The Motivation Lie

I want to talk a little bit about the motivation lie. One of the biggest things I hear from people, and I say this to myself all the time, too – “I just don’t have the motivation.”

Like I said, I’m guilty of that myself. But I want to talk about what motivation really is. Motivational speaker, Mel Robbins says, “Motivation is garbage” and it’s true.

Motivation is not a permanent thing, right? It’s just this temporary state that we have. Maybe you woke up and you felt really good in the morning and tell yourself, ‘Okay, I’m going to get this done and this done and this done,’ but within a couple of hours, you’re telling yourself you’re ready for a nap and you don’t have the energy to get started.

Motivation is just a temporary state.

It’s not designed to last. If it doesn’t last, you can’t rely on it. This means if you’re waiting for motivation to carry you through the work, you’re going to be waiting a really long time. So, you can’t depend on motivation.

This is the biggest thing people come to me about. “I’m just not motivated to get into the gym.”

“I’m just not motivated to get on top of my nutrition.”

I get it, I’ve felt unmotivated quite a bit over the last couple of years with my own personal stuff going on. But it’s not motivation that you’re lacking. What you’re lacking is drive. You can’t depend on motivation.

Sure, you might feel motivated, but it’s your short term. Eventually you’re going to come to this post-motivation phase. And that’s true of anything, whether it’s a project that you’re working on or it’s fitness or nutrition-related. It’s going to come to an end. But just because you lost your motivation, it doesn’t mean you should just discontinue, right?

Stopping is not a good choice. What you need to figure out is what that drive is. How, how can you get that motivation back building your life plans on motivation is like building a house on a block of ice in the spring time. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a house. It just means you need a more solid foundation.

If motivation is just temporary, how are there some people that are so productive? They’re just go, go, go, go, go all day long. The difference is either one it’s because of the commitment, like getting your kids ready for the bus in the morning, getting lunches pack, making sure that they brush their teeth, etc. or maybe these people just have more drive and they know how to tap into that. We can talk about drive in a minute, but let’s get to commitment.

You have to start with a commitment to yourself. Finding the why and the drive, all this will come into play, but like most things, you’re going to have resistance. It’s this voice in our head that says, ‘I’m going to take the day off today.’ ‘I’m never going to be able to do this.’ That voice would do everything it can to keep you in your comfort zone.

You need to commit to taking action, even when you don’t feel like it, even when you doubt yourself. And even when you’re scared.

If you’d like a contract, you can message us and we’ll give you this little commitment pledge that we put together. Signing it may hold you more accountable to yourself. A lot of times, just psychologically, when you sign your name to something you’re more likely to follow through.

So, leet’s talk about drive. What’s drive? What’s the difference between drive and motivation?

Motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, says that motivation is like bathing, you need it every day.

So what do I mean by motivated? Maybe it’s reading a book that inspires you. Maybe it’s listening to a podcast. Maybe it’s watching videos. You have to get motivation.

Motivation is like a spark. So if you’re trying to start a fire and motivation can start that fire, but it doesn’t keep it going, you need to do is figure out how to keep it going, right?

That’s what drive is. How do we keep the motivation going? If we’re saying that motivation is a spark, then drive is like the big dry log that you put on the fire and it burns the entire night.

You wake up in the morning, and you’re like, ‘Holy cow, that thing’s still burning!’ That’s the drive. That’s what you need to create in your life.

You need motivation, but motivation isn’t anything compared to drive.

Drive is what keeps you going? Motivation just kind of gets you started for a second.

So what’s the difference between them?

Motivation only lasts for a few minutes. A person with drive has a sense of where they’re going. I’m sure you’ve all met that person. You hear it when you talk to them, you can see it in their bilanguage. They have this spark.

Think about a Liam Neeson movie, like Taken – every movie he does, he’s like this guy on the hunt. He’s got that drive. There is nothing that’s going to stop him. That’s drive. You don’t have to work towards it.

Motivation is like, ‘I gotta get my ass moving. I gotta force myself.’ The drive is like being pulled to this thing and you want it so much that nothing is going to stop you. You’re going to achieve that goal or die trying.

Finding your drive is something entirely different.

We have to figure out how exactly to get that. What is the ‘why’ behind it? The goal is ‘why’ you’re trying to get to the goal. Does that make sense?

The goal is why they’re trying to get to the goal. If the, why is strong enough, the ‘how’ will reveal itself when someone’s driven.

A driven person doesn’t care about the ‘why.’ They don’t care about the process. If you’re a process-driven person, like me, it’s really hard to start something because you’re so busy trying to piece it all together first. I gotta do this and this and this and this. And then, unless the drive is there, you never actually start anything because you’re so overwhelmed by the process.

If you’re truly driven towards something, you’re just going to go do it. You’re just going to start. You don’t care about the process. You’re going to just figure it out along the way.

There are apparently seven levels of “why” attributed to business coach Dean Graziosi. Basically, you go through and ask yourself why, why, why? So you can get deeper and deeper for what you’re searching for. Find the purpose of what you’re working towards. For example, getting in shape and losing weight, people generally say they just want to be in shape.

After some digging, it turns out that a doctor told them they have life-threatening health concerns, or that they realized they were too out of shape to keep up with their kids. The ‘why’ is never the first response.

There’s always something further behind it and that’s what you need to figure out – your “why” behind whatever it is that you’re seeking to do.

Once you’ve figured out your “why,” there’s still going to be decision-making that has to happen.

Brad Dial says in one of his podcasts, “No matter if our decisions are big or small, there are only one of two places that decision can come from and one is fear.”

Basically, if you look back at your life, you’ll see that most decisions you made were fear based. Not taking a job. Having or not having children. Moving. Nots starting a fitness routine. Whatever.

For most people, decisions come from fear because we don’t want to step outside of our comfort zone. We don’t want to challenge ourselves, push ourselves.

We look for the easy way out. That’s why people always, in regard to fitness, start Monday And then it just repeats. That’s why new year’s resolutions are made, right?

Maybe it’s you’re afraid to fail. Maybe you stayed at the same job forever because you’re afraid of starting something new, but how are you ever going to get to where you really want to be? If you don’t make decisions and choices based on that drive to put you where you want to be.

Nobody’s going to spoon feed you the perfect healthy meal every single day. The doctor’s not going come to your house and stay with you all day to make sure you take your meds and stop sitting on the couch. You have to make a choice. Your choice needs to be made based on your why’s on your drive.

Read motivational stuff, listen to motivational stuff, watching motivational stuff. Do whatever it is that gets that fire burning for you. You need to do that multiple times a day to keep you on track.

One great way to start is either with a physical goal journal like The Best Self Journal or the Full Focus Planner, or any of a gazillion phone apps that are designed to keep you focused by completing smaller tasks for the completion of a larger goal/project.

Hopefully this is of use to some of you. Please feel free to comment or send us a message!