Let’s talk more about motivation today. I want us all to be challenged by motivation and especially our lack of it. When you have a goal in front of you and are lacking motivation it can often be difficult to get going and gain the momentum we talked about in the last momentum post (If you haven’t read that one go back and check it out here). I want to say something that might be a little counter-intuitive and might even be a little difficult for some of us to put into action. When you have a goal in front of yourself, whether or not you have motivation should not matter even a little bit. You don’t feel like it today? You don’t want to take those steps you laid out for yourself to accomplish your goals? I say it shouldn’t matter!!! Motivation should not matter at all when you have something you want to accomplish.
Sometimes it feels like saying we lack motivation is just another way of saying that we are lazy. If you want to be lazy just say it like it is, don’t say you lack motivation because that’s often not the problem. Your motivation is that you want to complete a goal and guess what? You set that goal for yourself and you committed to yourself that you were going to accomplish it so why in the world would you let a little thing like not having motivation stop you from accomplishing that? I say don’t! Don’t let a lack of motivation rob you of the momentum (no matter how small) you have built up for yourself. Tell your lack of motivation to be quiet and move on into accomplishing your goal. You are going to push through and get moving whether or not you have motivation, after all it is your goal isn’t it?
See here’s the secret in my mind, I truly believe that motivation is actually an emotion, like feeling lazy or worried or any of the other emotions that could really easily derail your commitment towards your goals. You might be a little frustrated from something that happened to you over the day and when you get home from work you just want to lay down in your bed quit for the day. However, when you need to make yourself something to eat or take care of your kids or some other need you view as important you don’t just let that emotion take over and control you, you push through the emotion to take care of the needs you have in the moment. I believe we can do the same with our lack of motivation. If the goal you have set for yourself is going to make you a better person or help you in your life, maybe it’s time to start viewing the steps as necessary in life instead of just treating it like something you would like to do someday.
When we begin to have more control over our emotions then we will start to see things happen, we will start to push through barriers, and start accomplishing our goals and not letting things like a lack of motivation or a little frustration or other emotions get in the way of getting done what we know needs to be done in our lives. You control your emotions, not the other way around, so get in control and get moving towards being a better person and accomplishing those goals one step at a time!
Reminds me of a similar challenge I read on the weekend — that really habits are more important than goals. Healthy habits just keep you moving along no matter what comes along.
Absolutely Roger! You don’t need motivation when a good behavior is habitual, and many goals would be more so beneficial to us if they became habits in our life!
Habits, consistency, with room for creativity — things I’m working on.
Things we all need to work on at some level I am sure. Keep it up and that’s what I call Finding Your True!