In discipline vs motivation, discipline wins because it is a process you run every day, while motivation is a feeling that changes with the day. I call the method You Cannot Cheat the Grind. It has three levels: the daily process, the mindset for when the journey feels hard, and mastery.
- Motivation is a feeling. Discipline is the process you run every single day.
- You Cannot Cheat the Grind has three levels: process, mindset and mastery.
- The story you tell yourself creates your actions, and your actions create your results.
- Give yourself a menu of actions so a low energy day still gets a one.
What is the difference between discipline and motivation?
Motivation is a feeling. One day you feel like lifting weights, and the next day it is raining or your kid is sick. Discipline is the process you run on both of those days. I call that process the grind, and it is a mindset, a lifestyle and a way of being.
The grind is made of very simple, common things that many people let slide because they are easy to skip. Going to the gym at 6 a.m. on Monday to set the tone for the week is one of them. Those small actions compound, which is how you become consistent.
What does You Cannot Cheat the Grind mean?
The line comes from Patrick Willis. In his Hall of Fame induction speech he said, "You cannot cheat the grind, for the grind knows what you put in."
The grind knows what you put in.
| Level | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| The process | The daily grind. The simple things you do day in and day out. |
| The feeling | The journey feels hard and you ask, "Is this worth it?" Your mindset decides what happens next. |
| Mastery | You take the things standing in your way and use them to propel you. What stands in the way becomes the way. |
Most of the grind is invisible, and that is where it pays. Watching the Olympics, I saw an American runner come around the final turn in fourth, fifth or sixth place. Everybody thought he was done. He found a final gear at the last second and won the gold. That gear gets built in the daily inches that are so easy to overlook.
The grind gives me confidence. I earn that confidence every single day.
Rob Cressy
How do you build discipline that lasts?
- Start with your story. The story you tell yourself creates your actions, and your actions create your results. Ask what story creates you into the person who goes to the gym every Monday morning. This is identity work.
- Design your grind. Choose the simple actions that compound, then execute on them every single day.
- Prepare when it is easy. A phrase I live by is "prepare for what's difficult when it's easy."
- Take one action that guarantees momentum. One Black Friday I signed up for the Clearwater Marathon. That single decision gave me nine weeks of training, and the next morning I woke up at 5:15 and ran eight miles.
- Write a menu. A client of mine was struggling with fitness. When lifting weights is your only option, a rainy day makes it easy to take a zero. We wrote down 10 things he loves to do, like pickleball, a one mile run and 12 situps.
Why is a simple commitment so hard to keep?
I was working with a client who struggled with consistency, so I asked what the easiest daily action would be. That became my 21 day Ground Into the Earth challenge. Once a day you go outside and touch the ground with your bare feet or your hand. Many people missed days.
My friend Alan Kenny made about 11 of the 21. He saw two things were missing: a clear why and a real decision to do it every day. In our next growth challenge he decided up front that all 21 days were happening, and he posted every single day. His takeaway was that the boring, simple truth about being great at anything is showing up to it every day.
Commitment is a series of ones, all day, every day.
What is the Force of Average?
The Force of Average is the resistance that tries to stop you from doing the things that help you grow. How you frame it decides whether it stops you or fuels you.
One morning I got to the gym at 6:15 and found an empty parking lot, the lights off and the gym closed. A hurricane was on the way. So I asked what I could do right there in that parking lot. I still had two good legs, so I went for a two mile run. A few hours later I was thankful the gym was closed. Action will always get you greater results than excuses, and it is how you overcome adversity.
What is Emptying the Tank vs Being Tired?
Emptying the Tank vs Being Tired is my distinction for how you read low energy at the end of a full day. Being tired is a woe is me story. Emptying the tank means you spent your energy on your goals, your vision and your family, so the fatigue is proof that you performed at a high level.
I learned it standing in our kitchen at 8 p.m., drained after helping put our son to bed.
- Being tired You lead with "I am tired." That story feeds an identity that does little for you.
- Emptying the tank You feel what a runner feels after a race: fatigued but accomplished, and proud of the work you put in.
Do this today
- Pick your one action. Choose the one thing that guarantees you are better moving forward, and commit to it.
- Write your menu. List 10 ways to get a one in the area where you want more discipline, so a zero is off the table.
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You Can Not Cheat The Grind
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Read the full transcript
You can not cheat the grind, for the grind knows what you put in. This is a quote from Patrick Willis in his Hall of Fame induction speech and it really resonated with me and can be the foundation for reaching the peak in your success.
What's good? I'm Rob Cressy and inspiration is everywhere from the NFL Hall of Fame and the induction speeches to the Olympics, which just wrapped up. And I'm someone who absolutely loves greatness. The consistency of showing up, the grind, the determination, the mindset, the execution, the process, the belief, the being all in. And when Patrick Willis is talking about the grind, this is what he's talking about the day in, the day out, because there is no off season from the grind.
And for me, there's a very important distinction on what is the grind? We have the grind, aka the process. That's the daily grind. This is the mindset, the lifestyle, the way of being. This is going to the gym every morning on Monday at 6 a.m. to set the tone for the rest of the week. This is the very simple, common things that very many people will just let slide because they're easy to not do. But at the same time, we know they compound every single morning on Monday.
When you get up, go into the gym, go into the gym, go into the gym. And of course, Patrick Willis and these Olympians, they are doing this at the highest level, but we can always look from those who are the best and see where we can apply these concepts in our lives.
Then we have another version of the grind, the feeling where your journey feels hard. It feels like a grind where you question, is this worth it or will I ever get there? And this is where your mindset comes in because so much of the grind is mental because the story that you tell yourself will create your actions, your actions will create your results. So if you want to go to the gym every single Monday morning, what is the story you are telling yourself that creates you into the person who makes that happen?
It's why the best in the world. And certainly when you're watching the Olympics, I get so inspired by watching those who I think back to one of the runners and they're in their final stretch and they're going around the corner and he's in like fourth or fifth or sixth place and as one of the Americans who ended up winning the gold and all of a sudden you can just see him go into that final gear where everybody else thinks he's done. And at the last second he pushes through there and this is where the grind pays those day in, day out, those inches that are so easy to overlook.
But the mental toughness, the grit, the fortitude, this is where it is all built. It is why there's so many phrases that I collect and I live by, prepare for what's difficult when it's easy. And what's on the other side of fear? Nothing. And the power of consistency, the power of intention, the power of awareness. So many of these things are formulaic for how we build ourselves into the best version of ourselves from our mindset because from our mindset becomes our actions.
And then there's the mastery level concept of the grind where you transcend things, where you take things that you do not like, the things that are standing in your way and you use them to propel you into being the best version of yourself. What stands in the way becomes the way.
The grind, it's invisible. It's something for the overwhelming majority of the time no one is ever going to see. And for me, the grind gives me confidence. I earn that confidence every single day. And of course, as we've talked about, it is not easy, but that is why when we are called to do something great to be the best version of ourselves, it is a series of micro actions and mindsets one, one, one, one, one over and over and over and over again, because this consistency compounds because we all have the opportunity to be a hall of famer in our own life for ourselves, for our families, for our children, for our friends.
Because to me, this is what being built for the game is all about building yourself and your business for the grind in designing your grind and executing on your grind every single day. In our ability to transcend the phrase, the grind and turn it into something powerful because we know there are very few people who are out there who are willing to pay the price to pay their dues day in and day out for decades.
The recipe for being the best is out there. Now it's up to you to say how bad do you want it? I want to be an encouragement for you on your journey because if you're listening or watching to this right now, you have that inside of you. There is so much power. There is so much potential if Patrick Willis can do it. If these Olympians can do it, you can do it and so can I.
Transcript cleaned up for reading.