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Why feelings can't carry it
Feeling happy right now says little about how a person will feel in a quarter of an hour. Sadness works the same way, and so does feeling motivated. An emotion that comes and goes is not one to count on, so none of the daily actions rest on it.
The alarm clock rule
When the alarm clock goes off, there is no debate and no negotiating. It is a sort of robotic response: the thing goes off and the day's tasks begin. Not feeling like doing something does not matter, so the task simply gets done.
Building discipline
Discipline is also something a person builds on purpose. Squats develop the legs and pull-ups develop the back, and repetitions of things that require toughness develop resiliency.
Why do fixed plans beat in-the-moment decisions?
Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer studied what he calls implementation intentions, plans shaped like when X happens, I will do Y. In a 2006 meta-analysis of 94 studies, Gollwitzer and Paschal Sheeran found that such plans had a medium-to-large effect on whether people reached their goals. The plan hands the decision to a cue in advance, so no deliberation is needed when the moment arrives.
How long does repetition take to feel automatic?
Phillippa Lally and colleagues at University College London followed 96 volunteers who each picked a new daily behavior, such as eating fruit with lunch or running before dinner. In the 2010 study, the time it took for the behavior to feel automatic ranged from 18 to 254 days. The median was 66 days. Missing a single day did not noticeably derail the process.
Why does practiced hardship build toughness?
In the 1970s, psychologist Donald Meichenbaum developed stress inoculation training, which exposes people to manageable doses of stress while teaching coping skills. The approach borrows the logic of vaccination, in that a small controlled exposure prepares a person for larger ones. It was first used for fears and anxiety and was later adopted for groups such as military personnel and first responders.
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