Motivation, Discipline, and Willpower: What Makes Them Different?
I believe we all have the same amount of motivation, which is good news for anyone who feels like they aren’t motivated and can’t pursue their goals. I’ve also noticed that people often swap " motivation " with similar (but not identical) terms. This leads us to have a skewed view of what motivation is and how we can use it.
Words like “discipline” and “willpower” are in the same family as motivation, but they are different enough that we shouldn’t look at them the same way we do motivation. Perhaps most notably, discipline and willpower can vary from person to person. You and I have the same amount of motivation, but you could easily have more discipline and willpower than me.
Regardless of how much discipline or willpower each person possesses, knowing what they are and how they connect with motivation will enhance your ability to move forward and raise your chances of success.
First things first - What is motivation?
To me, motivation is the passion or fuel that drives you to act a certain way. Motivation is neither inherently good nor bad - it simply exists. Motivation is the reason why you go for a run, eat a cheeseburger, call a friend, take a nap, or log into social media.
Motivation impacts everything we do (which is why it’s not something that some people possess in greater quantities than others). If you have the capability to perform any sort of voluntary action, you are on an even playing field with everyone else in the game of motivation. Congratulations!
That’s great. What about discipline? What makes it different?
Discipline is a habit, routine, or system that eliminates (to some degree) the need to uphold the same level of motivation throughout a task. Discipline requires a more significant upfront investment of motivation (more on that when we talk about willpower), but the need decreases over time. Discipline is what helps us lock in good habits and the reason why they become easier over time.
There are a few things that happen as discipline forms. First, your brain is developing an understanding of a repeatable pattern. Our minds prefer to pursue activities with more certain outcomes. This is both a survival mechanism and a way to preserve mental energy (something our brains also love to do).
Developing discipline requires changing habit loops. For example, I remember a day in college a few months after I started lifting weights on a regular basis. If you’ve read my book or heard me speak on a podcast, you know that my journey of self-transformation began through lifting weights with friends in college.
To be honest, I didn’t feel like going to work out on this specific day. I don’t remember why, but I do remember feeling like the decision would result in discomfort, fatigue, or even missing out on a better opportunity. Despite these concerns, I chose to go anyway - and experienced an entirely different outcome. Instead of feeling bad, I felt good. Really good. I didn’t just feel physically strong — I also felt emotionally and mentally refreshed.
I loved that feeling so much that I decided to chase it. Ten years later, I’ve ran in multiple half-marathons and multi-sport races. I don’t remember what sort of workout I did on that day in college, but I do remember that it was a significant moment because of its impact on that particular habit loop. I learned that going to the gym would positively impact my short-term well-being and not only my long-term health. That mindset shift was a game-changer for me.
Ok, cool. So how does discipline connect with willpower?
To create discipline, you must possess some degree of willpower. Willpower is your ability to focus your motivation and perform less desirable or immediately rewarding actions. The most important distinction between motivation and willpower is that, unlike motivation, the amount of willpower you possess can wax and wane based on different circumstances.
Willpower is like a muscle that grows tired the more it’s used. Similarly, you can strengthen your willpower through regular practice, exercise, and discipline.
Motivation is present in every decision that you make. Willpower is not. If you choose to hit snooze on your alarm and stay in bed past the time when you planned to wake up, you did not exercise willpower, but you were motivated by comfort and security.
Willpower involves prioritizing your long-term aspirations and desires over your short-term preferences. When you decide to save money, you’re pursuing long-term wealth and financial stability, even if it means sacrificing your present desires. When you choose the salad over the cheeseburger, you prioritize your long-term health and well-being over the short-term satisfaction (and dopamine hit) that comes from eating a high-fat, high-carb meal.
You can also eliminate the need for willpower by locking in positive action ahead of time. This often plays out for me when I’m planning each day the evening prior. When I’m determining how I’ll spend my Monday on Sunday evening, it’s easier to make positive and productive choices than it would be if I was reacting to short-term feelings and emotions on Monday morning.
Another way to use a commitment device is to prime your environment in a way that helps you achieve your desired outcome. Want to go to the gym in the morning? Set out your gym clothes the night before. Want to wake up early and start your day with meditation and prayer? Set your Bible and notebook out on the kitchen table (and decide what hot drink you’ll sip on as you read and reflect). This increases your chances that you’ll do what you say you want to do, and you’ll have to do less work in the moment to make your desired outcome happen.
This is starting to make sense. But how does it affect me?
As we reflect on these ideas, we learn a few key lessons about willpower. First of all, you begin to notice how our brains are hardwired to prioritize immediate results. If we aren’t intentional about our choices, we will often choose what we want in the moment over what we want for our long-term selves.
The other concept I hope you grasp from the above examples is that either choice requires some level of pain and sacrifice. Craig Groeschel, the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church and the host of the Craig Groeschel Leadership podcast, once said that we must choose our pain in every decision. The idea that we can make decisions that don’t inflict any pain or discomfort is a false dichotomy. Everything we do requires a cost of some amount.
The good news is that each decision also provides a reward. Usually, willpower requires pursuing the option with a greater short-term cost and a higher long-term reward. It’s the classic question of, would you rather have five dollars today or twenty dollars in a month? In order to achieve long-term success, you must often sacrifice the more obvious, more tangible short-term reward.
Willpower is not the only component of prolonged long-term motivation, but it’s the energy boost that will help you get started. You’ll need a deeper picture of your values and purpose to maintain discipline and motivation towards a certain end goal. This is what will fuel your motivation during a task (especially something that you intend to carry out for several weeks or months). But willpower is the rocket fuel that will help you take the first step.
This is all great information - but what should I do with it?
I’m glad you asked. Within each of these domains comes a key question that you can ask yourself to lock in meaningful action and/or positive progress.
Motivation - Why do I want to do this? Think about your desired outcome(s). For best results, identify a small short-term reward and a future long-term reward.
Willpower - How can I get started? You need the most willpower at the beginning of a task. Often times, the fear of starting prevents us from doing anything. Once you get moving, you’ll realize that you just won half the battle.
Discipline - How can I keep going? Notice that I didn’t say exercising willpower was the hardest part. Starting isn’t easy, but continuing is especially challenging. This is where discipline becomes your closest ally. Work hard to develop long-term discipline and the results will amaze you.
If you would like some help answering these questions, visit my Calendly link to schedule your FREE 30-minute coaching session. You may find that spending 30 minutes thinking critically about your internal sources of motivation could change your life forever.
