You build discipline so as not to rely on motivation, as motivation is unreliable.

Like, if you rely on motivation, depression will win. It’ll get ya. Sneak attack, pin you when you’re down. Or just heavy life events like losing a loved one, or a job. When shit hits hard, there is no motivation. None. Zero. Things can happen in life where purpose feels completely gone. You cannot rely on motivation, because if you end up here and motivation was your only path forward, you’re toast! Well not really, but the uphill battle is even steeper.

What are you trying to to be motivated to do? Play music? Every day, 30 minutes, no excuses.

Get into hiking shape? 1 small hike every weekend. Rain or shine.

Build the discipline. Form the habit. The motivation will come and go. Habits get broken. Discipline stays.

Quite honestly the biggest game changer for me was understanding that you don’t have to feel like doing something in order to do it.

Force yourself to do it for five minutes, and 99% of the time you get in the groove and realise “Oh, this actually isn’t so bad” and before you know it, you’re done.

Every day I exercise (walking) and every single time it goes like this:

1. Don’t wanna do it
2. Start doing it anyway
3. It’s done
4. Feel good that I did it

I have this mantra that I say to myself. I think it’s from Tibetan monks, but I heard it on an NPR interview.

"May we be victorious over our fears.

May we be happy without hope.

May we be of benefit to all."

The fear here is my fear of doing the thing. The lack of hope is what I feel because I will not just fucking do the thing. The benefit to all is what happens when I actually do the thing.

I know it sounds super depressing, but it helps me… sometimes.

you dont. you force yourself to do just 15 minutes of solid effort. chances are you’ll just keep going. the first step is the hardest. cookies dont work for me because like, I can just go get the cookie now if you get what I mean here

I don’t have the motivation to do the whole thing.

That being said, I only need the motivation to start the task. Once started, I don’t need motivation to continue doing the on-going task.

Soo, you may not need as much motivation as you think you need. Just push yourself to start one small bit of the task , and voila , before you know it, the task is over.

I get really fuckin high and then become numb until I’m in the groove.

I feel like I should specify weed.

I just think about how much worse I would feel later with this damn thing hanging over me. Alternately, I think back to how good I felt last time I actually got something done.

Motivation is a fleeting thing. Adulthood and success are built upon discipline, not motivation. We do what must be done, regardless of our feelings about it. Do what must be done, then enjoy your time spent doing better things once what is necessary is complete. Live by the words of Logan Nine Fingers from The Blade Itself:

It is better to do a thing than to live with the fear of it.

I don’t think, I just do.

I usually keep an end goal in sight; for example, I sometimes dread going to the gym, but I always remember that my goal is to stay fit, have a healthy body and exercising is an important part of that. By sticking to my goal, I maintain my discipline and go to the gym 3 times per week.

Another example is school homework; in my case, my math homework is something I don’t enjoy, but I remind myself that I need the math certificate in order to enroll for a Computer Science degree at an university. Therefore, I keep pushing myself to study math and get good grades (which so far has worked pretty well)

I don’t wait for motivation. I just tell myself, “You don’t have to want it, you just have to do it,” and then I do it. Usually.

Once I’m already doing something I tend to keep doing it, so it’s the transition that’s hardest. I find that if I start a task when I’m already transitioning from another activity, it’s a lot easier than getting up off the couch or putting down my phone.

It sucks, but you can’t really expect it not to suck.

Another insight that I adopted years ago was to do unpleasant tasks when I’m already unhappy. If I’m gonna be miserable anyway, might as well get something out of it, right?

I often just fail until it gets embarrassingly or super inconveniently bad. My only strategy that was ever even a little helpful was breaking the task into tiny micro 5 minute tasks and writing them all down, and doing a few of those at a time. I had adhd though, and am hoping medication will help with that (so far it has a bit).

For me, it’s mostly retreat, regroup and get back. I accepted that it is okay not to be motivated the whole time. I take a break from everything and curl up in my room. When I feel better, I try to figure out what needs to be done first. And then I go back out.

That’s to be said that constant loss of motivation, could be a sign of Depression or other mental and/or physical Illnesses. If this continues, you should talk to your Doctor about this.

I take my meds and if i still cant do it i try again tomorrow

Panic and dread of deadlines gets you flying faster than red bull ever could, so why not mix the two for pure adrenaline wings.