Be Disciplined, Not Motivated

Discipline can allow one to grow and change, a lack of discipline will likely lead to stagnation. So do you want to be free or be a slave?

Being a lawyer, like many jobs, can make you a slave to the routine. You go into the office again and again. Make phone calls, reply to emails, draft memos. It can be easy to get stuck in a rut, place your mind and behavior on cruise control. But that’s not a very good way to get ahead. It’s not how you grow a small practice or move from associate to partner. So often times people look for motivation on how to improve themselves, their routine, or work product. They take a class, or read a book, or look at motivational memes. And the motivation works — for a couple days. Then it wears off and they are back to their old routine. That’s because motivation is temporary, whereas discipline is consistent.

It’s not that routines are bad. Routines are actually incredibly useful. You just have to make sure that you are making an active choice when selecting what routines you adopt and not just falling into the routine of least resistance. You need routines that offer you an opportunity to do deep work and initiate change and growth. I’ve discussed setting aside the time for these routines before:

Taking the time to explore when you are best capable of deep work is something that is incredibly important if you want to produce remarkable work. There is no guarantee that you will produce something remarkable, but you will increase your chances of producing such a thing if you know when you are most capable, most open to letting go of everything else in your life — responsibilities, bills, deadlines — and focusing on a single task or problem.

So discover when you are the most productive. Whittle away your responsibilities from that time.

Being disciplined about these routines is key. People often ask me how I found the time to write a book (affiliate link), they could never find the time, etc. I did it the same way David did — I set aside time in my day, every day, and was disciplined about my routine (get up and write everyday from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. before I went into the office).

I couldn’t sit around and wait for the motivation to write. That would have gotten me no where. The problem with motivation is that it is often situational. “That seminar made me feel inspired.” “That blog post really got me motivated.” That’s fine and well, but those are external factors that you are allowing to affect your mood. Unless you consistently are stimulated by those external factors again and again, their effect will fade and you’ll be back to the old routine.

The ability to do deep work that is challenging is more often than not fueled by internal factors — that is, self-discipline. Self-selecting that you are going to do activity X (draft motions, client outreach, professional development) and creating an environment and pattern that you adhere to, even when you don’t feel like it, is a much clearer path to success than hoping to be struck by the muse.

Stephen Covey, the author of the classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (affiliate link), often said, “Only the disciplined are truly free. The undisciplined are slaves to moods, appetites and passions.”

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Discipline can allow one to grow and change, a lack of discipline will likely lead to stagnation. So do you want to be free or be a slave?


Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.

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