I was chatting with someone recently at a charitable event and the discussion turned to what was going on in my life. I gave my “elevator speech” about how we all have dreams, but so few were making them come true, because we aren’t motivated. And the reason we aren’t motivated, I shared, is because we don’t know how to motivate ourselves; we were never taught how.

Before I had a chance to tell him that my book teaches people that skill, how to motivate themselves, he said the reason people don’t make their dreams come true is because they have no self –discipline.

I’ve thought about what he said, and I have to agree with him, in part.  I do think the converse is true, if you are self disciplined it makes it much easier to achieve your dreams. However, even self disciplined people will flounder if the factors of self motivation, the vision, successability and environment, are working against them.

A larger problem with his assertion is that saying your dreams aren’t coming true because you have no self discipline isn’t very helpful to you if you want to make the dreams come true. Self discipline is part of a person’s character. You can’t see a person’s self discipline. You may see evidence of it, by what the person does, what a person accomplishes, and how a person stays on track. But because self discipline is not a behavior, you don’t help a person just by pointing out they are not disciplined, because there isn’t much a person can do about it.

And excusing your failure to achieve your dreams on your lack of discipline becomes just that, an excuse. It just rationalizes your actions or lack of actions. Lack of self discipline is a result; it isn’t a cause. And to change results you need to change causes. It could take years of psychotherapy to figure out why you are not self disciplined.

It’s much easier to figure out the reasons why you aren’t motivated. And it’s much easier to take action to undo those reasons.

Those actions are learning and using the model for self motivation. If you are not motivated, the model for self motivation explains how come you aren’t motivated, and it tells you what you can do to become motivated.

The model for self motivation helps you motivate yourself. That’s why the model is so important, because it is practical, you can put it into practice in your life.

Is there some dream you have that you aren’t making come true? Learn all about the model for self motivation, and learn how to apply it to your dream.

Self motivation, like self discipline won’t just magically appear. But you can make yourself self motivated – by using the model for self motivation.