Motivation: The
Scientific Guide on How to Get and Stay Motivated
Motivation is a powerful, yet tricky beast. Sometimes it is
really easy to get motivated, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind
of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to
motivate yourself and you're trapped in a death spiral of procrastination. This
page contains the best ideas and most useful research on how to get and stay
motivated.
This isn't going
to be some rah-rah, pumped-up motivational speech. (That's not my style.)
Instead, we're going to break down the science behind how to get motivated in
the first place and how to stay motivated for the long-run. Whether you're
trying to figure out how to motivate yourself or how to motivate a team, this
page should cover everything you need to know.
You can click
the links below to jump to a particular section or simply scroll down to read
everything. At the end of this page, you'll find a complete list of all the
articles I have written on motivation.
I. Motivation: What It Is and How It Works
Scientists define motivation as your general willingness to do
something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take
action. That's nice and all, but I think we can come up with a more useful
definition of motivation.
What is Motivation?
So what is motivation, exactly? The author Steven Pressfield has
a great line in his book, The War of Art,
which I think gets at the core of motivation. To paraphrase Pressfield, “At
some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the
pain of doing it.”
In other words, at some point, it is easier to change than to
stay the same. It is easier to take action and feel insecure at the gym than to
sit still and experience self-loathing on the couch. It is easier to feel
awkward while making the sales call than to feel disappointed about your
dwindling bank account.
This, I think, is the essence of motivation. Every choice has a
price, but when we are motivated, it is easier to bear the inconvenience of
action than the pain of remaining the same. Somehow we cross a mental
threshold—usually after weeks of procrastination and in the face of an
impending deadline—and it becomes more painful to not do the
work than to actually do it.
Now for the important question: What can we do to make it more
likely that we cross this mental threshold and feel motivated on a consistent
basis?
Common Misconceptions About Motivation
One of the most surprising things about motivation is that it often
comes after starting a new behavior, not before. We have this
common misconception that motivation arrives
as a result of passively consuming a motivational video or
reading an inspirational book. However, active
inspiration can be a far more powerful motivator.
Motivation is often the result of action, not the cause of it.
Getting started, even in very small ways, is a form of active
inspiration that naturally produces momentum.
I like to refer to this effect as the Physics of Productivity because this
is basically Newton’s First Law applied to habit formation: Objects in motion
tend to stay in motion. Once a task has begun, it is easier to continue moving
it forward.
II. How to Get Motivated and Take Action
Many people struggle to find the motivation they need to achieve
the goals they want because they are wasting too much time and energy on other
parts of the process. If you want to make it easy to find motivation and get
started, then it helps to automate the early stages of your behavior.
Schedule Your Motivation
During a conversation about writing, my friend Sarah Peck looked
at me and said, “A lot of people never get around to writing because they are
always wondering when they are going to write next.” You could say the same
thing about working out, starting a business, creating art, and building most
habits.
·
If your workout doesn’t
have a time when it usually occurs, then each day you’ll wake up thinking, “I
hope I feel motivated to exercise today.”
·
If your business doesn’t
have a system for marketing, then you’ll show up at work crossing your fingers
that you’ll find a way to get the word out (in addition to everything else you
have to do).
·
If you don’t have a
scheduled time when you write every week, then you’ll find yourself saying
things like, “I just need to find the willpower to do it.”
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