Thank you for joining us for our 5 days per week wisdom and legacy building podcast. This is Day 489 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday we hike the trails of life that will encourage and motivate you to live a rich and satisfying life this week. Today let us explore the trail called What is Motivation?
We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. On Wednesday of this week, we will be heading to Mesa, Arizona for five days to work with our partners on the construction project there. It is nearing completion of this phase, and we anticipate the first 12 townhome units to be ready to go on the market by the end of 2016.
We are certainly motivated to complete this phase and hopefully will be able to start on Phase II early in 2017. Motivation is one of those words that we think we understand, but many of us do not fully grasp the concept. Motivation is closely tied to both ability and attitude. As a famous football coach, Lou Holtz said, “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
As we break camp and head out on our trek for today, let us invest time exploring the concept of…
Motivation is a powerful, yet tricky beast. Sometimes it is really easy to get motivated, and you find yourself wrapped up in a whirlwind of excitement. Other times, it is nearly impossible to figure out how to motivate yourself, and you’re trapped in a death spiral of procrastination. Today and over the next two Mondays I want to share the best ideas and most useful research on how to get and stay motivated.
This isn’t going to be some rah-rah, pumped-up motivational speech. (That’s not my style.) Instead, we’re going to break down the science behind how to get motivated in the first place and how to stay motivated for the long-run. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to motivate yourself or how to motivate a team, this information should cover everything you need to know.
Scientists define motivation as your general willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. That’s nice and all, but I think we can come up with a more useful definition of motivation.
So what is motivation, exactly? The author Steven Pressfield has a great line in his book, The War of Art, which I think gets at the core of motivation. To paraphrase Pressfield, “At some point, the pain of not doing it becomes greater than the pain of doing it.”
In other words, at some point, it is easier to change than to stay the same. It is easier to take action and feel insecure at the gym than to sit still and experience self-loathing on the couch. It is easier to feel awkward while making the sales call than to feel disappointed about your dwindling bank account.
This, I think, is the essence of motivation. Every choice has a price, but when we are motivated, it is easier to bear the inconvenience of action than the pain of remaining the same. Somehow we cross a mental threshold—usually after weeks of procrastination...
