Not too long ago some friends and I got into a discussion over which is more important: passion or discipline? The discussion started when one friend asked how I had the discipline to sit down and finish a manuscript and the other friend said it had to be passion for the project.
We now live in a culture that places a premium on passion and neglects personal discipline. In past American history it has been the reverse of that. Discipline was often valued at the expense of passion.
So which do you need to have in order to complete a project you value? The answer, of course, is both. Passion is what gets you started and discipline is what keeps you going.
For me it was the passion of wanting to write a book that made me sit in a chair and write. Passion for telling the story is what helped me come up with the idea and storyline. But it wasn’t passion that kept me glued to the chair when I did nothing but stare at a blank white page. It was discipline that got me out of bed at 4 AM to get my writing started for the day before I had to work.
My rule was that I had to write for one hour each day. Some days I would sit to write and the words would flow and the story would spill out onto the page. Five or six hours later I would realize I had been writing for most of the day. Passion was responsible for that work.
Other times I would write and erase and write and erase the same line over and over. I would stand up an hour later with very little to show for my time and effort. It was discipline that pushed me through those times.
Fortunately passion and discipline work hand in hand with each other. The more passion you have for something the easier it is to develop discipline in that area as well. Let your passion feed the day-to-day work on your project by reminding yourself why you are passionate about it.
It is much easier to have the discipline to work on something you are passionate about. Use that. Find a project you are passionate about and learn discipline by concentrating on the process of finishing the project.
Being a disciplined person is something you can get better at. We don’t have time to go into it fully in this post but you can become a more disciplined person. Discipline is like a muscle that gets stronger with use. I’ve learned not to short myself by saying I don’t have the discipline to complete something. Discipline can be developed.
I look at it this way: the relationship between discipline and passion is similar to that of my wife’s hybrid car. You cruise along on battery power (passion) but sometimes you come to a hill that’s too difficult for the battery alone and the gasoline engine kicks in (discipline). You can prefer using one to the other (the battery is easier and quieter but can’t take you everywhere; the engine is noisy and costs more but it can overcome more) but you need both to arrive at your destination.
