Motivation or Independent Discipline
The theme of the week, at least in my household, has been MOTIVATION. Recently my 14-year-old son, Noah, explained the number of assignments that he had ahead of him. I asked, what is the problem, and he replied, “I’m just not motivated”. That’s a phrase I know all too well, and I felt inclined to help my young man navigate through the seas of uninterested and indifference.
Unfortunately, what Noah is experiencing isn’t uncommon and is a challenge we all encounter. When we find ourselves in this rut, it’s easy to look for the easy button to get yourself back in the zone. Some common hacks that I like to use when looking for motivation are adding an extra shot in my coffee (I love coffee), listening to one of my favorite podcasts (The Llama Lounge of course), or one that always gets me, is reflecting on how many people are counting on me. There is no doubt, these are all great options to receive a boost in motivation. However, the problem with these options is that they all require an external source of energy; and believe it or not—sometimes there's just not enough coffee in the world to get you inspired, especially about a project that you don’t care about.
As I began to prep my motivational speech for Noah, I started recalling some of the philosophies on motivation that I’ve seen or heard:
Jocko Willink- So motivation is good for about 15 minutes, but what you actually need is to have discipline
John C. Maxwell- Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing
Kobe Bryant- The most important thing is to try to inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do
Connor McGregor- When you’re ready to quit remember why you started
Admittedly, before I started writing this article, my initial thought was that of Jocko’s sentiment. That the most effective way to accomplish our goals was through discipline and not necessarily motivation. Motivation, much like a caffeine buzz, fades away, whereas discipline is a sustainable focus that is independent of others encouraging you to go on.
Ready to “debrief” my son on a topic that I thought that I had figured out, I began to second guess the concept of independent discipline. I had more questions. Okay I get it, discipline is good, but how do I get good at being disciplined? Furthermore, what is discipline if I don’t have an inspiration? In other words, why practice climbing for the Mt. Kilimanjaro or in Noah’s case, why put long hours into studying and to do well in school?
Then, it hit me, Noah needs a reason to be motivated, and then he can strive to be disciplined. Understanding our reason why, can be a tremendous source of energy. It can make difficult tasks seem easy; it can drive us into a flow state and literally make time disappear. And although our motivations can be independent, from my experience most times they’re not. Our motivations stem from faith, family, mentors & a myriad of other resources. It’s a great reminder that we’re not in this alone and while we can accomplish many tasks by ourselves, the discipline it takes to achieve greatness is only attainable through the support of others. Don’t believe me, ask any champion. Who is Mike Tyson without his coach, Barrack without Michelle, or Tango without Cash?
A few days later and with my thoughts collected, I was ready to deliver my motivational TED talk to Noah. “How are those assignments coming along” I asked. He replied, “oh I finished them already”. “Great, what gave you the motivation to complete your work?” Noah with a smirk on his face, “I just didn’t want to get grounded” and he nonchalantly skipped outside to go play with his friends. Moral of the story—we all have our reasons!
