Cultivate Consistency

Stephen Covey, the author of the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, often said, “Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.”

• Relying on motivation to accomplish your work makes you dependent on your emotional state. You need to “feel like it” in order to accomplish tasks. Ultimately this means you are relying on external factors to direct your life.
• Relying on discipline to accomplish your work makes you independent of your emotional state. By creating a routine environment – by creating a system in which you force yourself to be productive – accomplishing tasks becomes much easier. Ultimately this means this means you rely on yourself to direct your life.

Motivation is temporary, but discipline is consistent.

If you have work to be done, goals to accomplish, tasks to complete, then don’t wait for motivation to get started. Instead cultivate the self-discipline to finish what you have started, regardless of how you feel.

Read original article


Tags: