In our industry, it's also very easy for the undisciplined person to succeed. You get a new job, it's exciting and the problems are new and motivating. After a few years the shine wears off, it becomes boring, you understand all the problems and they start to seem tedious. You find it difficult to really engage. But fortunately, the demand for software developers is so great that you can easily find a new job, and the cycle repeats.

More like the undisclpined person has several layers of structure to keep them on track.

Both external and internal rewards. And external punishments, Ie on review, pay cut, fired etc.

Discipline is another way of saying habit. If you have no motivation to workout but you have the discipline, it's because you've made it a habit. It doesn't help to make a distinction because discipline is not something that is separate from motivation.

You get motivation to do something, run on that motivation as long as you can and hope it lasted long enough to make it a habit.

It's investing in your future self while the going is good. Like, build that habit while you're motivated because it will go away and you'll be left with it as a habit.

Build the habit to focus at will and discipline is less of an issue. I suppose focusing at will and doing what you think needs to be done is what discipline is.

On another note, one motivational trick I am applying nowadays with everything is to learn meta-skills like these in many different contexts (otherwise it won’t transfer).

Maybe it’s not another note. Maybe that’s the way how I stay motivated to focus at will for any given task.

It’s still early days. Also, I am doing this in conjunction with tackling my compulsion to go to YouTube.

I can have discipline, if I'm doing something for a purpose. Losing weight, getting a job, etc. My problem I always lose what the purpose of my solo project is. Or, I shoot so many holes in my own idea that I can't imagine it being useful to anyone.

So get an accountability "partner" - perhaps another person who is doing their own thing and having the same challenges you're having.

Or do the public progress showmanship thing (recurring blog or vlog posts about your project and the current status). I admire the people that go this route, but it frankly scares me since we're talking here on a forum of talented people, some of whom could just hear the project idea and probably get it built faster. So sharing seems to create a lot of risk.

Does that stuff actually work for some people?

My issue is that I don't give a shit about other people outside of those I care about. imo the whole coach thing is a cottage industry of bullshit artists.

If Linus Torvalds wanted to give me advice/coach me I'd damn well listen, even if I disagreed with it (and I'd question if I'm right because Linus is that good).

But the random joe blow whose entire career is coaching? I just have no respect for it.

An accountability partner isn't a coach. It could be, but it certainly doesn't have to be.

For example, an accountability partner could be a potential client/user that you're building a tool targeting. You keep them in the loop with regular updates, and that activity alone can help keep you moving forward even when you might have moments of doubt. If you know you _have_ to report status to someone weekly, you're less likely to blow a week off entirely. At minimum, you might wait until an hour before the meeting and hustle to do at least something.

That's a user.

I do this too. And the flipside is many audiences dont care about the idea or do but find one problem and churn off. So external feedback is hard. tricky one to solve. scratching your own itch can keep you motivated but doesn’t answer the demand question. The other way is to go full mom test and just do full time market research and product hat for months and only then build.

Motivation and discipline can also move together. If you're motivated over a long enough period of time, discipline can form automatically.