Don’t find motivation — build discipline
5 tips for getting your shit together
We all have an idea, growing up, that someday we’ll hit adulthood and conduct ourselves with discipline, as though it were second nature. We look up to our parents, or other mentor figures, and assume that by the time we reach their age, keeping a regimented and motivated life will be a given. Now that I’m past college undergrad, though, I see that couldn’t be further from reality. I found myself unhappy with the prospects I’d set myself up for by attending business school. These days, I don’t have a steady job; I’m trying to study hard for a career change into a more technical profession.
We are creatures of habit. Discipline does not only mean keeping to schedules and good habits, but forming those habits in the first place. At least for me, it took many tries before I was keeping my journal or working out at the gym semi-daily. I knew for years that these were elements I wanted to imbue into my weekly schedule, but that desire did not materialize. That’s because bad habits carried over from my childhood, AKA my entire life until now, and they have proven difficult to break.
Habits like browsing my phone before getting out of bed, taking obscenely long afternoon naps, or snacking on junk food before bed formed easily. These habits feed into creature comforts. Without outside forces forcing me to work hard all day, I’m tempted to put in the lowest amount of effort possible. At the same time, though, spending too many consecutive days coasting by results in a feeling of frustration — that I ought to be doing more. I want to be productive, I want to create, and I want to continuously feel my life moving in an upward direction. The end of school left a void. Filling that void requires determination. I have to set myself daily, weekly, and long-term goals, and then feel like I’m achieving those goals step-by-step. But, unlike school, that path doesn’t directly present itself. I can’t just move from quarter to quarter, getting satisfactory grades along the way, and see myself moving up. Everything I get out, from this point on, is decided by how much effort I put in. Here are the five principal ways I remove obstacles in the way of personal progress.
1. Wake up at a reasonable hour and stay awake. Keep a healthy, adult sleep schedule. My least productive days are when I wake up at noon, lethargically snoop around for a couple hours, and don’t even feel capable of high brain function until the sun starts to set. Doing this once or twice a week is acceptable, that’s what Sundays were made for, but don’t let it ruin a sleep schedule. I’ve found that my weekday afternoon sleepiness usually isn’t earned, and if I power through it, I’ll be fine. In my case, waking up at 9AM is the minimum goal. I’ve always been a night owl, so going to sleep late and subsequently waking up late is a tough habit to break. It feels good to reach the mid-afternoon and already feel like I’ve made significant progress.
2. If you feel an unrelenting itch of unease with your routine, make a change. I know that for many, this might mean the job they rely on just for money. In that case, build your life toward an eventual escape from that. In my case, I took a step back and looked at what I enjoy doing after college. It gradually dawned on me that a business focus wasn’t what would really keep me driven. I’d sporadically practiced coding during my time in college, and as I started to pick that back up, the fire began to burn brighter, and I saw an enticing professional future once again.
3. Getting started is the hardest part, so learn to destroy your excuses. I had a big problem of making excuses as to why I’d delay some personal project, or wouldn’t have enough time to go to the gym. Falling into that cycle enough times, I realized that every single reason I had for delay was bullshit. There’s a war in my mind at these junctures, between what sates me in the short term and what will fulfill me in the long term. Acting in the present for payoff in the indeterminate future can be deceptively, excruciatingly difficult. I have had to retrain my mind to move from one task to another without faltering or getting distracted by the easy fallbacks of life. I’m nowhere near done on this, but I’ve gotten better. At the end of the day, if I was productive to my standards, I feel content.
4. Specifically build a structure around meals/diet. I’m fortunate to have an easy time managing my weight, but I have the opposite issue, feeling fatigued and weak when I’ve neglected to eat meals at the proper time. Going out to eat or ordering delivery can pacify this issue, but that bleeds money. Ideally, I set up a weekly meal schedule, all self-cooking, and then only break it to grab meals with friends and acquaintances. Once again, it’s a difficult objective to begin, but getting into that rhythm will payoff for the rest of my life.
5. Time is the worst excuse of all, so ignore it. It’s not “too late” in the day/week/your life to try your hand at something new, or to push yourself further in some way. I’ve had times where I put off a task until later in the day, only to run out of time and never do it. If you can do something now, and it’s worth it, just do it now. Don’t wait until you “feel like it” or have a perfectly scheduled time set aside. Moreover, don’t let the time on the clock dictate what you can still do today. Slept in way too late? There’s still time to get a whole lot done. Just ignore the clock, get to work, and produce as much as you can in the time remaining. The scope of this statement can be expanded: even if you’ve finished school and found yourself in a rut for years, it’s never too late to learn more and pivot on your path.
Whenever I take a step back and look at how fortunate I am, it’s all the more frustrating why I can’t seem to find some sort of inner peace and contentment. But it’s also a good thing, because it means I won’t settle for the minimum: minimum job, minimum effort in my relationships, or minimum in the never-ending quest for self-improvement. I came from loving, supportive parents, and I should not take that for granted. They expect the most out of me, and in turn, so do I. I’ve had it easy, so I have no excuse when others achieve more, push harder, reach higher.
Discipline comes easier to some than others. In my case, it’s been an arduous road, but at least now I recognize how much I need this discipline for personal growth. These items I mentioned are what work for me, and what help me most. It may not apply to everyone, but it felt nice to get off my chest and into words.
Cheers. Keep on improving. Make this week better than the last, and set the foundation for 2018 to be a year of intense personal growth. I know I will. This is the last time I want to look back on a year with regret and wonder how I could have made it turn out the way I wanted. Discipline yourself now, build up the schedule for your better life, and time will forge you into the person you dream about today.
