I recently went down a rabbit hole while doing some keyword research on "motivation". I found myself presented with a smorgasbord of articles and videos eager to help me "get past my procrastination for good".
My A.D.D. took over and I soon found myself abandoning my keyword work and taking off on adventure into the "top 20 ways to get motivated" universe.
I couldn't help it. I was curious about how these "sure fired" tips and tricks would compare against my own knowledge on the subject.
Before I knew it, I had been reading and watching for a couple of hours desperately searching for anything meaningful. By the time I gave up, I realized all I had done was waste 2 hours of my life.
Don't get me wrong, not all of the "advice" I found was bad; it just wasn't complete. There wasn't enough information to really provoke a change or help someone take action.
So, I decided to use the experience as inspiration to write my own article.
What would I want to find if I was searching for a way to get motivated when I really needed it?
What You Should Know
I have struggled with motivation most of my life and it has led me to learn as much as I can about how it works. My personal experiences, trial and error, and thousands of hours of research makes me pretty confident there's not much I don't know.
In all of that time I have learned 3 things I think everyone battling with motivation should know.
So, in this article I want to go over how to start thinking about motivation in a new way, and how to apply it in the most effective way.
By the time you finish you will have a new understanding for what’s really happening in your mind, and a clear strategy for how to finally get going…
There is no “easy”, only “easier”
I'm sure the main reason why you are interested in an article like this is because, at the moment, you have something you need to do and don’t want to do it. The desire to get it done is there, but getting started is like trying to pull yourself out of waist high mud.
So you’re hoping there is some kind of magic thought or perspective shift you haven’t discovered yet. And perhaps somewhere out there someone might share a morsel of wisdom you need to get charged up.
That seems like a logical way to find an answer, and I used to think the exact same thing. But unfortunately it’s a trap that makes you think if you search long enough you’ll find an answer. Trust me, you won’t.
Rule #1 for getting motivated – There isn’t an easy switch.
There is no pill, spell, incantation, or missing secret that will suddenly switch on a light and put an end to your motivation problems.
Here’s why…
Most of the things you need to do in order to get where you want to be...suck. And your brain has taken away any motivation to do the task because it’s avoiding pain. It’s a survival mechanism that’s happening without you realizing it.
Believe it or not, your mind is actually doing its job. It is supposed to protect you and it's doing it by shutting down any desire to start a painful process.
To add some perspective, it would be like looking up an article for "how to get motivated to stab yourself".
So please...stop looking for ways to want to do things you will never want to do.
Instead, the actual solution is to find a way to convince your brain that the thing you need to do isn’t so bad. You may not be able to turn something that sucks into something fun, but there are ways to turn tasks from horrible into doable.
In other words: Stop looking for an easy way out of the pain and focus on an easier way through it. It’s much easier to convince yourself to prick your finger with a needle, than to stab yourself in the leg with a knife.
