Why We Struggle with Discipline

TL;DR: One of the main reasons self-improvement advice around habit formation, discipline, and fighting addictions fails is because it ignores a simple concept: discipline, resilience, and willpower require mental energy—and mental energy is limited. The first thing you want to do is manage your energy levels.

I think everyone has found themselves in the situation of setting a goal or routine and then failing to stick to it—falling into a vicious cycle of repeating the same thing over and over. Most breaking points seem to happen when your mood shifts—when something lowers your spirits and, for a split second, you give up and everything crumbles. I believe this happens because we fight without a strategy and, more importantly, we fight with low mental energy, very close to our breaking point.

It’s like that image of a person on a damaged boat, trying to scoop water out. He’s motivated not to let the boat sink, but he has no strategy. He just burns through his energy removing water instead of taking a moment to think clearly and realize the best move is to patch the hole—even if that means letting a bit more water in. When a second hole appears, he’s too exhausted to do anything because he depleted his energy long ago by acting inefficiently. That second hole becomes the breaking point.

There are many strategies to handle life’s challenges, and they vary from person to person, but one basic truth applies to all: willpower, discipline, and resilience consume energy, and our energy is limited. It’s a simple idea, yet it’s easy to forget. Due to various beliefs we’ve internalized throughout life, it feels more intuitive to assume we lack discipline or willpower than to consider a more basic issue—that our state of mind and energy levels are off. And because we’re unaware of this, we tend to summon all our discipline and willpower to get things done, which only burns through our already low energy even faster.

So how do you keep your energy levels healthy? By doing the boring stuff we all know and constantly ignore while searching for some secret tip to change everything.

There are four essential areas we need to care for (and a bonus one):

1. Sleep and rest
2. Food and hydration
3. Exercise
4. Dopamine regulation
5. Meditation (bonus)

Most of these are very basic:

• Get 7–8 hours of quality sleep per night (some people need a bit more, some less).
• Eat balanced meals, low in carbs—especially in the morning—to avoid sugar crashes.
• Avoid alcohol and sugary drinks; drink mostly water.
• Exercise at least three times a week (minimum 20-minute sessions), ideally in the morning for a dopamine boost.
• Meditate regularly to strengthen your mind.

I want to elaborate a bit more on point 4 because it’s less intuitive and arguably the most challenging, especially in modern society.

Dopamine is the most important neurotransmitter when it comes to motivation. It’s the chemical that makes us want to act. If you want good energy levels, you need to maintain healthy dopamine levels and avoid spikes, because every spike is followed by a crash. What causes dopamine spikes? Pretty much anything that offers instant gratification: sugar-heavy foods, social media, video games, pornography, alcohol—basically, the staples of modern life.

Reduce these as much as possible, and if you do indulge, don’t overdo it. A good strategy is to save them for the end of the day, so they have the least impact on your energy levels—but keep in mind they can also interfere with sleep. 

Every time I follow these steps, my energy levels are great. Unfortunately, life is a bit more complicated, and I often find myself running low. But at least I know what I need to do :)