Motivation. We hear it almost everywhere yet we can’t find it in ourselves when need to complete important tasks. Or at least not every day.
A classic example of this is hitting the gym.
One day, your motivation may be weighing more than 50 KG of dumbbells in anticipation of getting a better physique.
And the very next day it may turn as soft as your bed that you can’t get off it.
This brings a few questions into the picture: –
- Is motivation really important to get meaningful tasks done?
- Are we relying on motivation the wrong way?
- And what’s better than motivation?
You will get answers to all of these questions and more in this blog post. But let’s start with…
Why is motivation important?
Imagine a guy with zero motivation whatsoever. What do you think will his life look like?
If you ask me, we are talking about a dead person here because they are the only ones who need no motivation – complete peace, complete rest.
- You eat because you want to sustain your life.
- You go to the office or run your business to afford your meal, roof, and warmth at the very least.
- You breathe because you don’t want to die in the next few minutes.
Every living being – humans, animals, and even insects – have the motivation to some extent so that they can survive and keep the world going.
However, we don’t just want to survive. “It is our human nature to want to thrive, that people want to flourish,” says Susan Fowler, a bestselling author, in her podcast interview with LeadX.
And this is where the unreliability of motivation is exposed.
Why is motivation unreliable?
Earlier, flourishing was about being stronger in the tribe. Nowadays, it is about being more accomplished or respected in the community.
But the problem with flourishing is that it takes a lot of time and continuous effort to show up.
To continue our example of the gym, you hardly get anything after your first day at workout apart from selfies against the gym mirror and an aching pain throughout your body.
For your muscles to show up or your fat to burn down, you need to work out over and over again for a long time.
And if you are relying on motivation to push you daily to go to the gym (or any other way you want to flourish), you are in for a great disappointment.
Simply stated, motivation doesn’t always come to your service when you need it. You need something more reliable than this to get your thing done daily.
Read more: Why Do You Procrastinate? Here Are 8 Reasons
What’s better than motivation?
It is consistency and habit.
That means you show up daily whether you feel motivated or not. That means you show up daily even if you make the slightest possible progress. And that means you show up daily despite all the resistance employed against you.
If you show up every day, with or without motivation, it all adds up to building consistency and habit. And that’s how you flourish.
So instead of searching for motivation, look up to build a habit.
And the funny part is once you become consistent and results start coming, motivation also will knock on your mental door uninvited to push you even further.
Mark Manson mentions this as the “Do Something” principle in his book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. It states:
“If you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, do something — anything, really — and then harness the reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself.”
Conclusion
So what is it that you what to be consistent about? Start making progress towards it even if it barely moves the needle. Take it one day at a time and soon enough you will build a precious habit that will serve you for a lifetime.
Read more: A Simple And Easy Way To Improve Your Focus
