In this fast-paced world that we live in, I believe it is as important as ever to be able to self-motivate yourself and to also have the self-discipline to continue that motivation. Motivation is important because it is your “kickoff” to whatever goal or accomplishment you may desire. To self-motivate you have to have that inner want to do it yourself and not to wait around for external sources to do it for you. While self-motivation is important because it begins your goal(s), self-discipline is the ability to persist and keep those efforts towards your goal(s) continuing. It might even be the harder of the two because it is easier to begin waking up at 6:00 in the morning to work out, but then to continue to do that day after day is where the mental fortitude of self-discipline comes into play.
These practices became important to me personally, especially during the pandemic. At the time there was so much isolation, and I was at home by myself pretty much all of the time. I was working from home and the days all started running together. There was a feeling like I was not really accomplishing anything outside of work. To feel better about myself, I decided I would pick something I had to accomplish every single day without fail (unless there was some circumstance outside of my control where I just could not). At the time I was working on my old house, so this gave me a great list of tasks to accomplish. This gave me great fulfillment in feeling like I was accomplishing something every day and really helped with being home alone all of the time.
It all started in building a habit. For me to personally keep at something I need to make it into such a routine that I just do it constantly without even thinking about it. I would routinely keep a written list of things that I needed to accomplish during the week, month, or year. This was my guide and checklist for what I would work off of every day. These could include small things such as doing the laundry or larger tasks such as installing a new kitchen sink. It did not really matter what the task was, just that I worked on something constructive that day. The mental fortitude really kicked in when I had to keep this going every single day because that was the whole key to this exercise for me, I had to accomplish something constructive every single day without fail no matter how big or small. Mentally it felt great to know I was being productive and had the willpower to not let up on a task I set for myself.
It is not easy to self-motivate yourself and to then have the self-motivation to keep it going, but if anyone ever feels like they are in a rut or needs to change things up, I feel they are a great way to practice feeling better about yourself.
