Duality of Mind

The inner voice is a dialogue - not a monologue.
One side urges you to do something (be it good or bad), and the other finds a reason not to do it. Evaluation of the pros and cons of an activity is done by two separate thought processes.
One voice is of the ambitious, disciplined version of you—the one that sets an alarm to wake up early, that takes resolutions to quit smoking, drinking, and sugary or fried foods.
The other voice is the lazy version—that procrastinates, eats bad food, and makes you victimize yourself.
To take control, or to be disciplined, is to listen to the former one and follow through.

Every time we procrastinate on what we had planned to do or eat what we shouldn't, we feed this second voice until it gets loud enough that we stop hearing the first voice. That's the point when depression starts. At least from personal experience, every time I get indulged in a time-wasting activity, I know beforehand that this is not good for me—a voice always keeps saying, "Don't do it, don't do it," but I still do it. Not always, but a lot of the time. These little failures accumulate every day. Self-love soon becomes self-sabotage.

Little successes also accumulate. You start building confidence in your abilities, and the journey gets easier. But the only caveat is that we have to do it every single day.

Being disciplined doesn't mean you always feel like doing the right thing, but to have the wisdom to know what is right and follow through.
Clarity is the precondition to discipline. When you are clear about your goals, you start separating things that will push you towards your goal from the ones that push you away from it. Then you start doing the right things, despite how you feel, and this is what discipline is.

Imagine how great life would be if we just listened to the right inner voice consistently.

Here's what I do to reinforce the right behavior and reduce friction for doing hard (and meaningful) things:
1. I try to refuse the urge to do a lazy thing at least a few times a day. Let's say I get an urge to pull out my phone and scroll Instagram. Then I notice that, tell myself this is not the right thing to do, and I don't do it.
2. I feel like doing a challenging or weird thing, but then the second inner voice says, "Are you mad?", "Who does that?", "Maybe tomorrow." Well, at this point, I know the inner coward doesn't want to do it. Guess what—I do it. That reinforces the correct behavior. Next time, doing the exact same thing will have less friction because I'll have evidence that backs the fact that I am capable of doing challenging things.

Referring to an old story I read somewhere: The inner voices—good and bad—are like two wolves fighting. Who wins?

The one you choose to feed.