Discipline

Motivation is the spark you feel on Monday morning. Discipline is what gets you back to the desk on Thursday night after the spark has gone. A discipline poster is built for that second moment: few words, clean type, and a quiet reminder of why you started.

Get the words right

Motivational walls are full of fake quotes. The most famous: 'We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.' It's credited to Aristotle almost everywhere, but the wording belongs to the historian Will Durant, summarising Aristotle in 'The Story of Philosophy' (1926). Aristotelian idea, Durant's sentence. Check before you print.

Lines with solid sources:

• Seneca, opening 'On the Shortness of Life': it isn't that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.
• The Arabic proverb 'man jadda wajada' (من جدّ وجد): whoever strives, succeeds.
• Or something plain and direct, like 'Motivation fades. Discipline stays.'

What makes a good discipline poster

Discipline doesn't do clutter, and neither should the poster. Black or white backgrounds, one accent colour (red, gold or olive), widely spaced capitals and lots of empty space. The more minimal the layout, the louder the message.

Where to hang it

• Desk: at eye level when you're sitting down, because that's where revision is won or lost.
• Door: the last thing you read before heading out.
• Pairings: match it with Gym & Grind if your battle happens under a barbell, or with Stoicism if it happens in your head.

Explore every mood in Aura & Quotes, printed in Tunisia and delivered to all 24 governorates.