“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing—that’s why we recommend it daily.” ~Zig Ziglar
While I’m not sure how many people are successful in keeping themselves motivated every day, you and I can easily agree that…
Motivation doesn’t last. But does it really matter?
Three Reasons Why Motivation Doesn’t Really Matter
Be brutally honest with yourself and answer this question:
Would you go to work every day if you relied on motivation alone?
You may say that you would because getting paid is what motivates you to go to work. But does getting paid really motivate you every day? Really you are motivated to work every day?
Be brutally honest with yourself!
A lot of what we do every day is not the result of motivation.
Motivation is unreliable
There are just so many factors that could affect motivation, therefore making it unreliable. Most of them are outside of our control. Your health condition, the weather, your interactions with others, the traffic, how you do at work and countless life events – these are just a few factors.
Motivation is uncontrollable
Can you rely on motivation to get up at 5 a.m. every day so you can exercise, read or write? What if you didn’t sleep well? What if you were getting sick? Like how little control we have over other events happening in and to our life, we have very little control over how motivated we can get.
Motivation isn’t the only drive for action
A lot of what we do every day is not dependent on motivation. You don’t need motivation to brush your teeth, to have a shower… You can come to work regardless of how motivated you are (or are not). If I had relied on motivation to write, I would not have published this post (as well as many others).
In fact, I got motivated as I began to write this post. It got better and better word after word, sentence after sentence.
Moral of the story here: You don’t always have to get motivated to do something; you can get motivated by getting started.
Ok, I got it now. But… what can you do instead?
Habit, of course.
While explanation of why you should make it a habit, this quote sums it all up:
“Motivation is what gets us started. Habit is what keeps us going.” Jim Rohn
This quote by Jim Rohn gives you a glimpse into a better alternative to motivation: HABIT.
But wait, doesn’t forming a habit also rely on motivation?
That’s how and why a lot of us fail, according to Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results by Stephen Guise. The book unveils a new approach to developing new habits, which is to build mini habits using willpower, but as little as possible.
Mini Habits explains compellingly how habits fail and clearly how to develop new habits that stick and return big results.
I very highly recommend Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results if you’re serious about building new habits.
Note: The link to the Amazon book is an affiliate link. It means I will get a small commission, at no additional cost to you. And please buy it only if you find it useful.
Still love this post. But has more to add. Will do later.