I’ve talked about being motivated or inspired a lot in here. For me, these two feelings are intertwined and very crucial for our lives, cause without the right motivation/inspiration (sorry in advance for repeating these words again and again in this post), we wouldn’t have done anything in our lives.

However, in the past few years, there’s a new term circulating among the modern motivators or “gurus“. I mean it’s not really new, people just started using it a lot recently. And that word is discipline. You may have noticed how all the motivational blogs, videos and articles urge us to stay disciplined, that it’s the key to success, to earning money, becoming happy millionaires and living our dream lives. The strangest part for me is when those gurus assure everyone to forget about inspiration and motivation, cause they will lead you to a swamp or an unhappy life. So, I decided to talk about this topic today.

What is discipline? Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It is indeed a great thing to be disciplined, organized and responsible, that’s how you become mature. But when you read the description of this concept, it kind of gives a negative connotation, doesn’t it? Like you get the feeling that discipline is mostly created in order to forget about your natural instincts, and become easily controlled, hence – manipulated.

The more it goes, the more I get convinced, that there are some “powers” in this world, who try to brainwash normal people and make them easy targets, so manipulating and making them do what these powers want will become a piece of cake. And all this propaganda of always being disciplined feels like a part of it.

Don’t get me wrong, as I said, it was, and is initially a good thing. It’s an inner “controller” of yours, that makes you acquire new, healthy habits and get rid of the harmful ones. It’s all about organized and taking the full responsibility of your life and actions. So it’s good to learn discipline. However, we must also remember, that we are human beings and tend to make mistakes or go against the system every now and them. We can break our habits and rituals, become lazy in order to recover our inner energy and recharge. We are originally spontaneous beings, and that gives us freedom. Because the world outside already has its social rules and mandatory systems, so we are already partly in a cage, ready to follow every order, whether we want it or not. And this fake discipline that people constantly talk about and prioritize above everything and everyone else takes our leftover freedom away. And that sucks.

On the other hand, what are inspiration and motivation? Those have a slight similarity, however are completely different. They are the connection with our souls, our inner fuel or engine that keeps us going. When you do something while you are inspired, you do it with your whole heart and soul. You don’t really care much about the result, because it’s the process that makes your heart the happiest. The positive final result becomes just a good reward, the negative one – just an unlucky circumstance. When you do something because of the discipline, you simply work on an automatic mode, like a robot or a zombie, without even understanding or enjoying what you do. You do sth that you don’t even like, fully concentrated on the outcome. If the outcome is good, you feel happy for a moment or two but quickly get disappointed because all the hard work seems not worthy or enough. If the result is bad, you simply get disappointed straight away. See the difference now?

I wouldn’t even talk about this, if besides teaching how to be disciplined, those motivators also mentioned the importance of inspiration. If they taught how to use your discipline not to become the most successful person, of whom everyone else would be jealous, but how to use it in order to fulfill your dreams and your true potential.

Some people bring the argument that you are not always inspired or motivated, while discipline will keep you going no matter what. That’s true. Inspiration can come and go. And that’s normal. Now, think about all the greatest writers or artists. If you learned about their lives, you’ll know, how they had periods, when they created masterpieces, sth that we still read or watch nowadays and will probably be valuable for centuries. But they also had moments of total emptiness, when they couldn’t write or create. If they used their discipline, instead of muse, do you think they’d be able to create equal masterpieces? I highly doubt.

What I’m saying is, don’t blindly take every bait you see. Use your inspiration and motivation to fulfill your dreams, to live a good, happy life. Use your discipline skills to be organized and responsible, so some things will be easier for you. Find your source of energy and use it, no matter what every famous person or a guru says online.