There’s a lot of problems with simple motivation:

Motivation is fleeting

Motivation comes and goes however it wants. It might not last to the end of the week, end of the day, or even the end of blog post you just read. It’s fleeting.

Motivation is situational

Motivation is based on your current situation. How do you feel? If you don’t feel like doing it, then you’re off the hook. You don’t have to do it – because you don’t feel like it!

But then you don’t do it and you just feel worse and more stuck than ever.

Motivation is everywhere.

Everywhere you go, you see people trying to get motivated to do something, to make a change. They’ll go read something, watch something or attend a conference and come away “motivated.” But that only leaves them “motivated”, it doesn’t move them to action.

“I’m motivated to do this”. “I’m motivated to do that”. Stop being motivated and just do it already! You don’t need more motivation – you need discipline.

See discipline is a whole different animal.

Discipline is Consistent

The consistency of discipline is what makes it discipline. You go out and do it, day after day.

Discipline Is Habitual

Discipline doesn’t just “happen.” It’s intentional and it’s repeated. Every. Single. Day.

Discipline Is Rare

Discipline doesn’t sound like fun, but it’s how you see results.

Motivation is the start, but if it’s not solidified into a discipline, it usually fades away into regret pretty quickly once you realize you never acted on it.

How To Be More Disciplined

Get Rid Of Your Excuses

Your excuses suck. Every single one. Get rid of them.

Create Routines

Don’t leave it to chance. When you discipline yourself, it’s like programming as a robot. There’s no more emotion involved. It’s simply “if this…then that.”

That’s why a plan of attack is so crucial. You don’t have to decide what you want to do every single day when you wake up. You don’t have 100 different decisions points. You decide once to follow the plan and then wake up every morning and reference said plan.

You’ve already decided you’re going to do it. You don’t have to decide anymore, you just have to do it..

Decide if it’s Worth It

Of course, making that initial decision will be tough.

Ask yourself, how bad do you want it? You will have to sacrifice something at some point. If you want it bad enough, it’ll be worth it. If you decide that it is worth it, then…

Invest In It

Literally. Money has a way of routing your priorities. Want to look at where you spend most of your time? Look to where you’re spending most of your money. There’s probably a correlation.

Get yourself personally invested in whatever you want to do. Make NOT achieving what you want painful.

When I was beginning my six pack challenge, I told Vic I’d give $500 to the absolute worst person I could imagine – my arch-nemesis.

Sure enough, I woke up every morning thinking about how pissed I’d be if I had to give Steve $500.

After the first two weeks, I had enough momentum that I didn’t even need that as motivation anymore, but the first few weeks you can be sure that that investment was enough to make sure I made my disciplines a priority.

Invest in your goal. Make a bet, hire a trainer, but invest it in a way that actually means something to you and will help route your priorities in the way you want to.

Keep Going

When you really, really, really want to give up, don’t stop. Keep going. Discipline doesn’t depend on your feelings. It happens whether or not you “feel” like it.

When you think you are done, you’re only 40% of what your body is capable of doing. That’s just the limit that we put on ourselves. – David Goggins

Keep going.

Get A Lobotomy

Remove your brain from your equation. Your mind sucks. It will tell you all of the things you’re not capable of doing because it wants to protect itself. It wants to play it safe. It wants to be comfortable.

Meanwhile, your body will sit there and not say anything to the contrary even though it knows it can run triathlons, marathons, climb mountains, and get a six pack if you just give it the chance.

Do a manual override. Tell your brain to shut up and just go do it anyways. Turn your brain off.

When you brain tells you it’s impossible, tell your brain,

That’s nice, I’m going to do it anyways.

Yes, this might mean that you’ll end up getting into arguments with yourself. Do it anyways.

Get Your Shoes On, Get Out The Door

If nothing else, put your shoes on, get out the door.

Your room/house/cubicle/wherever is the ultimate bastion of safety. If you stay there, you’ll never want to leave.

Just get started. Figure everything else out on the way. Getting out the door is half the battle.

—-

You don’t need more inspiration. You don’t need more motivation. You need more discipline and you need to start now.

—-

If you want to kill your excuses, and get disciplined while finally getting in shape, Impossible Abs can help.

photo credit: crypto