COLUMN: People think they lack motivation but what they really lack is discipline

What is motivation? It’s the willingness to do something. When are you ever bothered about doing anything good for yourself? January 1 I would imagine for most people and then after a week of “hard” work the majority of people give up.

Motivation comes and goes; you shouldn’t rely on it and it’s the most common challenge I hear people talk about. I’m not a fan of motivation because if I was, I wouldn’t get anything done.

People think they lack motivation but what they really lack is discipline.

Discipline will give you freedom, it’s hard to build but like anything it can be learned once you decide to put in the effort.

I don’t always want to write my weekly article; my mind tries to get me to procrastinate and do something else. If I relied on motivation, you wouldn’t be reading this week’s article.

I have built up discipline where I will get it done no matter what, I set myself a goal to write one a week for the entire year, so you’ll be reading more of me.

Here’s a few tips to help you build motivation:

1. Set yourself a goal – Don’t be one of these people who sets a goal inside their head, we have 10,000 thoughts a day you’ll only forget about it. Write it out on a piece of paper, stick it up somewhere you’ll see daily and work towards it. This will help you hold yourself accountable.

2. Change your perspective – I bet in the past you’ve failed at something and without a second thought just gave up. That’s a loser’s mentality, change your perspective and focus on being on a growth trajectory. I only work with growth-minded people, instead of looking at failure as a big wall you can’t climb, look at it as a ladder you can step up on. When your focus is on growing, you’ll be forced to build discipline.

3. Embrace the suck daily – Each and everyday do something you detest, overtime it won’t be that difficult and it will improve your discipline and resiliency (bonus one for you).

4. Build winning habits – Success leaves clues, copy what successful people do and you’ll be successful. That goes for all avenues of life, when things become automated in your subconscious mind (habit) it makes life much easier. Going for a walk daily should be a habit but at first it won’t be, after a while you won’t have to think about it.

When you get to that stage you’re winning.

Stop using motivation as an excuse, you lack discipline in your life. You may not even be aware of it; I know I wasn’t for a long time until I was told so I hope you’re after waking up to the fact that motivation isn’t something you should be looking for.

Hope you enjoyed today’s article, feel free to email at [email protected] or contact me on my social media pages with any questions or feedback.

Next week I’ll be opening spaces for The DG Academy, this is my online coaching business.

Thank you for always reading my pieces, it means a lot.

See you next week.

Coach Darragh