>>17123810
do you find yourself going "eh I can skip it this one day, it'll be fine" (or you are sick/something comes up and you just can't do it) and then never get back on track? that's what I do. I used to have health problems that made it hard to keep a schedule consistently, and I think it made my already-poor self-discipline worse.

am trying to fix it now. my current working theory is that everybody has an inner excuse-maker, but people with good self-discipline are used to reining it in. first step is to get good at recognising when it's your inner excuse-maker talking. next step (what I'm working on now) is shutting down the excuse-maker. arguing with it just takes you down a neverending path of self-justification. sometimes you can split the difference and negotiate with the excuse-maker, i.e. doing things on your schedule and then rewarding yourself with whatever it was you'd rather be doing. but ideally you want to shoot for just telling the excuse-maker "ok that's enough, I hear you but we will deal with that later, right now it's time to do X thing on the schedule."

I think the step after that is to just keep practising shutting down the excuse-maker as much as possible. to some extent it will become second nature. however, it does take energy, and if you find yourself having to do it a lot, you will feel mentally drained at the end of the day. I do believe that it is a combination of personality, skill, and energy level. in other words some people are naturally able to do it, others can get good at it with a bit of practice, and other people are just never going to be able to do it without it costing a lot of energy.

you won't know which you are until you actually spend a few years trying to work on the issue. but if you find you are the last category, then maybe you just need simpler, less cluttered schedules and/or more ways of preserving and augmenting what energy you do have.

>>17123810

motivation. most people have all the advice they need to do something, but they come to this board and ask how to get the motivation to do these things.

its ironic cuz if they dont have the motivation to do the task, they wont have the motivation to do something to get that motivation.

there is an inherent spark inside of some people. a flame that was lit that keeps them going. some people never get it. some people get something to light it (like the impending fear of a child / family to take care of) and some people have it or lose it.

its different for everyone. if i had to guess your life is too comfy as it is.

>>17123810
It's called discipline. And discipline consists entirely of doing something because you decided to do it, and you have decided to be the kind of person who does what he decides to do.

That sounds like doubletalk, but it isn't. If you don't have an external goal (e.g. lost 10 pounds, raise my GPA) strong enough, you have to create an internal goal (I don't want to disappoint myself) strong enough.

Human brain is more advanced than a computer except in OP's case bc he'd rather jack off

>>17124835
This is so wrong I wanna punch you in the face. Motivation isn't real. It's a meaningless word. It's a fictitious excuse for not achieving anything.

>>17125153 has it right. It comes down to discipline and you aren't born with it. It's learned, it exercised and strengthened like a muscle. It's training your brain to suffer, to put your body through something that is really stressful in order for long-term achievement. In the words of Nike and Shai Ladouche, 'Just do it'.

Now obviously its not that easy. We put up mental walls, make excuses etc etc. The best way to get into it is start small. build yourself up to tougher regiments and tougher tasks. Once you start being productive the high is addictive. "objects in motion stay in motion" sorta thing.


There's no secret "key" to unlocking discipline. It sucks, I still suck at it, I'm getting better, but if you can master your own brain and tell it what to do and when to do it you will make great strides in your life. You have to want it. You have to be willing to suffer for the benefits