Motivation Myth

Featured image with text "You need motivation to be more productive"

You may have had your schedule set, your tasks listed down for the day and your goals aligned but you aren’t feeling the drive to carry it out? You may think you need the motivation for it, the extra boost to get you started on your work.

WRONG

Motivation is not needed to start something

Image with text "Motivation is not needed to start something"

You do not need motivation to start something or anything at all. It’s your a psychological excuse which your mind makes to give you a reason not to do any work. Even though with years of evolving and adapting, we still rely on our caveman’s brains. They require an external factor that gives them a reason to get started on the work, making sense for them. This could have either been an approaching tiger or prey which they just found the action would be to run for it. However, now that we don’t live in the wilderness anymore, we still rely on those external factors. It would be best if you transitioned your mind away from the caveman mentality to the modern perspective.

Motivation comes after action

Image with text "It comes after action"

This can be done by understanding that motivation will only come from actually doing something. That can be gratification from completing a task or achieving your goal of getting an A* – motivation will be a by-product of all those things. The key is to start the process and see it through. 


We have made a diagram to illustrate it which we call the “Motivation Cycle”. It gives you an overview of the process of action for finishing and getting a result. The vital bit we want to highlight is the “Motivation” and the “Repeat” steps. This shows that the motivation will come after you have finished work, but it is also a driving factor that allows you to continue working forward and repeat it further. This would allow you to continue to start on another work either on the same day or the even the next knowing you have had the experience of completing the previous task and getting the motivation from it.

Furthermore, if you continue this procedure, you will get motivated by the process itself. Enjoying the process will benefit since you wouldn’t have to rely on starting a new task and getting an outcome to get the motivation. Instead, you will get the motivation from the process itself.

Mistakes and the process will create motivation

Image with text "Mistakes and progress will create motivation"

Motivation will not always come from successful results. It will come from failures and mistakes as well. It would be best if you learned from these mistakes that you make and recognise what things you can adapt and modify your next steps, so the future tasks have a reduced chance of having an error. Even if you make a mistake, it is still a valuable learning experience that you can appreciate. In the long term, it will not de-motivate you either not to do any work if the result you wanted to achieve did not happen.

Having a Reliable system and discipline

Image with text "You need a reliable system and discipline"

We have been talking about motivation throughout our blog. However, the underlying factor, which is the primary precursor to motivation is discipline. It mainly matters how disciplined you are with your time and how your work system results from real motivation. You first need to develop a reliable plan that you know yourself will follow with ease on any given day. Then you need to start and make a habit of sticking to it till it becomes second nature. This will you become disciplined into doing the required tasks, completing all of your work and getting motivation from it at the same time.