Feeding The Motivation Beast Finding and managing your inner drive

Motivation sometimes feels like a locomotive. You constantly need to be shoveling coals, hands calloused, sweating uncontrollably as you try to keep chugging along to your goal. Without it, you’re dead on the tracks.

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily. — Zig Ziglar

No one is exempt from a lack of motivation. The richest men and women in the world lose it. Your favorite athlete sometimes lacks motivation.

I heard Shannon Sharpe on the show Undisputed say that “it’s not wanting to play the game that makes athletes retire. It’s the lack of motivation to prepare for the game that makes them leave.”

So if you get up not wanting to work on that thing you said you were going to, you’re not alone.

What’s motivation exactly?

You can open a dictionary and define it as “the reason for acting or behaving in a particular way”.

That’s it in a nutshell. Motivation is a set of values we assign to an action or goal. If the task fuels our values, we will do it again and again.

For instance, when someone says they’re motivated by money, they will more likely and consistently complete tasks that get them the most money.

That implies there’s also a lot of feeling behind motivation too, as emotions guide the reason why we do things too.

So the more pleasure you get out of doing a task, the more motivated you should be to get it done consistently.

Why do we lose it?

I don’t care who you are, you’ve lost the motivation at some point during your life. You set a goal to lose weight, save money or start a new project then run out of steam after a few weeks or months.

Why we lose motivation is written in the definition itself. If there’s no “reason” for doing something, there’s no motivation to do it. Anything we set out to do has intention. The bigger and clearer the reason, the bigger the motivation. The more we’re reminded of our intention, the better our chances of following through. If we’ve lost some feeling behind the goal, we’ll lose some motivation too. And most of all, the bigger the stakes, the more invested we are in our goals. For instance, this is clear when someone gets a health scare and the difference between life and death is changing their diet.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

If the cost of inaction is low, chances are you’ll lose motivation pretty fast.

There are other sub-reasons which cause a lack of motivation. Like if the goal is too big, poor planning, fear, anxiety, or a lack of worthiness. But at its core, the “reason behind acting” must be deep and clear, else motivation’s good as gone.

How to keep it going

As Zig Ziglar said, we need a daily dose of motivation as it does not last. Lack of motivation leads to inaction and that becomes a habit. Here’s how to generate a little motivation every day:

Get clearer on the WHY: Flesh out some more your reason behind doing the things you do. If the purpose is not clear enough, the drive won’t be there.
Remind yourself daily on the WHY: Before you start your day, get in tune with your mission. A daily dose can pump you up to get shit done.
Tap into your community: Get around persons pursuing the same goals as you are. Taking a few minutes each day to help someone else and get some help can give you the extra boost to get going.
Address any roadblocks: You could be lacking the skills or solution to get through adversity. As a result, putting it off feels better. Every day, try to find 5–10 ideas to help you through those stumbling blocks killing your mojo.

Conclusion

I’m not going to lie, it takes effort to stay motivated daily. Having a deep enough reason helps feed the beast. If you’re struggling more days than usual, take some time to evaluate the reasons and connect with them to keep chugging along.