Understanding Self-Motivation and Self-Discipline for Enhanced Success

Self-motivation is the inner drive to achieve a goal without relying on external factors.  Self-discipline is what makes things happen.  Self-motivation is easier to come by than self-discipline. You may know this already if you didn’t stick to your New Year’s resolution.

Self-motivation is basically wanting to change or do something to achieve a specific goal. This is usually because of one’s own interest or enthusiasm without pressure from someone else.

Self-discipline is the ability to push forward with actions to achieve a goal. This discipline includes consistently resisting distractions, frequently delaying gratification, and adhering to routines or plans, even in the face of challenges. Building the actions into a daily routine pulls you along with less reliance on willpower to act.

Steps to improve self-discipline: 

• Decide on and visualize a goal
• Divide the goal into small tasks
• Divide the small tasks into even smaller tasks
• Fit the tasks into time slots of an existing daily routine 
• Reward your successes, big and small

Reference: For more detailed ways to work on self-discipline see Self-Discipline

5/9/2024