I recently had a conversation with a friend about the pros and cons of using diet pills and injections. She was arguing that people are using medication – that comes with serious side effects – instead of using self-discipline.

It’s easy to talk about self-discipline, but it’s a lot harder to practise it. Self-discipline is linked to motivation. We need motivation for the initial drive and enthusiasm to start a task, and then self-discipline to maintain that motivation and focus on that task. But it starts with motivation.

Motivation is hard when you are in a negative headspace. You don’t have the energy to tackle anything, and it all feels overwhelming.

A quick win

Sometimes, a quick win is all you need to start the journey. As you see the success, you are motivated to stay on course, which helps with self-discipline.

Someone feeling better about their body may be more likely to start exercising, leading to a new pattern of behaviour, but this is not done with tablets alone. It must be part of an overall wellness programme that involves proper nutrition and a realistic exercise plan that they can incorporate into their lives.

It should also address mental wellness and possible emotional issues around food.

I am sharing this discussion not to endorse weight-loss medication but because it made me think about the importance of motivation and self-discipline when it comes to our finances.

Paying off debt is one of the easier goals to achieve because you can see results quickly, especially if you use the snowball method. Using this strategy, you target the smallest debt first and pay it off as quickly as possible. That is a quick win that motivates you to keep going.

If you are overindebted, debt review, where lower interest rates can be negotiated, also allows you to see the results sooner. It has the added feature of not allowing you to take on more debt until your current debt is paid off, which helps with self-discipline.

The importance of mindset

But if you settle your debts with a lump sum, like drawing from your pension, you may not have learnt the important lessons of managing your daily cash flow to prevent you from getting back into debt.

While it is a quick solution, over the long term, chances are that you will fall back into debt. Any lasting change must incorporate a new money mindset and new behaviours.

Committing to long-term investing is harder. It takes time to see results, as you need time to benefit from the power of compounding.

You may feel that you are cutting back on your lifestyle to fund something that at first is not growing. It becomes harder to stay the course or not be tempted to cash it in.

To achieve true wealth creation, you need to understand that the R100 000 today is the future R1 million. If you invest R3 000 a month for the next 15 years, there is a good probability that it will be worth R1.2 million. Understanding compounding and that each year it could increase by another R120 000 will help you stay on course.

One of the most powerful examples of compounding is a calculation done by Nedgroup who calculated that if a parent invested R2 750 a month for their child for the first 18 years of their life, when the child turned 60, they would have R20 million in today’s value. That is how we leave a legacy!