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Hope Watson

Motivation is not the key to success - and here’s why.

With it being the beginning of 2022, many of us are trying to stay motivated. We don’t want to fall off track with our new year goals and resolutions, so we focus all of our energy on trying to stay motivated.


What if I told you that motivation is not the key to success?


If this is the case, why do we focus our attention on getting and staying motivated? Well, it’s easier that way. When we get these bursts of motivation, we zone in on our task and tend to achieve great things.


But, motivation is fleeting, and we can’t rely on it alone to achieve success.


Over the course of both my professional and academic careers, I’ve needed to transition my attention off of motivation and onto discipline.


Discipline is what will help you achieve success when motivation isn’t present.

Let’s talk a bit more about why your should prioritize discipline. Here are three key points on why discipline is your greatest power.


1. Discipline is what keeps you moving forward, even when you don’t want to.

We all wake up on days where we just don’t feel like going to the gym. We don’t feel like working on our projects. We wake up with a lack of motivation - it happens to everyone.


But our goals remain the same, so how do we make ourselves go to the gym? How do we make ourselves sit down and get to work?


We do so by being disciplined enough to recognize the benefits of working towards our goals.


2. Discipline will reignite your motivation.

Let’s say you’ve been really motivated to work in the gym for the past few weeks, but one day you just wake up and don’t want to go. Discipline makes you get up, get dressed, and go workout.


After your workout, chances are you’ll be feeling the benefits of exercise.


This will spark your motivation all over again! The fact that you feel better after you complete your workout proves that you just need to get past the feeling of “not wanting to”. Discipline will help you do that.


3. Discipline will push you to achieve even bigger things.

As human beings, we operate on bias. If we feel we are capable of achieving something one time, we will feel more confident when we go to achieve it a second time.


When you create routines based on discipline, you’ll begin to rewire your brain into being more confident and secure in your abilities.


This week, I challenge you to learn more about discipline and try to apply it to your own life.


It’s amazing what happens when you stop relying on motivation alone for your success. I will be uploading a new podcast on this topic over on Onwards & Upwards this Friday. It's available wherever you get your podcasts (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, etc.)


I hope everyone has a great week, and I’ll talk to you all next time! 🙂

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