You also have to be hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent would not be called det... — Paul Graham

You also have to be hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent would not be called determined. Determination implies your willfulness is balanced by discipline.

Author: Paul Graham

Insight: We live in a culture that celebrates willpower as if it's the whole story. Someone who "goes for it" gets the spotlight. But there's a quiet distinction that matters: the person who actually changes their life isn't usually the one with the strongest desires. They're the one who can want something and then... not do it anyway. They can skip the thing that feels good right now because they've decided something else matters more. The tricky part is that real discipline isn't about being harsh or joyless. It's about being honest with yourself when you're rationalizing. You order takeout "just this once" while claiming you're serious about cooking. You scroll for ten more minutes while knowing you said you'd stop. Those small moments of self-indulgence aren't failures—they're the actual test. Determination shows up in how you handle them, not in how you feel on your best days. What makes this harder is that willpower and discipline pull in opposite directions. Pure willpower can burn out because it's exhausting to white-knuckle through everything. Pure self-indulgence feels great temporarily but gets you nowhere. The people who actually get things done aren't more ambitious than others. They're just slightly better at noticing when they're fooling themselves, and slightly more willing to push back against their own excuses.

Source: How to Get Startup Ideas, 2012