Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR: Discover why motivation fails and how to build sustainable discipline that creates lasting momentum. Learn about the entrepreneurial roller coaster that traps most people in cycles of excitement and disappointment, and how to move beyond the pit of despair into informed optimism through structured vision, regular practices, and Kingdom-centered discipline.
What?
Motivation doesn’t last. What do I mean? Well, let me tell ya. Motivation is like that hype, that excitement, that drive. I saw a graph of it the other day – motivation looks like this big spike up and then down. You get excited about getting up, getting there, getting after it. When I first joined Mastermind, I was motivated going in one direction, then motivated going in another direction, then motivated going in yet another direction.
And motivation doesn’t work. It doesn’t last, it doesn’t get you there.
Simon Sinek wrote about this in “The Infinite Game.” He talked about having a just cause or a big end game – a big just cause to seek, to pursue, to head after. A passion, a vision. What creates real momentum is different from motivation. Momentum works. Motivation doesn’t work. Momentum comes from discipline.
There’s something called the entrepreneurial roller coaster that Darren Hardy talks about. We come in with uninformed optimism – “Oh yeah, this is gonna work!” Then we run into challenges and hit informed pessimism, entering the pit of despair. That’s where people, especially me, have bailed out and gone over to start the curve again. But just after informed pessimism and the pit of despair comes informed optimism – now we’re starting to understand what discipline is.
Why?
This experience revealed something crucial about sustainable success and Kingdom living: motivation is temporary excitement, but what we’re really looking for is discipline. Not like spankings when you were a kid, but the discipline to continue doing the stuff that works, to create a steady upward curve instead of the roller coaster.
The false belief that comes with motivation is “ah, we can do it” based on excitement alone. But the entrepreneurial roller coaster shows us the real pattern: uninformed optimism leads to informed pessimism, which leads to the pit of despair where most people quit and start over. This cycle keeps us trapped in motivation-based thinking instead of building genuine momentum.
The key is moving from that pit of despair into informed optimism through discipline – where we structure our vision, structure our plan, and create our steps.
Lesson
What we’re really seeking is discipline – the discipline to maintain the vision and the connection to the vision that drives us to do the simple, repetitive steps to get us to the goal. This means taking the mindset to focus on the Lord, to let God guard our heart and mind, to do the outreach, the connection, the prayers, the fitness, the scripture time, the connecting time, the Bible study, the building community around ourselves.
All of this serves our just cause to move the world, our family, our business, our organization toward that thing God has called us to.
Discipline is what creates the steady climb rather than the roller coaster. Through regular routine practices, our daily routines, our 12-week year practices, our goal setting, our accountability, and our teamwork, we make the cycles less and less rowdy, less and less bouncy.
Looking back at our three circles of what we know, care about, and can do something about – we don’t know everything about everything. We need to become more informed and continually go through cycles of growth, but make them smoother through discipline rather than reactive through motivation.
This connects to my core beliefs: I’m getting better every day, I believe we’re better together, and I believe in a God who knows better, way better than I do.
Apply
Evaluate where you are on the entrepreneurial (you don’t have to be an entrepreneur) roller coaster right now. Are you in uninformed optimism (excited but unrealistic), informed pessimism (aware of challenges and feeling overwhelmed), the pit of despair (wanting to quit), or informed optimism (understanding the discipline required and committed to the process)?
Write down in the Doobly Doo: What’s one area where you’ve been relying on motivation instead of building discipline? What specific daily routine or practice could you implement to create steady momentum toward your just cause rather than waiting for motivation to strike?
Identify your true just cause – not just a goal you’re motivated about, but something bigger that can sustain you through the pit of despair. How does this just cause connect to building God’s kingdom through your family, business, or leadership?
You be blessed!
From Motivation to Discipline: Breaking Free from the Entrepreneurial Roller Coaster
