By Leo Babauta:
What do you think: discipline or something else?
It’s one of the most prevalent myths of our culture: self discipline.
The myth is larger than life. Benjamin Franklin had it, with his waking early, his virtues checklist and his daily reflection. The best athletes have it, with the discipline to train harder than anyone else to win the gold. My readers often think that I am more disciplined, after reading My Story and the list of habits and accomplishments I’ve achieved, from exercise to waking early to saving money.
It’s all a myth.
I’m hoping that if you accept that it’s a myth, you’ll be released from the guilt of not being disciplined, you’ll be empowered to create the habits you want without the need of the mythical discipline….
So what is it?
Every single specific action you can take to make yourself do something is motivation. Not discipline.
And that’s why discipline is a myth. It might sound good, but it’s not a useful concept. When it comes to taking specific actions to make yourself do something, the only things you can do are motivation. Not discipline. I’ve challenged people to come up with a discipline action that isn’t motivation for years now, and no one has done it.
I think he’s on to something with the motivation. Recently, I’ve begun doing things (sometimes mundane things) because I’m able to tell myself that it’s what I need to feel better. So, I don’t tell myself, “Pat you know you should such and such.” Now, it’s more like “Pat, you need to do such and such–you’ll feel better” — and I do.
Comment by Pat Pope — May 25, 2011 @ 11:50 am
A rose by any other name …
I think he’s playing a semantic game here. Self-discipline is motivation. Motivation is self-discipline.
However, I do agree about the guilt angle. Not a big fan of guilt and I don’t think it’s an efficient motivator.
Comment by Daniel — May 25, 2011 @ 11:57 am
I do wonder whether all we’ll learn from this that ‘discipline’ has a range of meanings. What might he make of ‘church discipline’? I’m guessing too that there are cultural factor in whether motivation equals self-discipline. In other words I find the average Brit more pessimistic that the average American. I think a lot of our discipline has a lot of gritted teeth about it and not much motivation.
Comment by Phil Wood — May 25, 2011 @ 12:45 pm
I think there might be something to this idea, although there is a patience/self-control/discipline aspect to sustaining motivation. There are many, many things that might be motivating to someone, and it does take some kind of effort (call this what you like) to sustain motivational attention on a single goal, and to push through obstacles. Perhaps we could say that discipline is the handmaiden of motivation?
Comment by Tom F. — May 25, 2011 @ 1:03 pm
I think self-discipline might be a myth, but that communal discipline can work. I’ve participated (and continue to participate) in a community that shares a communal rule of life. It isn’t anything that any of us keep 100% perfectly, but something that most of us wouldn’t keep much at all, individually. We are motivated enough to come together as a group and then invite one another to spur one another on in those (many) moments when we aren’t feeling personally motivated.
Comment by Kester — May 25, 2011 @ 1:05 pm
Follow up. My concern about stating that discipline is a myth and only motivation works is how easily I can see it becoming “you’re only going to do what you feel like doing, and that’s fine.” And that’s how we come up with lowest common denominator church.
Comment by Kester — May 25, 2011 @ 1:06 pm
This reminds me of a recent conversation I had in which a friend quipped, “Grace and forgiveness are wonderful motivators, except for 99% of the time.”
Guilt’s a pretty good one, even if it’s inefficient and ultimately bereft of any longevity (giving up is the primary end result of guilt).
If not guilt, and grace doesn’t seem to really work either, what’s left? Love? Self-love? Ah, now we’re on to something . . .
Comment by Chris Donato — May 25, 2011 @ 1:31 pm
I think it’s a semantic thing.
Some definitions:
dis·ci·pline/ˈdisəplin/
Verb: Train (someone) to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.
Noun: The practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.
mo·ti·va·tion/ˌmōtəˈvāSHən/Noun
1. The reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way.
2. The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.
self-dis·ci·pline
Noun: The ability to control one’s feelings and overcome one’s weaknesses; the ability to pursue what one thinks is right despite temptations to abandon it.
Comment by Adam — May 25, 2011 @ 1:48 pm
provokes me to recall the words of John Wesley, “There is no holiness but social holiness”. Self- discipline can’t be achieved without a community. That’s been my experience, and a major aspect of the gift of the Church through Jesus Christ. Peace
Comment by josh — May 25, 2011 @ 1:52 pm
I’m a fan of the model Willard puts forth. Change/formation requires vision, intention, and means.
Comment by Richard — May 25, 2011 @ 2:48 pm
This is interesting. I used to be a competitive olympic-style weightlifter. Made it all the way to the Masters World Championships (silver medal). People would say to me, “Wow, you must really be disciplined.” No, not really. I knew I was basically a lazy person and if left to myself, I waste a lot of time. Which is what I am doing right now.
I trained because I hated losing and because I loved winning. Would he characterize those as motivations, and were they noble motivations? I don’t know. I do know that mixed in with those was a need for recognition, guilt about how much time I spent at the gym, wondering if I could be better spending my time in other pursuits, and on and on. Life never seems to be cut and dried. Most W/L gyms have lots of mirrors on the wall. Unfortunately we see into them dimly.
Comment by Fred — May 25, 2011 @ 2:49 pm
Doesn’t placing all habitual action at the feel of motivation ignore the fact that much of what we do is not consciouss? For those of us who have served in the military, we have experienced the sub-conciouss automation of our actions via constant repetition under pressure. After a while of repetitive practice (discipline) an activity is wired into the brain.
Comment by phil_style — May 25, 2011 @ 4:32 pm
I agree with Adam #8. The author seems to be pitting the word “discipline” against “motivation” which is related to it. Here’s a quote from the original article:
BOQ
Friend: You push yourself to do it anyway.
Me: But that takes discipline that I don’t have.
EOQ
This sounds to me like pitting the word against its own definition. To me this sounds unrealistic. Some people find it harder than others to self-motivate (and sometimes it depends on the action/goal in mind, like math homework vs. writing a research paper). Focusing on the idea of motivation or habits instead of “discipline” will not necessarily make life easier for these folks.
I also think some people will always have an easier time working individually, and others will always struggle and need more outside help.
Comment by Josh T. — May 25, 2011 @ 4:41 pm
Another approach. Child discipline is a myth. No one disciplines their child to do good. They “motivate” their child to not do bad.
Comment by Adam — May 25, 2011 @ 6:17 pm
This is truly a matter of semantics. What someone calls motivation I call discipline. Word games is all. “Discipline” or “self-control” are biblical concepts and words. “Discipline is a myth”? “There’s no such thing as discipline”?
Really? Don’t words have meanings? Is the author suggesting the word and the concept do not exist? Isn’t this like saying something is “unthinkable”? (Evidently, somebody thought of it!)
My father used to smoke cigarettes for 20 or 30 years. One day he flushed 4 cartons down the toilet and never picked up a cigarette again (well after 6 months he tried one just to see how he had been doing–he choked on it and said “that’s enough of that”).
I asked him how he was able to do it. His response: “There are two ways–’will power’ and ‘want power’. Will power is when you try to muster enough energy to quit, but you don’t really want to. That’s very difficult. But ‘want power’? I quit smoking 6 months before I flushed the cartons. I started wanting to quit–to the point that I could taste it. When I flushed the cigarettes it was easy.”
Was this discipline? Of course it was. Was it motivation? Yes, again.
Guilt isn’t very helpful, though. I agree with that. Let’s just not overstate the case!
Comment by K. Reux — May 25, 2011 @ 9:59 pm
Oh, and by the way, I’ve often viewed myself over the years as undisciplined and lazy. Yet I used to run five miles a day (now I walk 2 miles daily, do exercises in the morning, etc.). I thought I was lazy at work, too. But then I had a supervisor tell me, “Are you kidding? You make me look lazy!”
(Honestly though, I still think I have a strong lazy streak in me and I am not as disciplined as I could be). Much of this is self concept. But I think in some areas I am very disciplined but in other areas I am not. And I’m ok with saying, too that in some areas I am motivated and in other areas I am not. But in some areas I am motivated to be disciplined.
I do appreciate what Mr. Babauta is trying to do here: but I respectfully disagree with him.
Comment by K. Reux — May 25, 2011 @ 10:06 pm
Myth or not, as I understand it, self-control and discipline are one of the fruits of the Spirit.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
But, here are a few additional passages I found relating to discipline and self-control.
A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls. (Proverbs 25:28)
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. (2 Timothy 1:7)
But hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. (Titus 1:8)
Comment by Watchman — May 26, 2011 @ 2:09 am
I like it.
In the theological realm, some folks say that imperatives – indicative = impossibilities. Another version is to encourage people to “be who you are” rather than stirring them up to moralism. The ring of grace vs. law.
Many people tend to react more by instinct than by intentional motivation. There can be a vague restless sense of guilt or fear that you aren’t living up to what you should be, but what should you be? And you can’t be everything. So, charter an intentional course where you are choosing that the destination is this, not that.
Comment by MatthewS — May 26, 2011 @ 8:12 am
what if I don’t feel motivated?
Comment by Kevin Chez — May 27, 2011 @ 8:12 am