Finding everyday motivation can be very challenging.
But it’s easy when you stop paying attention to all the mediocre gurus out there.
There are so many gurus.
So many experts.
Everyone knows something about everything.
These experts make money from being experts.
The reality is that they are just experts at telling the world that they are experts.
We see them.
They gain social media followings.
They build businesses. They have social proof.
What most of them are taking advantage of is collective inaction.
They monetize inconsistency.
I remember when I was writing my first book. I wrote the manuscript. Stopped, and read more stuff online about storytelling. Watch YouTube videos. I didn’t take action.
Then I joined a mastermind of writers. I plan to join. I put some skin in the game. It forced me to take action.
Mediocre gurus only make it because a lot of us lack consistency.
We don’t know how to stay motivated.
The art of motivation was never taught.
The Motivation Bus Stop
Most people are waiting for the motivation genie to come down and touch their heads with the motivation wand so they can get to the meaningful work they want to do.
I get it.
I used to watch cartoons growing up.
But that’s not how motivation happens.
There’s no genie in the sky.
There’s no muse waiting to bless you with greatness.
The more you wait on the consistency genie to move you towards your goals, the more time you spend not learning how to get there.
The further away you are from your goals, the more unhappy you become.
Adding to the unhappiness pandemic that is going on right now.
A big part of that is linked to a lot of us not doing meaningful work.
Some will say:
“Easy for you to say, not everyone knows what they want to do”
“I just need more time to get more clarity before moving forward”
“If I had more free time I’d get to it”
Whatever floats your boat.
I’m just the messenger.
The muse only supports those who show up.
The spark to show up comes from within.
Being consistent requires motivation.
Motivation is not going to be handed to you on a silver platter.
You have to cultivate it.
Motivation comes through perpetual action.
Motivation comes after you show up, not before.
It is only sustainable with intentions, directed attention, feedback loops, and a self-directed sense of progress.
The motivation you are seeing can only come from within.
Consistency is a habit that you have to nurture.
4 Things You Need To Know About Motivation
When you learn the true nature of motivation and self-confidence.
You’ll understand that you are in control of your motivation. You’ll set up your environment to help you get to your goals.
You’ll understand the seed of your procrastination and develop a simple way to grow through writing.
Here are 4 things you need to know about motivation:
1. Don’t rely on your goals.
Your goals cannot motivate you. It’s how you develop your craving for the goal that is the biggest motivation.
I’ve spent a few years posting on LinkedIn.
I’ve learned one thing: don’t get attached to the results.
After the celebration of a big “successful post” comes the “down and doubt” of posting the next one.
I’ve learned to care more about the striving of getting better than the celebration of being better.
Dopamine plays a major role in motivation.
Not as a reward to attain a goal as previously thought but more as a craving to achieve the goal.
There are two sources of motivation as it relates to dopamine. The first is to be able to sense the craving as its source of pleasure.
Celebrating the result more than the pursuit of it sets you up for failure. This is the dopamine reward prediction error.
When your expectation of the pleasure the result brings doesn’t match your expectation, this brings pain.
There’s a crash that comes after achieving a goal. This crash comes with pain which sets the dopamine lower than its base level.
People can get down after this crash. The people who succeed are those who are aware of this and don’t let the crash fester before they start building the dopamine again.
They know that dopamine is a motivating ingredient and not the result of getting a reward. They wait a few days and let the craving start to build up again.
Other people will immediately start to do other things that they think will give them a dopamine hit but soon get demotivated.
Self-regulation is the biggest way to manage dopamine dynamism.
Self-regulation includes external discipline that you put in place to “self-deny”. e.g. no phone for the 1st hour of the day.
Self-regulate and pay attention to the craving for the goal rather than the goal itself. Focus on the process
2. Detach your self-worth from performance
This one thing will help you stop procrastinating – “you are not what you do.”
As an entrepreneur, I have ownership of my time. Without the guardrails of the expectations of others, it can be very challenging to self-motivate.
I find that I procrastinate on certain tasks.
After I overcame the fear, and finished the task, I found that the task took less time than the actual time spent procrastinating.
We are driven by an innate need to protect our sense of self. We want to be seen as capable, able, and competent. We equate our worth to our performance, which we tie directly to our ability
When we procrastinate, we are inherently protecting ourselves because we think our worth is directly tied to our ability to perform.
Even though we want to succeed, we also have a very high fear of failure.
To overcome procrastination, move away from avoidance and approach motivation. Give yourself reminders and stack up the reasons why you need to perform the task.
Break the task down into small manageable chunks
The final step to break this is to break the performance, ability, and worth equation.
Your ability was not solely based on your performance level and more importantly, your worth is not based on your ability
3. Motivation starts with YOU and ends with US
Self-motivation is all about empowerment.
Starting with “You can do it” and ending with “We can do it together.”
When I wrote Press Play, I wasn’t sure whether I should take the writing class to publish my book.
I wasn’t sure whether it was worth it.
But I did know, it was worth learning the process.
The belief from the instructor, someone who had published before, gave me the belief in myself.
Working with a group of other aspiring writers also kept me accountable to keep going.
At the time, I didn’t realize these were all recipes to keep me motivated with my storytelling.
Self-motivation begins with empowerment.
Your answer to these three questions:
- Can I do it?
- Will it work?
- Is it worthwhile?
Determines your level of self-motivation. if you answered yes to all three, you feel competent to do worthwhile work.
A third component is choice.
Did you have the freedom to choose what you are doing? Do you have autonomy?
Because that freedom also leads to self-motivation.
Self-motivation is about 4Cs. Competence, consequence, choice, and community.
Competence is a sense that you can do it. Consequence is knowing the result of taking an action. Choice is deciding whether what you’re doing is worthwhile. Community comes when we are interdependent – learning from one another.
Self-motivation requires being humble to keep learning.
Being open to feedback to gauge competency level. Being aware of the consequences of your actions and whether the consequence is worth the effort.
Create a recipe for your motivation.
Choose projects that leverage your competence, create a consequence important to you, and do it with other people.
4. Use writing to stay motivated
Writing is a feedback process of discovery and growth. It creates a virtuous cycle of action and reflection.
I write to discover what I know
That’s one of the best lines about writing I’ve come across.
The things that motivate us most are intrinsic. One of them is wanting to see growth.
To do this we need feedback loops
Writing is a great loop.
When you write, it allows you to observe your understanding.
It helps you plan. It provides a space to measure your progress.
Writing does not take away time from you. It creates time for you to take successful action.
Write to measure and keep your motivation.
Final Thoughts
Curate it by understanding that the craving for the goal is more important than the goal itself.
Break the attachment of your self-worth from your ability to perform and develop real empowerment with competence and community.
Utilize writing as a feedback tool to measure and keep your motivation.
Keep it going, step by step.
