Skip to main content

Motivation and Discipline

 A friend posted a question on LinkedIn: "What matters more, motivation or discipline?"

For her, low motivation meant lack of discipline. So she was wondering which one influences the other?

Let's try to understand the semantics first. The verb for discipline is "to discipline" and means to bring in line with a set of rules, to straighten out, to make consistent, usually referred to behaviour. The verb for motivation is "to motivate" and means to inspire, to push, to make excited, usually referred to doing things.

I don't think these verbs are mutually exclusive.

You need motivation to stay disciplined. and you need discipline to stay motivated.

If discipline is your tea, motivation is your sugar. If discipline is your mayai, motivation is your chips. If discipline is the money, motivation is your life. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Serving up the fix

Originally published on Vijana FM | 22nd July 2012 On a recent album release by Nas called Life is Good , Anthony Hamilton sings “The world is an addiction / serving up a fix”. The track goes on to discuss the dangers of selling out in pursuit of irrational dreams; indeed, “you gain your life just to lose your soul”. Sometimes I wonder if Tanzania is losing her soul. Perhaps – as time passes – it is me growing more conscious, or media becoming more pervasive to drama. But it seems like this country is chasing grandeur that is alien to her history and at odds with what she needs today. Her history and her needs; what do these mean? For the purpose of this post, I am pointing to Tanzania’s historical pursuit to be an independent nation-state, free of international dues and reliance on help. I am also referring to her current state of affairs, mainly consisting of an inefficient system of education coupled with an unbalanced system of trade. There are a few example...

Less is better than more

When designing communication systems - or any system for that matter - it seems better to start with less rather than more. Adding more than what is seen as a basic requirement risks overestimating the value of what is actually needed. It also seems easier to build on something based on new needs, rather than taking out stuff that is never used (humans seems to like hoarding). 

Thoughts about Egypt

The city I was just in about 6 months ago - which owns more than a million years of human history - is now hearing a desperate, angry, and fearless roar of reform from its people, whose voice is reverberating across several Arabic-speaking countries. Egypt is an extremely valuable player on the global playing field. It's ancestors are known to have built one of the first far-reaching ordered civilizations the world has known. Medieval Egypt significantly advanced scholarship in the sciences and philosophy. In contemporary times, it has been looked at as a model of modernization amongst Arab states. Even more recently, Egypt has provided strong support in brokering peace in the Middle East, and negotiating as well as facilitating the transfer of resources from and to the Western world. The people of Egypt, therefore, have witnessed many, many changes in leadership. Moreover, they have experienced diversity in the most deepest historical aspect of the word. Surely, a people with s...