You Shouldn’t Need To Get Motivated. Water Flows Downstream.
Let’s Bust Your Faulty Ideas About Motivation
Perhaps you’re not feeling motivated because what you’re doing doesn’t make sense. Perhaps it’s just not worth doing.
What’s the struggle, dear reader? Is it getting out of bed to go to work? Is it sitting down to study?
Well a few thousand years ago, a man by the name of Jesus walked head first into his own crucifixion. A bit more recently, a man by the name of Nelson Mandela walked head first into some 27 years in prison.
What a mismatch then — why didn’t they struggle to motivate themselves to do that stuff, when you can hardly motivate yourself to study?
Perhaps because they had clarity — a cause, purpose or intention that was clear to them. Something that drove them to do these things, that compelled them to only do what only they could do.
When you’re on the hunt for motivation, you’re actually on the hunt for clarity, be that known to you or not. Ask yourself this question:
What is something I do that does not require me to motivate myself? Where energy comes effortlessly? Why is that so?
Real Motivation Doesn’t Come From Seminars And Inspirational Quotes.
Inspiration is not sustainable. Inspiration is a momentary window, a brief surge of power through the system. So your inspirational quotes and ra-ra personal development events fail to overcome the Law of Cooling.
In the same way that coffee is a hack for a short burst of energy, inspiration is a hack for a brief surge of motivation. The hack is not bad, but it is not sustainable.
Imagine our system of turning motivation into energy were a power plant; just as coal or wind can be used to generate electricity, we want to turn motivation into energy.
We would not be able to continually supply the grid with short bursts. We want a supply for the plant that is:
- Steady
- Consistent
- Sustainable
- Clean
If inspiration and coffee are like coal, (dirty, cheap, unsustainable, limited by supply, and pollute the system) then we need something like a solar or hydro supply.
Water as a substance is the epitome of clear. But remember this; motivation should find the water that flows like a downhill stream. Motivation should not try to suck water uphill like a fool.
Seeking Clarity.
I had lots of trouble motivating myself to work in real estate but not in creating 18 & Lost.
As a school student, Elon Musk blitzed his scienctific and technological subjects, but flunked the humanities — that is until the school told him he needed to pass all subjects to proceed to the next year.
So he started blitzing the humanities subjects too… because Musk saw science and technology as the ways to change the world, he focused on these. Before realising the stakes, it was not clear to him why any attention should go into the other subjects.
Leonardo Da Vinci on the other hand made scientific and medical discoveries that were centuries ahead of his time — but he didn’t publish or share them. His commitment was not so much to the world, as it was to satisfying his own curiosity.
Is the Power or Energy Supply Low Where You Are Now?
Don’t build a power plant in a place that is hard to supply with power — one with no solar, wind or water source.
Don’t remain stagnant in areas and give up just because they don’t have a power supply.
Find the downhill water stream, that flows forever without needing to be told to do so. And when it runs dry, go find another.
