Motivation is fleeting
It is mid-February, how are your New Year’s Resolutions going?
If you set a goal, and planned to use motivation to achieve it; you are probably disappointed with what you have accomplished. Positive motivation is good for starting something. But when it wains, you need something different to move yourself forward? When the “I should do’s” start to be your motivation and you “should” all over yourself, do you start to depend on outside influences as motivation?
Do you look at those around you to influence your movements? Are you motivated by comparison and competition; or some other outside pressure? These work for awhile too; however, they can lead to negativity. Negative motivation can look like that little voice in your head that says “you never; you should; too fat, too slow, too dumb; etc.”
Motivation requires intensity. What is better and longer lasting than motivation? Consistency. Consistency > Intensity.
What creates consistency? Habits or rituals are the basis of consistency. Whatever it is you are trying to accomplish, you can create a habit or ritual around the required work and reach your goal much easier.
A goal is a destination. To reach that destination you need a map and directions to help you get there. Habits are the map and directions; they are the way to reach your destination.
How to develop a new habit? To do that you need to know what it is you need to be doing. Once you have figured that out you need to do it regularly such as the same time every day. In Atomic Habits by James Clear, he writes about habit stacking. This act is a great way to develop a habit. The trick is to add the habit you want to create to a habit you are already doing. For example: you want to run every morning, so you put that new habit after another habit that you are already doing daily, such as brushing your teeth. You get up, brush your teeth and then go running. You set your running clothes out the night before and put your fitness watch beside your toothbrush. Set your habit up for success. You stack running onto teeth brushing and you are more likely to do it.
When we ask others or ourselves “what motivates you,” recognize that the answer, that thing/person/place, is fleeting. Motivation doesn’t stick. Consistency does. Motivation requires desire to do something. Consistency takes the emotion out of the journey toward the goal.