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

Part of it is your character and personality. But your environment and your experience have a major weight.

Same applies for being a finisher.

In reality, it is not just being a starter and a finisher. A lot of other variables are involved. all sort of soft and hard skills will define your success and quality of your work. And you can arguably say almost nobody has all of them.

Teamwork is also a good solution. But first, you have to find out what you are missing, then try to find someone that can fill that gap for you.

And then you need all other basic things that you already know to keep you better focused and energized.

"discipline, sooner or later, will overcome intelligence"

In my country (and actually, in many of western countries), kids are not congratulated because their hard work, but because they are "smart" or "intelligent". I grow up being congratulated all the time because "my intelligence", I made no effort at all to study, and manage to pass all my high school years with the least possible effort.

When I was 18, I started Physics in the University, to find out it was too boring for me, and moved to Computer Science where the more "hands on" approach motivated me a lot.

But it was not enough. Even though I loved to program and I was spending 12+ hours daily only programming, Computer Science is also about mathematics, physics, statistics, etc. Subjects that I love but they were too complicated to approve only "because I am intelligent". I was simply not able to sit and start studying. Beers, girls, parties and videogames were my absolute priorities, so I ended up being kicked out from the university.

My parents were not able to pay for my university, so I was working while studying to pay my bills, and that become my main excuse: "it is too hard to work and study at the same time" (but still, I was spending 30+ hours weekly playing call of duty).

For the next years, I continue working in a restaurant, and after a while I got a job in a Technical Support Call center for a known computer peripheral brand. I learnt a lot about life during those years, but most importantly, it become very clear in my mind that I needed to go back to university and get a CS degree.

So the first thing I did was to start accepting that the previous failure was my fault, and only my fault, this is what helped me to find out the root cause of the problems: I did not have discipline.

After reading many books about the topic. I started to develop a sense of discipline that is not a constant fight against myself, but more like a need to do things in a certain way.

So I went back to University, and found a job at a very young start up: Salary wasn't too high, people were great, and they were creating really fun things. I started not even programming but doing a little of everything here and there, and after some years I became the most important software developer in the company. During these last 4 - 5 years, I've been improving rapidly because the university (still do not have the degree). But I know for sure that I am on the right track. The key points about discipline that I've learnt so far:

- There is not a magic bullet. Discipline is something you need to forge step by step, it takes time and does not stay there magically, you need to keep working on it every day.

- Start with small habits, one at the time. For example: Ensure you make the bed every morning before leaving, leave the house keys always in the same place, wash the dishes before going bed. But remember to force you to do it WITHOUT EXCEPTIONS (and this is extremely important). after 3 - 4 weeks your brain will automatize the task and you will start feeling bad if you don't do it.

- Do not try to change your life overnight. That will bring frustration and your mind will enter in a negative loop, making it more difficult the next time you try.

- Keep learning good new habits, eventually your mind will enter in a POSITIVE feedback loop, where as soon as you want to do something that requires discipline your mind will be willing to do it because the long term pleasure you will feel after you complete it.

And remember: "No one climbs a mountain and regrets it".

PS: English is not my first language, so sorry for any mistakes.

He put himself on something he called "Ship Therapy" - "committing to ship at least one new product every two weeks, while writing about the process and progress once a week".

Really interesting and seemed to work for him: https://othmane.io/posts/ship_challenge