Motivation and Discipline..

It seems that in some places the idea of motivation and discipline seems to be blurred and misunderstood. Both words are thrown around a little recklessly without any real emphasis on what they really mean. Almost like they are the same thing. They overlap for sure, but they are most definitely separate entities.

I work with people that are both lacking motivation and want to be more disciplined. But what does that mean? Then to drill into that even more, what does that look like?

Let’s start with motivation. Motivation is a desire to move in accordance with a goal or objective, either towards it or away from it. You can then break down motivation further into intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation refers to a motivation that comes purely from within. As a loose rule being intrinsically motivated by something tends to lead to more long-term satisfaction. You’re working towards a goal that is directly linked to your own growth and your own autonomy. Whereas extrinsic motivation is being motivated by external factors such as money, praise or rewards. Again, as a loose rule, extrinsic motivation tends to lead to short term satisfaction but can backfire, with most studies showing that it can even decrease productivity and satisfaction.

What about discipline then? What can make discipline a bit of a dirty word is that quite often it means doing something you don’t want to do at a time you don’t want to do it, but it can help someone create new behaviours and self-control. Discipline gets a bit of a bad rap sometimes but it’s a necessary component in accomplishing goals, goals that were set with the initial drive of motivation, and that is where the two overlap as I said earlier.

What’s the final takeaway then? Try to avoid being completely focussed on extrinsic goals. Of course, money is important but extrinsic motivation is not helpful for long-term productivity, meaning your discipline in relation to them will be harder to sustain. I’d say try to organise your life in a way that is focussed largely on intrinsic goals (goals related to personal growth) that way remaining disciplined in the in future is probably going to be easier.