What is motivation?
The alarm is ringing. The sun is shining up and welcoming a new day. The birds are chirping. The empty streets are beginning to get flooded with people. Everyone is getting ready to take their roles and go on for the day.
And you?
Ah! You’re curling up in your bed finding it hard to gather the courage to open your eyes, get up, and face the world. You’re dreading the new morning. And so you’re simply caught up in your thoughts — cursing your destiny for being unfair to you, pondering over your regrets, weeping over your broken relationships, or finding flaws in your spouse.
Does it ever happen to you?
And what would you say if I ask — why do you feel this way?
“I don’t have the motivation to do anything.”
Is this your response?
Motivation. Such a fancy word. Isn’t it? And nowadays, we use it explicitly.
“Oh! I’m not motivated to lose weight”
“I don’t have the motivation to study”
“I don’t have the motivation to find a job”
Well, “motivation” is controlling such significant episodes in our lives, it definitely must be pursued. Right? And that’s why we all are running after it. Fair enough! However, here on this page, I’m going to tell you that Motivation is rubbish. You read it right. It’s utter rubbish! We often blame ourselves for not being motivated enough to perform a certain task.
Do we really need motivation?
Every day we get up and take a bath. Do we really care to ask ourselves whether we are motivated to take shower or not? We just do it because it has become a well-established habit. In the same manner, tell me — Do you need the motivation to eat chocolate? Do you need to feel motivated to sleep? Aren’t you motivated enough to browse the Instagram feed?
I’m sure you are!
So, how can you say that you lack motivation?
Hear me out — we seek motivation only for doing the hard tasks. That’s how our brains are wired. Our brains stop us from doing anything that is uncertain, requires effort, or is an unfamiliar task. Further, we don’t need any dose of motivation to carry out our daily routine tasks such as brushing our teeth, taking showers, browsing Instagram, and eating food among others. We have become habituated to doing these things every day. So, we hardly care about being motivated.
Motivation is a big lie
Most of the time, we know what we need to do in order to fix our problems, but we don’t take any action because we convince ourselves that we lack M-o-t-i-v-a-t-i-o-n.
Even when we know what steps should be taken to achieve what we want to, we just don’t feel like putting in any effort; we tell ourselves that we can’t do anything until and unless we cultivate the feeling of motivation. We stop ourselves from doing anything because we simply want to feel motivated. But let me tell you this — Sometimes, we will be motivated to do hard work, while, the other day, we won’t even care. So, if we rely on motivation, we’re heading toward a dead end.
Motivation is unreal. Motivation is temporary. It’s not a fixed asset. How can you rely on something that is not even there to support you when you need it? It comes and goes. You can’t be dependent on it. You need to stop chasing the feeling of being motivated.
Stop running after motivation
When you’re feeling low and losing charge of your life and somebody comes up and tells you — hey, all you need to do is be motivated! Crap!
What’s there in life to feel motivated about? — you might wonder and it will frustrate you even more. And that’s when you lose the game as your focus shifts to gaining motivation rather than taking action. In fact, we consume dozens of motivational content around us — self-help books, youtube videos, articles, speeches, and whatnot! But, ever wonder, why the inciting voice of the speaker in a youtube video is not able to push you? Or even if it does, the effect does not last long. That rush of energy is temporary.
You don’t need motivation, you need momentum
Do you want to start a workout routine? Similarly, do you want to cook healthy food? Do you want to finish that long pending work? Well, don’t wait for anything. Don’t give your brain the time to run a surge of excuses. Just get started within a few seconds! Physical movement is the key. You need to face your excuses, fears, and habits. Every new phase of your career will come with some change and it will require you to take action. What will you do then? Wait for motivation? No!
Rather, Create momentum in your life; don’t wait for motivation. You’ll find yourself in a happy space even without any motivation when you simply start taking action. Besides, to tell you the truth, you don’t need any motivation to carry out your daily routine tasks. A person who is struggling to earn his bread and butter would do everything to survive. In fact, many people living in third-world countries hardly care about being motivated. So, this whole concept of motivation is overhyped. We all need to get over it.
A small tip — prepare for a lasting change
Write down the specific areas in which you’re struggling and need a little push or “motivation”. Now, make these things a non-negotiable part of your lifestyle. Prepare a list of non-negotiables and start doing these tasks without giving any excuses to yourself. When you place the label “non-negotiable”, your brain knows there is no other option and you simply start taking action. Do follow this tip and let me know in the comments section how it helped you.
Also Read: Self-Motivation
