On Motivation & Discipline

We all know what motivation is like right? I remember listing down goals whether it be financial, physical or spiritual. It feels great to be motivated to save money, to run every morning, and to always set time to read the bible. However, this feeling tends to die down, but should our goals die down as well?

Of course not!

Many people blame their lack of motivation for not reaching their personal goals. Whatever goal you may have in life, there’s that motivation that gets you going in the first place. While getting “motivated” is wonderful, I believe that it is more so a case of Discipline rather than motivation.

For me, motivation is a feeling, a force. It is there to hype you up and get you to set goals and make you ambitious. But if you are motivated by deeper and more inspiring things, well, I think your motivation will make you disciplined and get you to that finish line. But this is not the case for many people, some people can only get motivated for the first two weeks and forget why they even wanted to reach a goal in the first place. Some easily get discouraged when they don’t see the results they expect to see.

This is where Discipline comes, discipline is not a feeling. It’s a decision and a mindset. It is a result of motivation and determination, you are determined so bad you become disciplined. Discipline is when you do the things you’re supposed to do even when you don’t feel like it. When motivation goes, discipline remains. It is when you continue to persevere even when you can’t see any results. Discipline is an ingredient to Endurance.

More than running, I relate this with my spiritual life. As a Christian I deem it very important to spend time with God in prayer and meditation on His Word. But I tend to fail every now and then, especially when life gets “busy”. When other things pile up before me, I forget about my priorities and tend to throw myself all over the work that needs to be done. This shows that I lack discipline. Other times I would pray about a specific matter, but after a few days of not seeing the Intervention of God I would eventually give up. Again, this shows that I lack discipline. I tend to give up when I don’t see results and don’t get answers, which is very WRONG.

I believe that as a Christian I should be embracing Discipline all the more. It is very important to base my relationship with God not on my “feelings” but on His Word. Our feelings go high and low, they disappear and appear, but not the Word of God. His Word is true and stands firm through the ages. This is why we need not to depend on how we “feel” when it comes to Christianity. Feelings are good, but it is not the foundation of Christian Faith. I also have learned that it is more important to pray in times when you don’t feel like praying!

I realized the importance of Discipline all the more today when I chose to run despite the fact that I woke up late. Normally I would just say “Takbo nalang ako bukas” (I’ll just run tomorrow) but today I did not, I realized that today I am supposed to RUN, then I should RUN. Even though I did not feel like running, I still did! And now, I feel fulfilled.

Let us continue to be faithful and be disciplined, and run heavenward without wavering.

“ So let us not get tire of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity , we should do good to everyone – especially to those in the family of faith” Galatians 6:9-10