Discipline > Motivation

7 Feb

Well, we’re firmly into February now. How are those New Year’s resolutions coming along?

If you’re anything like me, you love setting goals, visions and directions at any opportunity. New year, sure. Birthday, probably. Lunar New Year, if I want to (I do this year as it happens). Any excuse for something to focus my mind, I’m there.

However, my mind is a wondrous thing. And thus, “Try bouldering” has been on the resolutions list for about 4 years. Momentum fades; don’t feel bad about it. Life gets in the way.

But here’s the trick that an old PT taught me. It’s a properly obvious but very underrated gem.

Discipline outperforms motivation any day of the week.

Motivation might get your trainers on, but it’s discipline that gets you out of the house. The only way to do a thing is to do the thing, regardless of whether or not you want to.

I am a scatterbrain. My brain is hyperactive and all over the shop. I can write huge, long lists of things I want to do, and for some of them, I’ll even make a much too detailed plan. But when it comes to execution over time, I just can’t nail it. In the last few years, I’ve had a lot of Atomic Habits based help. If you haven’t read the book by James Clear, I can’t recommend it enough. For someone like me who just can’t focus on things for long periods of time, it’s really changed the way that I see the environment I live in.

It doesn’t matter whether you want to, just do it. Consistency is the only thing that matters in reaching a goal. At some point, you will have to tackle quality, but you won’t get to quality until you can nail consistency.

Here are my favourite 3 things to do to drive consistency and achieve discipline in execution.

Make it visible.

Write it on a wall. Keep it on the fridge. Tell everyone you know you’re doing it. Whatever, it doesn’t matter, just make it visible. My main man, the Schnitzel himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, talks about this one a lot. If you want to do something daily, stick a calendar on the wall and tick it off every time you do it. Don’t underestimate the power of “streak building” to keep you disciplined. Once you’ve got 245 move goals in a row on your apple watch and >1,000 days of Duolingo to defend, you’re going to do it whether or not you want to, trust me.

This also goes for just making things obvious. The bike in the kitchen, the yoga mat by the telly. If you want to do something, put it right in front of you and then it won’t be as easy for you to ignore it when you’re trying to avoid it.

“This isn’t a priority for me.”

The next time you don’t have time for something, instead of saying you don’t have time, say out loud “This isn’t a priority for me”.

If you want to keep yourself accountable, this is a great way to do it. Not everything can be a priority, but if you’ve decided something is important to you but you’re lacking the discipline to actually execute, admit that it’s just not a priority. Once you’ve said it, see how it makes you feel. If you feel absolutely crap because you know you’re letting yourself down, you’ll make time. If it’s just actually not a priority for you, then you’ve learned a little something about setting more useful or realistic goals.

Habit Stacking

This is a James Clear one, but it’s really effective. Add new habits that build towards your goals onto existing ones. I know I need to meditate more, I enjoy meditating and I love the effect it has on my brain, but I can’t make myself do it every day. So I added it to an existing habit (stretching out my spine), and hey, my daily hit rate improved.

If you really want something to happen, add it to something that already happens. Make life easy for yourself.

You are a product of your environment. Remember that when the motivation you’re feeling calls you to set yourself some new goals. You’re only going to maintain that momentum if you design your life and habitat around the things you’d like to do.

But remember, the best way to do the thing is just to do the thing. Every time you think you can’t be bothered, make yourself do it anyway, even if it’s just 50% of something. Flexing that discipline muscle to make you do it will build the habit, and from there, anything is possible.

Discipline over motivation, every day, all day long.