The Power of Discipline Over Motivation: Building Lasting Habits

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Have you ever f

ound yourself in a situation where you really wanted to make a positive life change? You got off to a good start and then it was gone. And you wondered, what happened? I had this great idea. I really wanted to improve.

Most likely, you fell into the trap of thinking that discipline is greater than motivation. Motivation is something that we like to believe we can count on. We want to be motivated and charged up, and we are motivated in the early stages of a positive change. But as you've learned, motivation goes up and motivation goes down. And what happens when we lose motivation? Often, we lose the habit that we are beginning to establish.

Discipline is the way to ensure that doesn't happen. But how do you get discipline? There are people who will tell you that 21 days of doing something and you've established a habit. It's nice. It may be science. It's not realistic. Discipline is making a decision that you are doing this today, tomorrow, the day after, and so forth. It is building it into your schedule and making it something that has to be dealt with on a daily routine basis.

It may take many months. It may take years to get to a point where the discipline does not go away. But if you approach it from the mindset that you need to be motivated to do something, I guarantee you long-term, it will not get done. So begin to build those habits that become disciplined in the areas in which you would like to improve.