Motivation. We hear that word a lot, so much that it’s become quite a buzzword in today’s fast-paced and busy world. When we hear it a process is put into motion, certain thoughts and feelings are evoked. But what is motivation anyway? The dictionary definition of motivation is “the reason or reasons one has for acting or behaving in a particular way” and “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something”. Taking that definition apart, in simple terms it’s a desire to do something.
When we have something to do, whether it’s something we put on the table for ourselves or that’s on the table from others, being motivated is part of the process for sure, though being motivated is not all of it. Motivation is the feeling that sits in us and keeps that certain thing present in our mind. It whispers in our ear and tells us that thing is something important. When what’s on the table is something brought to our awareness by someone else, of course it’s understandable that motivation’s drive will likely have its limitations. That is, because when it’s brought to us by someone else and we have not yet owned it or only partially owned it, the value in completing it is lower on our personal priority list. On the other hand, when it’s something we bring to the table ourselves, we often think that it automatically becomes a priority and that automatically it will somehow naturally get done. We think that our motivation alone should be enough to make it happen, to get us rolling into motion towards that finish line.
What we often overlook though is that motivation is only part of the process. What we often don’t spend enough time and energy on to put into our awareness is that after motivation is in place, it is action that needs to be put into effect to get to the finish line. Simply put and quite obvious – without action it won’t get done.
So you might be wondering why then do we focus so much on motivation? To me, this brings to light the importance of the connection between our feelings and our thoughts, and how our feelings can have such a strong impact on our thoughts and then in turn what we do or don’t do, whether we take the needed action or not. Because the experience of motivation is so related to our feelings, we spend a lot of time “feeling out” how motivated we are. Then when it’s time to take action, we check in with our internal motivation meter and gauge how much we have of it. If it’s lower than we gauged it to be at a past point in time or lower than we imagined/desired/expected/wanted it to be at that moment then we make the conclusion that it’s just not enough to proceed with action. And we don’t do anything.
Imagine if instead you took motivation as a given part of the process always at 100%. For example, you have some task/project/goal you would like to or need to achieve, you feel motivated, you gauge it to be 100%, there’s no doubt about it. Then what? Will your task/project/goal automatically get done? Will you magically reach the finish line? Without action it won’t get done.
See what I’m saying? It’s just not enough to be motivated. Motivation is a very useful part of the process for sure, but action is even more important. Let’s take the scenario again and what if instead you said to yourself “Alright, I’ve got motivation in place and checked off the list”, didn’t question it again, and simply said to yourself in your most confident and commanding voice a firm resounding “YES, NEXT!” then move onto the first action step on your list? Then to the next, and the next after that. Before you know it, because you’ve put motivation in its place and kept it in your awareness in a firm position you stopped wasting your mental energy and time on making evaluating your motivation a long, nonobjective, and unclear action step in your process of reaching that goal. Instead you made it work for you and realized that what gets you to achieve is action – getting stuff done.
So next time you are faced with something you must get done, focus on the action steps – identifying them, planning them out, then seeing them through and realize how far you can go. And if gaining a better understanding of your motivation/lack of motivation/changing motivation/etc is something you need to accomplish, make this an action step along with your other action steps. Just don’t make it your one and only.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain
Additional reading you might like:
Decision Making: Why It’s So Hard
and
Mindset Shifts For Self-Confidence.
