Motivation

Motivation is a fickle mistress. You cannot directly control it, yet we always keep waiting for it to appear.

• “Oh, I’ll write that book I’ve always wanted to write … but I’m not that motivated now”
• “Meh, I don’t have much motivation for this project anymore, let’s start a new project”
• “Yes! I am trying to be healthy! But … motivation is hard, so I haven’t exercised for three months.”

Yes, it’s great when motivation appears. But 95% of the time, it doesn’t appear.

So don’t expect it. Don’t even get influenced by it. I mean this statement both ways.

Sometimes, you might feel like you do have motivation. I always have motivation for new projects. Because it’s new, and exciting, and fresh.

But this is where people make a mistake. They let the motivation wash over them. They forget their good habits and consistency that led to productivity in the past.

And what happens when the motivation disappears after a few days? You’ll have a hard time picking up the pieces again.

Again, don’t expect motivation, don’t even think about it.

Surely we can influence it?

There are more than enough books about “how to stay motivated” or “where to get your motivation”.

Those titles are wrong. As I just explained, motivation is a process that happens in your brain that you don’t control. It might appear, it might not. It’s based on hormones, mood, health, past experiences, and so forth.

Those books don’t actually teach “motivation”. (It would be like “teaching” someone how to be happy on command.)

No, they teach tricks that lead to discipline and getting things done. Their title should be “how to stay productive” or “which habits lead to discipline”.

Because those are things you can influence.

For example, motivation depends a lot on mood and energy. You can influence that. If you don’t feel motivated now, you can …

• Do something relaxing for a bit (to regain energy)
• Eat well (to have more energy)
• Do something fun (that lifts your mood)
• Go to sleep (to reset all those properties that influence motivation)

But it’s not a certainty. It’s a gentle nudge in the right direction. You might play a game to relax, and end up just playing that game the whole night, never doing any work and never getting motivation.

So let’s go one step further: discipline.