Motivation

Motivation

Where does motivation come from? 

It's one of those concepts that we feel is something outside of us. Something where we sit around and wait for it to show up.

So, I went to the googles and found the definition: an internal/external force that drives a person's desire, behavior, and perspective to act; it answers the "why". Basically it's the driving force behind our actions.

If you've followed any of my work, you know that our thoughts create our feelings and our feelings cause our actions. Everything we do or don't do is because of how we feel or how we think it will make us feel. 

If motivation is our driving force to take action, then motivation comes from our thoughts and feelings! From inside of us. Such great news!

And what's better than motivation? Discipline and Consistency. This is the framework to keep us going when we don't feel inspired. This means we take action when we don't feel like it. We've all had times where we entertain the negative thinking about how we don't want to do something. We're sitting on the couch and we don't want to go fold the clothes or put the dishes away. We allow the negative thought loops about how we don't want to, we shouldn't have to, why do we always have to be the one that does everything. We are entertaining these negative thoughts. 

Then in an instant, something shifts and we get up and do the thing. Did we just get hit with a dose of motivation? Did inspiration just strike us there on the couch? 

No. We just had a subtle shift in our thoughts and that created a different feeling and we took a different action. It can happen so swiftly that we don't realize what just happened. 

And it's just that simple. It feels like it's coming out of no-where. Which makes it hard to recreate. But not impossible. 

So, the driving force is our internal desires, what we truly want, our "why". What is your why? And why do you want that? And why do you want that? Ask yourself 7 times in a row to get deep and granular. 

It might be something you don't ask yourself often or haven't in a long time. What do you want? Why is it important to you? 

Why do you want to eat healthy? Why do you want to exercise regularly? Is it because of how it makes you feel in the moment? Or how you'll feel after a month of doing it? 

The internal driving force is the interest, joy, or excitement of the activity.

The external driving force is a reward or punishment/avoiding negative consequences of not doing it. 

But the reward or punishment is only effective if we give it meaning. Is a metal worth running 13.1 miles? Probably not. But the feeling of accomplishment when you cross the finish line, maybe. 

So, the external driving force also comes from our internal meaning. And our internal meaning comes from our thoughts about it. 

All this points to motivation coming from within us. It is created by our thoughts. We just have to think thoughts that create the feelings that make us what to take a certain action. Make us want to do the thing. 

And we have discipline and consistency to do the thing when we don't want to. Which really means shifting the thought to something that will still create the action we want to take. 

See, none of this overrides our free will. We aren't forced to do things outside of our control. We don't have a wave of force come over us, a wave of motivation. We create the motivation inside of us by the thoughts we think. 

What thought can you think that will make you get up and fold the clothes? What thought can you think that will make you get up and put the dishes away?

What thought can you think that will make you eat healthy?

What thought can you think that will make you go workout? 

You might have to play around with the thoughts. Find the thoughts that work for you. Find the thoughts that align with your "why". It's unique to each of us. Some have thoughts that drive them to run 13.1 miles. Some have thoughts that drive us to walk a mile a day. 

Why is thing important to you? That is your motivation. That is your driving force. Your "why". Your true desire. Your heart's desire. 

The whisper is there. Turn it into a scream.