“You know what?! I’m gonna wake up every morning at 6:30 am” says Sally rather ambitiously.
“You know what?! I’m gonna work out 5 times a week!” says Jimmy as he stares at his man boobs.
“You know what?! I’m never doing crack again!” says Bobby as he takes his ‘last’ hit.
“You know what?! I’m gonna write 2 blog posts a week!” says me, currently.
These are all common examples of people who are motivated to do something. They’re excited. They’re imagining all the opportunities that could arise. The life that awaits them. They plan it, getting the details straight of how they’ll achieve their goal.
There’s a few possibilities:
1. Least likely: They stay motivated for years, eventually becoming an expert at it.
2. Highly likely: They try it a few times, maybe even enjoy it for a bit. However, gradually their motivation declines. After a while they’re right back where they started.
3. Pretty likely: They don’t even try it because shortly afterwards they can’t be bothered, or think of some excuse why it’d be pointless anyways.
If you fall in category 1 for all your goals, firstly congratulations, and secondly, this post probably isn’t gonna be too useful for you.
So if you’re still reading, I’m assuming you’re not some crazy-efficient super robot and you fall in categories 2 or 3 at least in regards to some of your goals.
Let’s begin!
Why is motivation useful?
Motivation is the desire to do stuff.
It’s a feeling that makes us want to move towards a particular goal. If you want some #deepimagery, it can be considered the spark that ignites the fire (where fire = progress towards something). It can also help us push through some of the annoying obstacles that get in our way when we try to achieve something.
For example, when Bobby’s crack partner comes asking him to light up, his motivation to stop will make him say “Nah man, I quit that s@#!, I’m done…”, even though this might upset the partner.
Jimmy’s motivation to become the next Ronnie Coleman might actually make him pump some iron at the gym, regardless of the embarrassment he feels over his awkward form and the fact that he hasn’t touched a barbell in 10 years.
Basically, motivation pushes us to move in a certain direction, aiding us with the challenges we face… at least momentarily…
Why is it not enough?
As you may or may not have guessed due to the slightly dramatic, bold “momentarily” just above, there’s something that’s missing if we rely on motivation to do stuff.
Going back to our #deepimagery, a spark doesn’t do so much if there’s nothing keeping the fire alive. Damn, that’s pretty #deep right?
The problem is that motivation isn’t fixed, it comes and goes, sometimes spiking up for a little while just to crash down in a matter of hours/days. We often get motivated to make the change but it declines when we start taking action.
There are plenty of things that cause this:
In some cases it’s justified, like if you wanna start playing chess but you lose your brain, or you wanna turn into a squirrel but you can’t break reality… (Get it, ’cause those don’t make any sense so it’s never actually justified! Please laugh, I’m hilarious.)
Okay, seriously though, it is sometimes justified, i.e. sickness, injury, realising your goal is legit impossible or stupid, etc… (Check out my post on setting realistic goals – which doesn’t exist yet if you’re reading right now)
HOWEVER, more commonly it’s down to:
- “This is boring.”
- “This sucks”
- “Ow, this hurts.”
- “I was promised a 6 pack in 30 days, but I only have 1 less fat roll.”
- “This means that I genuinely have to invest a tiny portion of my time and effort? Screw that.”
- “I’m too dumb/smart/ugly/pretty/short/tall/ginger/blonde/hairy/bald ANYWAYS.”
The list of these ‘rational justifications’ (a.k.a excuses) goes on infinitely.
You realise that getting the goal you desire actually has a lot more challenges than you expected, or you might find that you’re naturally disadvantaged in some way.
Real progress can require you to lose a part of yourself that you’re too attached to. You’re used to the way you are right now, you have deeply-rooted habits that are part of you. You’re comfortable, so why would you want to be uncomfortable? Why would you want to give up 30 more minutes of sleep every morning or 1 hour of netflix binging every night?
That’s when a lot of people decide that it isn’t worth it. This might happen after a few weeks (think back to category 2), or before you’ve even started (category 3). Maybe one day your motivation returns… But it won’t be too long before the cycle repeats itself…
If Jimmy, Sally, Bobby and I rely on feeling good to work towards our goals, Jimmy’s going to be stuck with his man boobs for eternity, Sally’s going to be hitting snooze ’till 11 pm, Bobby’s gonna pick that crack pipe up again and I’m never going to have enough damn content on this blog!!
Relying on working towards your goals only when you’re motivated, isn’t going to be enough.
Alright… Motivation isn’t enough. So what do you need then?
“If I only worked out when I felt good, I’d be a fat f@#$! ‘Cause there’s a lot of days that I don’t wanna do it.” – Joe Rogan, stand-up comedian and martial arts commentator on a podcast with Jocko Willink
If you haven’t heard of David Goggins, you don’t know who the biggest bada$$ on this planet is.
Ex-navy seal, ultra marathon runner, held the world record for most pull ups in 24 hours. He had a heart defect which left a hole in his heart for years… without him being aware of it.
He ran his first 100 mile race (161 km) without training for it and without ever even running a marathon before. Pissing blood, stress fractures, shin splints and the broken bones in his feet didn’t stop him.
As if that wasn’t enough, two weeks later, his body still completely messed up, he runs the Las Vegas marathon in 3:08 (qualifying for the Boston Marathon).
I would continue going all fanboy on him but I highly recommend you check out Joe Rogan’s podcast here for the whole story.
One of the things he advocates is:
“Motivation is crap. Motivation comes and goes. When you’re driven, whatever’s in front of you will get destroyed.” [3]
He explains that being driven means you’re going beyond your motivation, doing the thing regardless of whether you feel like it or not. It means you have a purpose that’s propelling you towards that goal, granting you the discipline you need to achieve it. Making yourself do something is only gonna go so far if you feel there’s no point.
You have a reason you’re putting yourself through the pain of progress. You value the sacrifice and uncomfortable situations because of who you become and what you get in return. When your motivation drops it doesn’t matter, you remind yourself of why you’re doing it and you keep going. You have the ability to tell all those excuses in your mind to shut the hell up.
This is why David Goggins is so damn successful. He is one of the most driven people in the world.
Okay, I get it, being ‘driven’ is important… but what should I be driven by?!
On an episode of Impact theory, David Goggins talks about why he trains the way he does:
“By me running, I am callousing my mind. I’m not training for a race, I’m training for life. I’m training for the time when I get that two o’clock in the morning call that my mom is dead, or something happens, tragic in life, … I don’t fall apart.”
He’s driven because he’s preparing himself for the tragedies of life that are gonna be thrown at him. He trains to be strong in his mind, body and spirit, so that he can push through the suffering he’ll undoubtedly face.
The real question is, shouldn’t we all be training for this? We’re all inevitably going to face some tragedies that we have zero control over. We’re all guaranteed to suffer in our lives. Is that not something that should make us all driven? Driven to make ourselves stronger in the face of this suffering?
Perhaps the issue is that people often don’t prepare for problems before they’ve become something they can’t ignore. We forget the reality that we live in so that when that terrible thing finally does happen, it destroys us.
If you have no other reason to be driven, do it for the sake of your future self so that you don’t break down when life gets really tough. Do it for the sake of the people around you, so that in those times of need, you‘ll be the person that they can rely on for support.
(If you want more reasons on why to choose a life of purpose, check out my post on 10 Reasons to Choose a Meaningful Life)
Once you find whatever it is that drives you, you won’t have to rely on being motivated to work on your goals. No silly excuse or obstacle will undermine the importance of your pursuit.
So… what’s driving you?
More on David Goggins:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgoggins/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamdavidgoggins/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidgoggins
Website: http://davidgoggins.com/
Watch these podcasts:
Joe Rogan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tSTk1083VY
(For the part of his first 100 mile race, go to 38:07 onwards on the podcast)
Tom Bilyeu (Impact Theory): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78I9dTB9vqM
Read more of my stuff:
What To Do in a World of Infinite Interpretations?
10 Reasons to Choose a Meaningful Life
Nihilism: 9 Reasons it’s So Popular
Sources
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnKcquMobHQ
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tSTk1083VY
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78I9dTB9vqM
Aim High Start Low 