How do you get motivated?
Action isn’t just the effect of motivation, but also the cause of it. Most people only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel an emotional inspiration.
We think: Emotional Inspiration → Motivation → Desirable Action
There’s a problem with operating under this framework: often the changes and actions we most need in our lives are inspired by negative emotions, which simultaneously hinder us from taking action. People will sit on the couch and wait to be motivated or inspired to act on something.
Examples: If someone wants to fix their relationship with their mother, the emotions of the situation (hurt, resentment, avoidance) completely go against the necessary action to fix it (confrontation, honesty, communication). If someone wants to lose weight, but experiences massive amounts of shame about their body, then the act of going to the gym is apt to inspire in them the exact emotions that kept them at home on the couch in the first place. Past traumas, negative expectations, and feelings of guilt, shame and fear often motivate us away from the actions necessary to overcome those very traumas, negative expectations, and negative emotions.
HOW MOTIVATION REALLY WORKS
It’s a Catch-22 of sorts, so its not only a chain, but an endless loop.
Action → Inspiration → Motivation → Action → Inspiration → Motivation → Etc.
Your actions create further emotional reactions and inspirations and move on to motivate your future actions. Taking advantage of this knowledge, we can actually re-orient our mindset in the following way:
Action → Inspiration → Motivation
The conclusion is that if you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, then start by doing something, anything really, and then harness the reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself.
The conclusion is that if you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, then start by doing something, anything really, and then harness the reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself.
MY BIG TIP: Start with the smallest chunk of action and see where that takes you. For example, instead of thinking about going to the gym, put your gym clothes on and go. Just go. See what happens next. Reorient your mind.
Specifically: How do you get motivated to get your sweat on?
Once you are up, out of bed, the hard part is over. It is all downhill from there. If you are already at the gym, get a good and dirty, roll all over the mats for a core circuit (since you have to shower anyways-this always works for me). I know that I will feel better and more productive in my day if I exercise...and the endorphins don't hurt either.
Exercising for me gets my blood flowing and brain thinking. It helps me feel energized throughout my day and knowing that I sweat it out already makes me feel more confident and productive when doing everything else I have to do that day. For me, working out is not so much about losing weight but about having a healthy routine. Once you have a routine established, you begin to look forward to the daily workouts and seeing the same “gym friends” or “class friends” that you see weekly. It becomes like a community.
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