I recently read this beautiful article by Katie Jack on Quora which answers this question int he best possible way. I am, therefore, pasting it here for all the readers.

I’m going to tell you a little secret that a lot of people don’t like to hear.

Are you ready?

Motivation is bullshit.

That’s right. You heard me. In terms of reaching goals, getting through bad days, and completing tasks that you might not necessarily want to do, motivation is bullshit.

Let me break it down. There are typically two key steps to achieving a goal:

1. Motivate yourself.
2. Cultivate discipline.

What’s the difference between the two?

Motivation generally operates on the belief that you need to be in a particular mental or emotional state in order to complete a task.

Discipline operates on the belief that inner mental states and emotions should be separated from outward functioning.

For example, when given the choice between eating broccoli or eating cake, operating purely on motivation would mean that you wait until you like broccoli more than you like cake before you start eating the broccoli, because cake tastes better.

You wait until you actually want to do the not-so-fun task to do it.

Discipline, however, would mean that you eat the broccoli even if you’d rather eat the cake because broccoli is better for you.

You do the not-so-fun task even if you don’t want to do it.

The reality is that most of us would much rather eat the cake than the broccoli, but if we wait until we feel like eating the broccoli to actually eat it, we’re all going to have pretty bad health.

Another example is how some people put off going to the gym for years because they just “don’t feel like it.” But you don’t wait until you’re in the physical shape of an Olympic athlete to start training, do you? It doesn’t work like that. You train to get into the physical shape of an Olympic athlete.

If you’re always waiting to be motivated or inspired in order to get started on a task, you’re essentially fucking yourself over and falling for the fantasy that we should always do what we feel like doing.

Life doesn’t work that way.

Although motivation is often an essential step when setting a goal (you get inspired to get fit when you see a picture of a model or get inspired to get an A on a test when your friend gets a better grade than you), motivation is not going to get you where you want to be.

Think about the last time you got motivated to do something. How long was it until your motivation ran out and you gave up? A week? A day? An hour?

Motivation comes in short bursts and typically only lasts for an hour or two at most. Motivation is fickle and driven purely by emotion. Motivation causes you to act on impulse and make inconsistent decisions. Motivation is different every day. Motivation is not going to get you through the tough times when you want to give up. Motivation is not going to help you through the bad days when quitting feels like the only option. Motivation has a tiny shelf life and constantly needs to be replaced and refreshed. Motivation won’t enable you to achieve your goals, and will never be useful in the long run.

Contrary to the popular believe in current society, motivation is not the answer.

Discipline is what you need.

Motivation is what gets you started, but cultivating self discipline is what keeps you going. Motivation is not going to help you achieve your goals in the long haul, not matter how much of it you had when you started. Whether it’s running a marathon or earning a degree or eating your broccoli, you are not always going to feel like finishing something you set out to do, no matter how much motivation you had when you began. Motivation is what gets inspires you to get moving. cultivating self discipline is how you maintain your momentum. Discipline is the only thing that will remove impulse and emotion from your decision-making process and help you sustain your momentum over time.

The point of discipline is to cut the link between feelings and actions.

You’re not always going to be motivated to do things that suck. And the reality of the life is that you’re often going to have to do a lot of things that suck whether you’re motivated to or not, simply because they need to be done. You’re not always going to be inspired to eat the broccoli or make the PowerPoint or run the marathon. But these things need to get done.

The point of discipline is that you get shit done that you may really not want to do, and then you get to feel good afterwards. Not the other way around. You eat the broccoli, make the PowerPoint, and run the marathon, all things which can generally not be so fun while you’re doing them, and then you get to feel good after you’re done with the task or after you’ve reached your goal.

Consider this analogy:

You want to drive somewhere in your car.

Turning the key to start the ignition is motivation.

The fuel in the car is self-discipline.

Yes, putting the key in the car to start the ignition is important to get going, but you have to have fuel if you want your car to be able to withstand the highs and lows of the land in order to reach your destination.

Now apply this analogy to real life. You look at a picture of a model and say to yourself, “I want to get fit.” There’s your motivation. The key has been turned and the ignition has been started. In order to achieve this goal, however, you’re going to have eat healthy and work out every day, whether you have the motivation to or not. This is your discipline. This is your fuel. You set a goal and you plan how you are going to achieve it. And then you stick to that plan on the days that you are motivated to do so, and also on the days you are not. Discipline is commitment.

Here are some harsh truths:

You are not always going to be inspired.

You are not always going to have the motivation to get stuff done.

You are going to have bad days.

You are going to have low points.

You are going to want to quit.

But if you have discipline, you will get through all of these things. You willsurvive the lows, the twists and turns, the forks in the road, and the days when your really just want to do nothing but give up.

For consistent, long term results, discipline will always trump motivation. Discipline is the only thing that is going to give you the commitment, consistency, and patience that you need to achieve your goals. And the funny thing is, once you cultivate self discipline, it will start to become a way of life. You will want to cultivate more of it. And, although it sounds strange, you will begin to derive a bit of inspiration and motivation from your own self discipline.

So quit trying to get inspired all of the time. It’s a bullshit approach and a waste of energy. It’s a counterproductive approach to productivity. Instead, prioritize. Set goals. Focus. Don’t deviate. Don’t get distracted. Persist. Success is not ultimate. It’s a continuous process. Screw doing things when you’re motivated to do them.

Because if you wait until you actually feel like doing something to do it, you’ll be waiting for forever.

If you like the stuff, check out the original link where this article was posted:

https://www.quora.com/How-do-you-motivate-yourself-to-exercise-every-day

Here is the link to the author’s profile: https://www.quora.com/profile/Katie-Jack-4