We’ve all had those moments where we see an inspiring story or a video that makes us think ‘It’s time to change my life.‘
This creates a feeling that makes us sign up to a gym, telling ourselves that ‘this time it’s different‘.
We have made our minds up, there is no doubt that we will achieve the results we’ve always wanted.
For a week or two we find ourselves energised to get out of bed, excited to tackle this new project and kick ass in the gym.
Why is it, however, that after these couple of weeks, we find ourselves sleeping in again, and missing our workouts?
The energy.. the motivation.. for some reason it’s gone..
Is this a familiar picture for you? Have you been stuck in the rollercoaster waves of life, only performing well when energy levels and motivation are high? Yet falling off the horse when something may affect your emotional state or throw you slightly off course?
Motivation is a fleeting emotion, a feeling that, much like the ‘honeymoon’ period of a relationship, eventually fades, and after it fades, what do we do?
How do we get the results we’ve always wanted yet struggle to obtain?
Read the article below for the answers you want!
SO WHAT IS MOTIVATION?
So this is a definition from scientists..
“Motivation is general willingness to do something and the related psychological forces behind that.”
If we put this into language that us regular people understand.. “Motivation is the energy that drives change in our lives.”
I like to think of motivation as a form of energy, and when this energy is high, we tend to take massive action, when this energy is low however, it can be really hard to get off of our butts.
This energy is generally created when we notice the need for change.
Starting a new behaviour for the first time, is generally the hardest action to take and requires the most motivation, after we’ve broken the ice, or taken the hardest and scariest step it’s generally down hill from there.
By paying attention to the things we don’t want, as well as getting ourselves excited about the things we really want, we can create some energy to drive change in our lives.
Here’s a quick exercise to build some motivational energy to overcome that first hard step!
- List all of the things problems you have in your life, where would your life be if you kept down this track without solving these problems in 5 years? 10 years?
- List down all of the things you want in your life, where could your life be if you started pursuing these things in 5 years? In 10 years?
Use this burst of energy to start a new habit and get your butt moving.
Why Action trumps motivation
So motivation gets the ball rollling, what keeps the ball rolling?
To keep the ball rolling, we need to realise that we need to act regardless of how we feel.
This is something we need to understand using our logical mind.
If we always relied on our energy levels or our emotional state, we’d never accomplish anything, because eventually our emotional state may drop when life throws a curve ball our way.
Is our life meant to crumble and fall when we don’t feel 100%?
Nope.
When we feel down, it’s more important than ever to maintain our good behaviours because they’re the things that will make us feel better and create the life that we love!
Acting, even when we can’t be bothered is called having grit, and this is what separates successful people from regular people.
Do you think elite athletes always ‘feel like’ working out hard?
I can guarantee you they don’t, but they would 100% logically know and understand that them working hard would lead to the results they wanted in the first place.
How to keep ‘acting’ when motivation is gone
The key to ongoing results is having a plan, and sticking to it no matter what comes your way.
Break down your goal into a piece by piece, step by step action plan that takes the big scary goal and makes it bite-sized.
Take those steps and throw them into your calendar, planner or organise and then when the time comes… Just do it!
This plan is extremely important, it is the thing that will hold you together even when motivation may fizzle away into nothingness.
As long as you stick to the plan, you will have the results you were after.
After a period of time, the action will become a habit, and by this point it will be effortless to maintain staying on track. (check out this amazing article on the psychology of willpower and habits)
Wrapping things up
So to summarise this amazing article in a nutshell.
- Motivation is the energy that is required to create intitial change
- To generate motivation we can focus on the pain in our life, or things we want
- Motivational will inevitably run out
- When motivation runs out, we need to rely on planning and continued action
- With continued action and sticking to the plan, our actions will become habits, which will create results
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Until next time..
Keep being a good human!
