Ask HN: How do you stay disciplined in the long run?

This is why some people make it look easy - the ones who you describe as "folks who are disciplined, are ruthless executors, are self-motivated".

It's not actually that hard for them, they're mostly just doing what comes naturally to them.

It may be they were able to develop these tendencies at a young age, or maybe it's inherited traits from their parents.

This is the dark secret behind the self-help industry; it usually doesn't work. At least not just by reading a book or attending a seminar or following a methodology.

Those programs will describe techniques that supposedly work for other highly successful people, but what they don't tell you is that those other people don't really need to follow any program, and the "discipline" they show is actually not the kind of discipline you're punishing yourself with; for the people who make it look easy, it just flows naturally, as their subconscious mind is just attuned that way.

Here's the thing: you can change your subconscious mind. There are specific techniques that enable you to do it. But they require consistent work over a long period of time, and a lot of patience with yourself along the way.

The main goal of such a program is to figure out just what it is you really want to do with your life - what objective is going to give you purpose and meaning and motivation, then to gradually remove the emotional/cognitive barriers that prevent you from working towards it with energy and focus.

One of the better known subconscious healing programs is NLP, but I have no idea if it's the best; I haven't really done it. I've done other things that are less well-known, and after more than 7 years of steady work, the results have been profound for me.

Search around for "subconscious healing" or "subconscious emotional clearing" and see what you can find.

Choose a program that feels good to you; ideally talk to people who have done it and ask about their results. Of course you shouldn't do something if the people running it or recommending it seem kooky or exploitative, and the field is a minefield in that regard.

But if you search thoroughly you'll find there are programs and techniques offered by really down-to-earth, decent people, and a solid number of authentic success stories to point to.

Good luck!

1/ Being truthful w/ yourself on whether you are building something for yourself or building it because you are insecure and feel like you're falling behind people in the community (ie I'm building this because 3 of my friends are startup founders and I want to be one too because I'm just as good as them). If it's the latter, usually your willpower will fleet. I fell for this trap in my last project.

2/ Being truthful on what skills you have and can utilize for whatever you want to build. For my last project, I was working on a website and had no prior web skills besides HTML and basic JS. I took it on myself to learn React, Redux and the whole shebang. By the time my willpower fleeted, I had learned a lot but was maybe 50% through a project and I lost interest.

3/ Dividing your project up into small chunks. Take a subset of those chunks, throw it into your product and alpha/beta test it with friends and family. If you have nothing to show for your work after n months of work, it's very easy to give up.

4/ Constantly show people and get feedback. If you show people what you're working on and they give you insight, it'll energize you to build and continue down the journey. Otherwise, you'll feel like all your effort is wasted away towards a dream that seems more and more unreachable as time progresses

In closing, I do think some people are more disciplined and motivated than others but everyone falls into the same traps. But I'm sure the folks you site as more disciplined and self-motivated have fallen to these problems; just earlier in their lives.

TLDR: Understand your motivations, make sure what you're building makes you happy and tell folks about what you're building to get energized.

From my experience, finding something that you love doing and can get lost in for hours on end will be the most rewarding activity. Rewarding activities tend to stick longer -- I was good at fiddling with web pages and now it's what I do professionally.

The tough stuff is finding out what you're good at -- that requires a bunch of trial and error and (especially in IT) people tend to think themselves better than they truly are. This is why you should always seek out advice from more experienced people and stay humble. As in chess, the only way to get better is to play against a stronger opponent.

Best advice I was given for persevering at times of boredom/burn out/etc was to simply keep going at it. How much you get done is not as important as is just doing it. Not every workout or coding session has to be at John Carmack's level but it should never be skipped.

Lastly, what other fine folk here already said: don't go it alone! Every person needs a support system! Whether it's family, friends, colleagues, local bartender, or IRC pals is not important - just have somebody to talk to and perhaps get excited about the stuff you do.