Creative people and business people are often described as opposites, and in many ways they actually are; in values, instincts, how they measure progress, and so on. I've found that the largest difference isn't skill or mindset, it's that creatives, more than most, are powered by something that makes discipline feel redundant.
When you love what you do deeply enough, willpower is rarely an issue. That's the gift. The trap is that you can go years without ever building the muscle that passion was quietly replacing, and life has a way of eventually presenting you with doors that passion alone cannot unlock.
My favorite definition of discipline is; choosing the future outcome you want over the feelings or emotions you have in the moment.
In my experience as a creative professional, my love and passion for my work means I rarely need to exercise any willpower to put in the hours, watch the courses and the tutorials or spend hours on my computer till I get the desired outcome, and so on; all of that comes easy to me as I'm sure a lot of creatives would relate. What's more, the reward comes quite quickly, and the distance between effort and outcome keeps shrinking the more experience you build in your craft.
Now here comes the problem. Every endeavor in life isn't this smooth and straightforward. More often than not, you'll find that the distance between effort and reward is a lot larger than what you'd find in the flow of your craft. The process and effort required may not be as pleasant as the outcome you desire, and this is where the split often happens.
Most of your time gets spent trying to convince yourself that the effort is actually worth the outcome. It may not even be particularly difficult, sometimes it's just not as "fun" as you're used to, and boredom is a nightmare for a lot of people these days. And let's be honest, everything gets boring eventually, even that passion of yours. It all fades into routine.
What next?
We've established that when passion is present, it does most of the work. But passion is a feeling, and feelings are seasonal. Discipline on the other hand, is a decision, and decisions can be made independent of how you feel. The creative who only puts in the work when "inspired" will eventually be outpaced by the one who learned to work in spite of the emotional limitations. Not because one loves the craft more, but because one has learned to separate the act of showing up from the emotional state they're in when they do it.
So, the goal isn't to manufacture passion for things that don't excite you, it's to extend the same commitment you naturally give to the things you love into the areas of your life that require effort without the emotional reward. You already know how to be obsessed, you just need to be deliberate about it.
Understand that passion and discipline shouldn't be treated as opposites, they both serve different seasons of the same journey. Passion may get you started, but discipline keeps you going when the passion dims. For creatives especially, the challenge isn't learning how to work hard, it's learning to work consistently in seasons where the work doesn't feel like a reward in itself.