight and to remove some bad habits. It dawned on me that I could eliminate the habit altogether by scaling back to extreme levels. For example, I completely stopped eating sugary foods such as chocolate for 8 months. I stopped buying coffee from coffee shops every day. I replaced my meals with crazy simple meals such as rice, tamago kake gohan, potatos, eggs and vegetables. It is surprisingly easier to just cut something out of your life and then add things back as necessary.
It occurred to me if you can do this, you can do anything. You're replacing daily motivation - which can be depleted (ego depletion) - with a unwavering commitment everyday - to eat simple things or forego things you did not even think twice about before. You just don't do X. There is no way for you to self justify any more.
It is surprising how after a while, you do not really even miss the daily coffee or chocolate because you feel happy that you were disciplined enough to give it up. You're strong.
In my case, my journey cross fertilised another goal: to cut down on expenses. It is shocking how much money we all spend for very little benefit!
I am sure someone will reply saying 'life is for living' and all that. The question is, are they strong enough to do the same?
It might mean doing things you don't want to currently do at that time but it is fueled by long term goals over short term goals.
That said, part of that process is knowing where to target your motivation. Creativity can take motivation and that does play a role in design and developing products.
There's the theory (see the book by Baumeister) that willpower is like a muscle. It can both get tired and be trained. So the right mindset might not be "I will be disciplined today" – because you will fail and feel bad about it as you would fail if you just decided to lift that huge boulder. But if you chose to expend your willpower on something small but challenging, you may be able to train it and, after a while, be able to lift that heavy boulder.
"I do not consider self-inflicted episodes of hypomania the optimal driver of human activity. A thymic compensation via depressive episodes is inevitable, since the human brain will not tolerate abuse indefinitely. There are stops and safety valves. There are hormonal hangovers."
Notably absent is how goals are chosen. Certainly some goals are better than others? And won't we be more motivated to pursue good goals and less motivated to pursue bad goals? And then mustn't we pay attention to a lack of motivation as the sign that we've chosen our goals poorly?
That said, I agree that discipline is important because even when you've chosen good goals, there will be hard, boring work required to achieve them.
From what I've observed, the most successful/effective/<insert positive adjective here> humans of the present and past (and presumably, the future as well) have been know for the rigor of their habits and schedules[2]. I'm curious to know what steps some of my fellow HNers have taken to cultivate better habits/routines for themselves.
I'll leave you with a quote from the legendary artist Chuck Close:
“Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work.”
1. It's before 7am CST, and I've been awake for almost two hours: https://twitter.com/thisisbrians/status/561486866914869248
2. This list is just of 'creatives' (whatever that means), but you get the idea: https://podio.com/site/creative-routines
The latest analogy of discipline is of a muscle. Do more and it gets bigger, right? Not exactly. While true in some aspect, it leads to bad choices on later decisions you make, at least in creative work.
Three ways to improve discipline:
1. Develop a mindful meditation practice. It will produce more awareness, which in my experience helps me get started and work through to the edge of where I am making bad decisions, and recognize if I'm bored or actually tired and adjust accordingly. You will know if it helps you within a few weeks.
2. Develop a choice minimal lifestyle. Arbitrary choices seemingly come from the same pool as discipline. Where possible, turn choices into a habit. "I start at 9 because I start at 9' not because I choose to start at 9." It seems odd but it works.
3. Closely related, excersise will increase your mental endurance, which is as good as discipline in many cases. Diet also increased it -- while a quick glycogen hit can help for 15 minutes, I have found great benefit to dropping sugar and simple carbohydrates out of my diet while working. It's worth seeing if it works for you.
I will roundly reject your 3 steps to discipline, as they are wishy-washy and completely irrelevant to actually creating self discipline.
Here's a few steps that might help someone who isn't trying to be a massive poseur.
1. Be really really hard on yourself. Tell yourself constantly that you are not good enough, and you MUST do better, in fact it's pathetic how little you have accomplished.
2. Work, work, work, work, work... think you have time for fun? Think again smart girl|boy, now, WORK HARDER.
3. Develop a sense of humor about the horrible pain you are putting yourself through. That way, you'll be able to pile some more on, while telling yourself to wipe that stupid grin of your face.
Also eat well, otherwise you may get sick or fat or die... all of those things would be pathetic, beat yourself up some more.
Alternatively, join the army.
Of course, you can side step all this pain and suffering and just get on with it! Now get back to work!
(I hope my parent commenter understands this is firmly tongue in cheek, but I'll point that out anyway.)
(PS. of course, much truth is spoke in jest.)
(for a real response, see Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.)
What I am saying is that that "just do it" method of discipline building is rather useless for creative work. I have seen my fair share of people who have failed with this advice.
I failed with that advice for years.
I solved my problem with the three above.
Sometimes I'm really grateful for my Dad who insisted chores were done and done properly, I was out of bed on time, and that homework was done to spec. I resented it at the time, and I guess I still do in a way, but I've never had a problem getting work done, and probably have him to thank for that.
Now, if he had just taught me to be a better negotiator and womanizer....
I don't see that argument anywhere in the article -- it seems mostly to be that motivation and discipline serve the same purpose, but discipline is more reliable and better.
But then, I don't see the original article as being worth the electrons used to transmit it, its a rant that neither seems to have any grounding nor seems to have any correspondence with my experience.
I'd say the idea that motivation being very important in getting something started and both motivation and discipline playing important roles in keeping going is true.
"The point is to cut the link between feelings and actions, and do it anyway. You get to feel good and buzzed and energetic and eager afterwards."
So, discipline will kick things off and later you'll have the feelings that should have been generated by motivation.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15799151-daily-rituals