Let us study the progression of motivation, discipline and habits and how to best utilise each of them.
Motivation is that temporary feeling, the fire that you feel when you want to achieve something. It is only reliable at that very moment and might leave you anytime. However it is also the strongest of the feelings. It shows you visions of a better world, whatever you want to achieve. It makes you feel like there's no way you can stop now. Unfortunately, like all feelings, it is not stable. It will leave you, either in 2 days, or in 1 month. If you build something on just motivation, your building will crumble. Motivation is fickle and should only be used as a stepping stone. Use your motivation to define the 'why' 'what' and 'how'. Why you want to do something. What is it that you exactly need to do. And how will you go about doing it. Write it down if you have to. Your brain isn't that good at remembering everything. And always remember the 'why'. Understand that results won't come quick but they will come. You know what to do. The problem of this age is not information; there is an abundance of that. The problem is in being consistent. Giving your 50% everyday for a whole year is better than your 90% for just a week.
Discipline is the enforcement of your mental(logical) wishes onto the real world. It is a skill that is developed by constant practise. There are thousands of excuses for you to not do something. Discipline is what gets it done despite the wide spectrum of reasons not to do it. Discipline is your logical part taking the lead and carrying out its wishes. Discipline is saying no to a lot of things and yes to yourself. You should always keep building discipline. You train it like a muscle, the more your practise, the better it gets. It is closely related with willpower. However, you still cannot depend upon your discipline to keep you going. The logical part of your brain can be overpowered by the dopamine hungry animal part. This is especially true when you're hungry, tired or lacking any of the basic needs of an animal. The more you exercise your willpower in a day, the tired that muscle becomes. And thus, your discipline might break suddenly. The important thing to do after those cheat moments is to forgive yourself and keep trying again instead of giving up and going in a deep spiral. Discipline is something you can use as your foundation. And you should.
Habits are the things we do with the brain on autopilot. Our brain does the things by itself. It needs no thoughts or arguments. The patterns are embedded inside you so perfectly that you don't even think over it. Habits can be built easily. Try to be consistent with an action. It's about the number of times you do something. As the number increases, the brain decided it's easier to set it up on autopilot rather than applying your brain over it again and again. Make a habit out what you need to do. Repeat it long enough and it gets easier. Habits are the key to changing yourself or achieving what you want.
Use motivation, discipline and habits wisely and use them within their scopes.
