The Art of Discipline

A lack of motivation is no excuse for inaction.

Sure, motivation is important for you to feel the need for action. But there is something more important than motivation.

Discipline.

With discipline you take action regardless of your motivation.

With discipline you do the things you know you should do.

With discipline you create consistency. And consistency wins.

By learning discipline, you put yourself on a path of progress uninfluenced by your feelings.

Lacking discipline can keep you stuck.

You do not need motivation to maintain action. You need a plan.

That is what I will help you with today.

Why discipline?

Think about a time you tried adopting a fitness routine or diet.

You felt motivated to act so you cleaned out the fridge, bought a bunch of vegetables, picked up a gym membership, and got after it.

After a few weeks, your motivation was gone. Did you keep going? Did you stick with the diet.

Most people don’t. And this is because of a lack of discipline.

What stopped you? Did you rely on motivation to keep you going?

Your motivation will naturally ebb and flow. Sometimes you will feel highly motivated. Sometimes you won’t. But, imagine what you would look and feel like at this moment had you continued your eating and exercise routine.

Instead of using motivation, use discipline.

You are not a bad person if you lack discipline. You are human. As humans, we are emotional and we put a lot of power in our emotions.

Discipline will keep you moving forward whether you want to or not. It will keep you on track. It will help you win in the long run.

Discipline gives you advantages that motivation does not:

• Consistency
• Continuous progress
• Planning over time
• Maintenance of routines

Luckily, discipline is a skill that can be developed with practice.

Here’s where to start.

How to develop discipline

Ok, so how do you take action regardless of how you feel?

There are only two things you really need to do: create a MVA and time block it.

Create a Minimum Viable Approach

The minimum viable approach, or MVA, is the smallest thing you can do to make continual progress. It is the thing you are willing to do even when not motivated.

To explain this, let’s look at a model from BJ Fogg.

BJ Fogg wrote a book called Tiny Habits. He describes how a person can be triggered to act with considerations for task difficulty and motivation.

The summary of the model is this:

When a task is easy to do, we do not have to be highly motivated to do it.

When a task is hard to do we need more motivation to put in the effort.

Our goal is to determine the minimal viable approach for making progress toward our goals. This way, when motivation is low, the task is still easy enough for us to complete.

Let’s take your fitness, for example.

To get fit, you need to exercise. But how much exercise is needed to get you fit? Well, if you want to get more fit, you need to do more than you are doing now.

This might mean a daily walk, jogging for 10 minutes a day, an hour workout, 50 pushups a day, etc.

Consider: what is the smallest thing you could do that would contribute to your goals if you continued for a long period of time?

Continuing with fitness, if you are not exercising now, I’d recommend blocking 30 minutes a day for a routine. At a minimum, walk.

Make walking your minimum viable approach. This is something that will contribute to your fitness if you continue for a long period of time.

For nutrition: prioritize protein for your first meal.

For your relationships: ask how the person is doing, and really listen.

For learning: Read 10 pages a day. Or listen to an audiobook for 10 minutes.

The minimum viable approach is the thing you can do even when motivation is lost.

Time blocks

Next, you must schedule your MVA. Block of 30 minutes to go on a walk. Put it on your calendar.

Other things should go on your calendar, too: learning time, family time, meal planning, journalling, meditation, etc.

If you are already using a calendar to track your day, add in your personal items. Keep that time sacred.

Have you heard of Parkinson’s law? This is where work expands to the time available to complete the task.

If you do not book time on your calendar, then you seemingly have infinite time to complete it… which means you can do it later.

Don’t do this.

Schedule your tasks. Stick to them. Make progress.

What happens when you get motivated?

Using BJ Fogg’s model, we see that when a task is harder it requires more motivation to take action. Also, the opposite is true. When we are motivated we are more likely to tackle tougher challenges.

There is a modern example of this: do you ever wonder why software has a ton of prompts and opt ins upon installation? Some of this is due to necessity, but it is also an opportunity to capitalize on your motivation. You are motivated to get your new application up and running so you are willing to jump through additional hoops.

We can use this principle to our advantage. You have your MVA, and when you are motivated, simply do more.

Exercise harder, and for longer.

Clean out your pantry and buy more veggies.

Spend more time with friends and family.

Read more books.

When you feel motivated, use the energy as sprinters fuel. These are periods where you can accelerate your gains.

You should not expect your motivation to remain at peak levels. Expect that it will diminish.

However, after making significant progress, you may realize that your new MVA includes more action than before.

Maybe your exercise time is not 20 minutes of weight training and 25 minutes of walking.

Maybe your diet includes protein and plants at every meal.

Maybe your family time includes more dedicated time.

When you feel motivated, do more. When you feel unmotivated, follow your MVA.

But let’s be honest, it feels better to execute actions when you are motivated. And you can build motivation.

Creating motivation

I recently wrote about getting motivated in The Power of Negative Thinking. While you can read more about that via the shared link, I’ll give you a quick rundown on what to do.

1. Imagine the pain

If you feel complacent and unmotivated, it is because you do not feel enough pain. Pain moves us to action. So, think about all the risks of you not taking action. How will your life be worse off because you did not change? How will you feel if you are stuck in the same situation years from now?

Simmer in this pain.

Let yourself feel it. Live it. Steep in it.

Then, flip it.

1. Imagine the positive

How will your life be better by making this change? What are all the ways your life will improve? Think of those outcomes and associated feeling. Allow yourself to feel those emotions. Steep in them as well.

We are motivated by pain and pleasure. Pain is a much stronger motivator. Use your imagination to spurn you to action.

This is the way

Create your MVA for your goals.

Block them on your calendar.

Take more actions depending on your motivation level.

Build motivation by steeping in imagined pain and pleasure.

If you stay consistent, you will be a different human in a short time.

I hope you crush it today.

Thanks for reading!

Clark