Habits are built on the days where you just don’t wanna. When work was overwhelming and people were just a little extra annoying and you probably should’ve had a few more snacks and a little more water. When you get home and you’re exhausted and the last thing you wanna do is do that one stupid thing. That thing that isn’t a natural part of your routine yet, but you’re trying to get it there. It’s the thing you want to do, but today, there is nothing, nothing, you want to do less.
The difference of the energy to get that habit down coming from motivation vs discipline is the action taken on those days, the days where you beg any deity who will listen to pleassssssssssse don’t make me do it. Energy is easy to find on motivating days, it practically seeps out of you. But on these types of days, you have to drag yourself along, you must work for every inch of purchase.
Motivation is lovely, heady. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. But you can’t count on it. It ebbs and flows, at the whim of too many other variables. Discipline is built—painstaking day by painstaking day. Doing the thing whether you feel like it or not, because you know at one point you wanted it, and you still want it, you just don’t want it today. It is trust you build with yourself, a promise you make to show up for yourself.
A perfect world has a mix of motivation and discipline. A want, a drive, a need, one that makes doing easy. But a steady beat of hard work and follow-through to fall back on when the motivation fades or takes a time out.
Today was building discipline. It was about showing up and offering what I could. Honoring the promises I made to myself, laying the groundwork for a future I want. Keeping the momentum up so when motivation is back, I can soar.
Leave a Reply