Motivation: How to Get Some

What it is, What it isn’t and What To Do When You Don’t Have Any

 

No interview with the rich and famous is complete without the obligatory, “How do you stay motivated?” question.  The answer usually involves some string of buzzwords with the word ‘passion’ mixed in.

I call BS and here’s why

Motivation is a feeling and like all feelings (happiness, sadness, etc) will come and go based on circumstances and environment.  If that were not bad enough, sometimes we suffer from conflicting motivations. “To eat that third slice of cake or not to eat it? That is the conflict.

What motivation is not

This magical, mystical thing called ‘motivation’ is not the be-all and end-all of human development.  Despite what they might say, few world-class athletes got where they are solely on motivation and talent.  Motivation alone cannot be reliably counted on to spur you to greater levels of achievement or guarantee that you will work towards your goals.

“……..  high levels of motivation are both scattershot and unsustainable.” -BJ Fogg PhD. Tiny Habits

This myth about the power of motivation seems to have spread across the globe. Leaving dispirited, uncertain minds, stripped of self-confidence in its wake. 

I can back up the above statement with facts. 

For the last several months, I’ve been answering questions on Quora.com mostly on topics related to Personal Development.  The experience has been both illuminating and saddening.  There are too many questions from people seeking ‘motivation’ to study subjects they hate, and ‘motivation’ to pursue careers that only make their parents happy.

It has been my unhappy duty to inform many of them that pinning their success to ‘motivation’ alone cannot work.

“Motivation is like a party-animal friend.  Great for a night out but not someone you would rely on to pick you up from the airport.”

BJ Fogg Phd – Tiny Habits

So What does work?

Habits, Rituals and The Real Secrets of Motivation

All of us will feel demotivated at some point.  We lose motivation when we realize, how hard something really is.  Humans love novelty, if something is no longer fun or unique we quit due to a lack of motivation.  Like snow in the middle of summer, motivation disappears when we are uncertain of the next step.

The good news is that there are multiple ways to overcome the lack of motivation. 

Secrets of Motivation

Regardless of how you feel at the beginning of a task, you are more likely to continue once it’s started. You will feel more motivated and find it more rewarding if it’s not too easy or too hard.

Yerkes – Dodson Law – states that peak motivation occurs when working on a task that is not so hard to cause fear or anxiety and not so easy that it becomes boring.

Wikipedia

Want to know another secret?  Distractions will cause you hate the task even more.  Wait!! WHAT? This is counter-intuitive  because we use distractions to make the work more tolerable.  How could we manage without social media notifications, calls from friends and cute cat videos? 

Consider this, each distraction mentally drags you back to the start, which is the part you hate most.  If the work is the equivalent of being dragged over hot sand, then distraction causes it to feel like being dragged up a mountain path.  Put the phone in a drawer, block distracting websites, put on instrumental music, and buckle down to your work.

The Importance of Rituals

I’ve written about the power of rituals before but here is a refresher course.  A ritual is a string of actions/behaviours or near habits (more on habits later) performed in a particular order.  Rituals lower the difficulty of getting started.  Even a seemingly small morning ritual will lead to more motivation throughout the day.  

Here is an example.

I get out of bed in the morning and head to the bathroom to pee.  After that, I open the blinds on my south-facing window, raise my arms over my head in a victory pose and say, “Today is going be a great day!” (Repeated twice because sometimes I’m not listening) Then I say, “I thank the Lord for this day” (Twice) and end with “Today is going to be a great day!”  

I then turn from my window and make my bed by fluffing the pillows and folding the covers. 

What are the benefits of this ritual?  The day starts with a positive affirmation, a statement of gratitude, and the first success of the day – making my bed.  Having spent almost 40 years not making my bed, every day I get it done, it feels like a win. 

This ritual makes it easier to begin the day with a more focused mindset instead of the previous habit of strolling from the bedroom to the kitchen to the workshop. That mindless wandering drained mental and physical energy every morning.  I also use other rituals once I reach my job, but that’s another post.

Habits

 Your habits are a powerful ally in the quest to live your best life, but they can also be cruel enemies.  This is because habits take root in the subconscious.  Actions and behaviours springing from the subconscious are automatic, eliminating the need for thought whether good or bad.  The reason ‘bad’ habits are impossible to stamp out entirely is that once the ‘cue’ is present, the rest of the behaviour unfolds naturally.

It’s almost 9:00 pm and your favourite show is about to come on, the urge to pour that glass of wine or get that scoop of ice-cream must be obeyed.  If you want to know why; it’s because the association between the show and consuming food/beverage is actually encouraged by various companies including the network.  The impulse to eat and drink will, in time become a habit with long-term consequences for your health.  If a habit can be created to increase the profits of a company, why not use them to your own benefit?

According to Atomic Habits there are four steps to building a habit and I’ve added another from Dr. BJ Fogg Phd. 

1. Make the habit obvious.  
2. Make it attractive
3. Break it into steps until it’s easy
4. Make it satisfying
5. ‘Shine’ – Do a little physical movement like a thumbs up, sing a bar of an inspirational song, etc. This attaches the new habit to a good feeling. ‘Tiny Habits” by BJ Fogg Phd

The benefit of deliberately building a habit is that the need for a ‘feeling’ to show up is unnecessary.  The habit you create may not need to get you motivated to do ALL the work, it can cause you to begin the task which is often the hardest part.  

“……….. really successful people feel the same lack of motivation as everyone else.  The difference is that they still find a way to show up despite the feeling of boredom.”

Atomic Habits

The difference between habits and rituals?  A habit is done so often that it no longer requires thought and are hard to alter.  Rituals have multiple components, any of which can be changed or forgotten.  My morning ritual of opening the blinds and making the bed only happens on weekdays, on weekends I crawl back into bed until 2:00 pm.

Conclusion

Your feelings are fickle and cannot be relied upon to lead to long-term success.  An over-reliance on the feeling called ‘motivation’ actually leads to failure.  The more you fail the less motivated you feel, creating a downward spiral, but the opposite is also true.  The more you feel successful at something, no matter how small, the more motivated you are to keep doing it. This growth through continuous increments.

I hope you enjoyed this post and will add these tips to your mental toolkit.  Your ‘lack of motivation’ days won’t disappear but now you have other methods to keep you on the path to success.

All The Best.