If you want to get anything done, there are two basic ways to get yourself to do it.

The first, more popular and devastatingly wrong

option is to try to motivate yourself. The second, somewhat unpopular and entirely correct choice is to cultivate discipline. This is one of these

situations where adopting a different perspective immediately results in superior outcomes. Few uses of the term paradigm shift are actually

legitimate, but this one is. Its a lightbulb moment.

Whats the difference? Motivation, broadly speaking, operates on the erroneous assumption that a particular mental or emotional state

is necessary to complete a task. Thats completely the wrong way around. Discipline, by contrast, separates outwards functioning from moods

and feelings and thereby ironically circumvents the problem by consistently improving them.

The implications are huge. Successful completion of tasks brings about the inner states that chronic procrastinators think they need to

initiate tasks in the first place. Put in simpler form, you dont wait until youre in olympic form to start training. You train to get into olympic form.

If action is conditional on feelings, waiting for the right mood becomes a particularly insidious form of procrastination. I know that too

well, and wish somebody pointed it out for me twenty, fifteen or ten years ago before I learned the difference the hard way. If you wait until you

feel like doing stuff, youre screwed. Thats precisely how the dreaded procrastinatory loops come about.

At its core, chasing motivation is insistence on the infantile fantasy that we should only be doing things we feel like doing. The problem

is then framed thus: How do I get myself to feel like doing what I have rationally decided to do?. Bad. The proper question is How do I make

my feelings inconsequential and do the things I consciously want to do without whining? The point is to cut the link between feelings and

actions, and do it anyway. You get to feel good and buzzed and energetic and eager afterwards.

Motivation has is the wrong way around. I am utterly 100% convinced that this faulty frame is the main driver of the sitting about in

underwear playing Xbox, and with yourself epidemic currently sweeping developed countries. There are psychological problems with relying on

motivation as well. Because real life in the real world occasionally requires people do things that nobody in their right mind can be massively

enthusiastic about, motivation runs into the insurmountable obstacle of trying to elicit enthusiasm for things that objectively do not merit it. The

only solution besides slackery, then, is to put people out of their right minds. Thats a horrible, and fortunately fallacious, dilemma.

Trying to drum up enthusiasm for fundamentally dull and soul crushing activities is literally a form of deliberate psychological self-

harm, a voluntary insanity: I AM SO PASSIONATE ABOUT THESE SPREADSHEETS, I CANT WAIT TO FILL OUT THE EQUATION FOR

FUTURE VALUE OF ANNUITY, I LOVE MY JOB SOOO MUCH! I do not consider self-inflicted episodes of hypomania the optimal driver of

human activity. A thymic compensation via depressive episodes is inevitable, since the human brain will not tolerate abuse indefinitely. There

are stops and safety valves. There are hormonal hangovers.

The worst thing that can happen is succeeding at the wrong thing temporarily. A far superior scenario is retaining sanity, which

unfortunately tends to be misinterpreted as moral failure: I still dont love my pointless paper-shuffling job, I must be doing something wrong. I

still prefer cake to brocolli and cant lose weight, maybe Im just weak. I should buy another book about motivation. Bullshit. The critical error

is even approaching those issus in terms of motivation or lack thereof. The answer is discipline, not motivation.

There is another, practical problem with motivation. It has a tiny shelf life, and needs constant refreshing. Motivation is like manually

winding up a crank to deliver a burst of force. At best, it stores and converts energy to a particular purpose. There are situations where it is the

correct attitude, one-offs where getting psyched and spring-loading a metric ton of mental energy upfront is the best course of action. Olympic
races and prison breaks come to mind. But it is a horrible basis for regular day-to-day functioning, and anything like consistent long-term

results.

By contrast, discipline is like an engine that, once kickstarted, actually supplies energy to the system. Productivity has no requisite

mental states. For consistent, long-term results, discipline trumps motivation, runs circles around it, bangs its mom and eats its lunch.

In summary, motivation is trying to feel like doing stuff. Discipline is doing it even if you dont feel like it. You get to feel good

afterwards. Discipline, in short, is a system, whereas motivation is analogous to goals. There is a symmetry. Discipline is more or less self-

perpetuating and constant, whereas motivation is a bursty kind of thing.

How do you cultivate discipline? By building habits starting as small as you can manage, even microscopic, and gathering momentum,

reinvesting it in progressively bigger changes to your routine, and building a positive feedback loop. Motivation is a counterproductive attitude to

productivity. What counts is discipline.

I could not agree more. There is this weird mentally that somehow you deserve to have all the things you want. That you deserve that

awesome woman or man that you only dare to stare at from a distance. That you deserve the great body, healthy skin, perfect job, high pay,

amazing holidays, the new computer or your dream fulfilled.

Well, guess what: You don't. There is no one in the universe that looks at you and says "well, you deserve to have all these things, I

am going to give them to you". You don't deserve anything. If you can read this you probably already had many great things thrown at you for

which you didn't do a thing. A good education, loving parents, food, shelter, a computer, maybe even a good spot in university or a good job.

If you want to be the person that you want to be - do something for it. You don't know people? How could you if you waste your time

on Reddit or with porn? Go and get a hobby, join a club, do something that you haven't done before.

You can't dance? Learn it. You can't tell jokes? Train it. You don't like your job? Find a new one. You don't have the skills? Find out

what skills you want - and learn it. You want to find an attractive partner? Become an attractive partner first.

I am annoyed by the attitude of a large part of the youth today. By the beliefs that people here hold. My favourite is the "Need work

experience to find a job" thing that comes up every now or then. Why do they look for people with work experience? Because any employer

knows that those who don't have work experience are probably at fault themselves. They are the self-entitled ones who believe that food should

fly in their mouths, and that their great inner values are enough to become great, no work needed. Sure, there might be one or two who would

deserve better luck - but likely, when you are honest with yourself, you are probably not one of them.

Or another: friendzone. Friendzone. The most ridiculous and sexist concept I have ever heard of. Yes, it's now applied in both

directions, but traditionally it is that a woman "puts" a "nice" guy in the friendzone. The poor fellow. She is so hot and he likes her so much. And

he does nice things for her. Why doesn't she love him for the things he does? Why is she so cruel? Well, it's because he is an idiot. He believes

that you can buy attraction. Do you fall in love with a girl just because she occasionally helps you out? Of course not. You fall in love because of

looks and character and her behaviour and likely because of a well formed personality. She is an interesting person, that's why you feel

attracted to her, why you want to spend time with her. And, sure, some women might more or less consciously exploit that. But that doesn't

change the matter:

If you believe that somebody else ought to love you because you do something nice for them; if you believe that somebody else

needs to feel a certain way because of things you do - then you are an idiot. If you are unhappily in the friendzone - you are an idiot, plain and
simple. Deal with it, accept that you have a good friend, and move on. Or try and take the relationship to a new level. But don't whine how cruel

the girl is because she doesn't let you hump her even when you fix her computer.

Do you deserve anything? HELL NO. Is there a "fair" universe - where fair means biased in your favour - that gives you all the things

you want? HELL NO. If you are whining about your lack of friends or partner or your horrible job - then consider for a moment whether you are

part of the problem, whether it is not your fault rather than the rest of the world being rude to you. You chose a bad partner? Your choice. You

think you deserve a better job? Go and get it.

Yes yes, it's not easy. Oh, you sent 70 applications and still no one took you? Did you ever consider that maybe you are not

interesting enough for them to take you? Maybe it's not your lack of experience, mabye it's your horrible spelling, your lack of skills, your subtle

disrespect for them, or any other of a million things. Maybe you are just unlucky, there are a few of those - but, if you are honest with yourself,

the chance that you are one of them is small.

Most people are socialised in this "get it all" society. Instant gratification through TV and fast food and those fake achievements of

games that come in exactly that interval that keeps you hooked. Life doesn't work like that. Clicking a button and doing fun things will rarely

make you successful. Hard work, that's where it's at. Of course, even hard work doesn't guarantee anything. You need to invest it wisely. You

need to be willing to make sacrifices. You need to stay strong. You want to lose those 200lb? Well, good for you that you exercise 15 minutes a

day. Bad for you that you say yes to all those donuts and chips.

People fail because they expect instant rewards. You avoid that donut and in return you wake up in the morning and your trousers fit.

You start reading a book on French and the next day you can talk fluently. You can sit in front of your computer, doing your job with average

results while you spend time on reddit - and you still think you deserve a raise? You wake up and don't bother to shower but still expect people

to enjoy your company? You spend your nights all at home playing video games and still you expect to be able to have interesting discussions

with other people?

Get that in your head: The world is not fair. The World Is Not Fair. There is no fairness, no justice. And you should be happy about

that, because else probably you would be starving and not the Indian farmer who works 14 hours a day to feed his family and still half his

children die from diarrhea and he himself with 30 from starvation. The world is not fair. You can be one of the 1% or so lucky ones, those who

get things for merely being born in the right family, or with the right looks or the incredible mental skills. But chances are you are not.

But still: You can be the person you want to be. You CAN. If you work for it. Your application keeps getting refused? Ask others why.

Ask them for candid feedback, not to be nice. You are alone? Go out and meet people? You are fat? Lose weight. Oh, but your friends want to

go to McDonalds? Nice excuse for lack of willpower. You don't know how to cook? Learn it. You are bored? Go get a life. You hate your town?

Move. I hear you, I really do. You say "it's not that easy" or maybe "you just don't understand my situation" or "I'm trying my best.." blah blah.

My answer is simple: You are an idiot. You don't understand, you refuse to understand a simple fact: The world is not skewed in your

favour. You don't deserve anything. Life is not supposed to be easy, it is not supposed to be any way. There are no checkpoints along the way,

or small boxes with rewards - life is not a video game. Life just is. It is hard, it is sometimes unfair, and it is sometimes difficult, even painful. But

if you don't like it the way there is only one option. Only one, and unless you accept that you will fail over and over again, you will be unhappy

for all your life:

If you don't like the way things are - fight with all your power to change it. You can't find happiness, you have to create it. You don't

deserve breaks. You don't deserve a pat on the back. You don't deserve that snickers. You don't deserve those new shoes. You don't "deserve"

anything.

You need to choose where you want to be, and then you need to work your way towards it. Someday you might succeed. Or maybe

you don't. But you know one thing: If you never try you will always fail, every day, every hour, and every second. You need to work for the things

you want. Of course you can't achieve everything. Of course not everybody can be president. But for those things that any person dreams of - a
good partner, a nice place, a good job and a healthy social life, and for most other dreams that people might hold: You are not magically entitled

to have it. You need to work for it. There is no alternative. And if you believe there is, if you believe you are entitled to something, to anything -

then you are, plain and simple, an idiot.

Do you act and think as if you are entitled? Do you believe that you deserve things to be better? Then, my friend, you are wrong.

Then, my friend, you need to learn that the world is not a good and gentle place. The world is a neutral place. Some start lucky. Some start

unlucky. But I haven't seen a person yet who cannot improve his lot by working hard on improving it.