My dad is the most disciplined person that I know. He got his math PhD in 2.5 years. He said that when he was in grad school, he'd wake up every morning at 4am, work without interruption until 8am, take a 1 hr nap until 9am, work until 5pm, stop work, and then sleep at 9pm. He kept a strict diet of only eating green veggies and never eating meat (plus, he couldn't afford meat).
I've never had any discipline. In college, I decided I'd finally get some discipline and I would do exactly what my dad did. I woke up at 4am every morning, took a 1hr nap at 9am, worked until 5pm, went to bed at 9pm. I wanted to be just like my hero.
In short, it was a total disaster. I was tired constantly. I slept in class all the time. I performed decently in school, but I remember it as a pretty unpleasant time. It was a pattern that was very hard to get to work inside of a college dorm where I also had a roommate sleeping in the same room. I found myself always thinking, "What would dad do?" Not, "What's right for me?" I beat myself up a lot when I couldn't live up to the kind of man my dad is.
I gave up on the idea of discipline, and it's been great for me. When I reflect on when I'm happy or unfulfilled with work, I don't think of it in terms of words like "motivation", "discipline", "inspiration", etc., because those words just express patterns and modes of approaching work that work/don't work for other people. I think, "Why am I tired?" "Why would I rather watch TV than work on my company?" "What are the short-term / long-term tradeoffs?" etc
I've never had any discipline. In college, I decided I'd finally get some discipline and I would do exactly what my dad did. I woke up at 4am every morning, took a 1hr nap at 9am, worked until 5pm, went to bed at 9pm. I wanted to be just like my hero.
In short, it was a total disaster. I was tired constantly. I slept in class all the time. I performed decently in school, but I remember it as a pretty unpleasant time. It was a pattern that was very hard to get to work inside of a college dorm where I also had a roommate sleeping in the same room. I found myself always thinking, "What would dad do?" Not, "What's right for me?" I beat myself up a lot when I couldn't live up to the kind of man my dad is.
I gave up on the idea of discipline, and it's been great for me. When I reflect on when I'm happy or unfulfilled with work, I don't think of it in terms of words like "motivation", "discipline", "inspiration", etc., because those words just express patterns and modes of approaching work that work/don't work for other people. I think, "Why am I tired?" "Why would I rather watch TV than work on my company?" "What are the short-term / long-term tradeoffs?" etc