W.I.N. Wednesday: Don’t rely on this because it doesn’t last.
Don’t rely on what because it doesn’t last? Motivation. Don’t rely on motivation because it doesn’t last.
A lot of people are motivated to workout and eat healthy at the start of January. By the second or third week in January the motivation has faded for many and they are back to their old patterns of activity and eating.
It is easy to be motivated to quit drinking when you are hung-over. Two days later when everyone is having a cold beer on the back deck the motivation tends to slip away.
Right after dinner it is easy to be motivated to get up an hour earlier than usual the next morning to start your new workout routine. At 0430 the next morning when the alarm goes off that motivation may have already dissipated.
It is easy to be motivated to start a daily or weekly blog when you see people like Seth Godin who are posting every day for years. It is a completely different matter to sit down every day and write whether you are feeling motivated or not.
It is easy to be motivated to starting a podcast because all the experts say it is the thing to do and it looks and sounds pretty easy. It is hard to keep up that motivation when you realize all the work that goes into finding people to interview or developing content to talk about every day or every week and that is in addition to the prep work before every podcast and the back end editing and other work that goes on after the interview. It can also be hard to maintain that motivation when you realize you are just one of millions of podcasts and that very few of them get the number of followers that Joe Rogan, John Lee Dumas, Jocko Willink, Pat Flynn and Tim Ferris do.
It is easy to be motivated to wash your hands regularly in the middle of a pandemic. Time will tell how long that lasts.
Motivation is often fleeting. If you are going to rely on it to accomplish important tasks and goals it will likely let you down. You need to develop habits and rituals that for you are non-negotiable and not predicated on motivation; habits and rituals that you follow whether you feel motivated or not.
What’s Important Now? Make sure you are clear on your ‘Why’ when building your habits and rituals. A strong ‘Why’ will keep you on track when motivation has waned.
Take care.
Brian Willis
www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com
Maximizing human potential through Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?
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