Motivation - Magic, Myth or Method?
It’s Monday which means only one thing a fresh start, a new week, a chance to make some big progress against your goals. That good old fashioned Monday motivation should be knocking at your door any minute. I have heard of this thing called motivation and it sounds wonderful, where do I get it? What if I told you that you already have it you just need to choose it?
I am sure you have probably heard people utter a sentence similar to this, “oh I would love to (insert suitable subject here) but I am just not motivated enough.” I am sorry to say this, and there really is only one way to say it, I call bullshit!
I spent years of my life watching the people around me achieve wonderful impressive things and I always thought that I am just not someone who could ever achieve those impressive goals. I accepted my lot. I just wasn’t “motivated” enough.
We often talk about motivation like it is some tangible thing that some people have and some people don’t, that is not the case. Motivation, or lack of motivation, is a choice. How motivated you are towards your goals depends upon the choices you make and the habits you build to help you achieve them.
If you aren’t feeling all that motivated this Monday I have some questions for you to consider:
Are your goals the right goals for you?
Do your habits align with your goals? For example you want to become a runner, how often do you run?
Is the action you are taking set out at the right level? Extract taken from Atomic Habits by James Clear - “The Goldilocks Rule states that humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right.”
Do you really want to achieve the goal you say you want to achieve or are you doing it because you think you should?
If this wasn’t your goal, what would your goal be instead? Which one excites you more?
It would be wonderful if we could buy a bottle of motivation and be on our way, but it just isn’t that easy. Motivation comes from choosing yourself and your goals even when you don’t want to. Motivation means doing the little niggly tasks as well as the exciting ones. Motivation means accepting that you won’t always make huge leaps forward in progress, and accepting that sometimes just taking action will be the win for that day. Motivation is dragging yourself out to do something on the days when you would rather do something else. Motivation comes from aligning your habits with the goals you have set. Motivation isn’t magic, or myth, it’s a choice.
