Ever heard that people stopped doing something because they didn’t feel motivated anymore? This is a common excuse, right? Yes, I call it an excuse because it’s just dumb. You might have “lost” the feeling of motivation but were you that into it? Did you give it your all when you did what you had to do? Were you doing extra stuff when you didn’t have too? These are a lot of questions and the answer will most likely be no or “sometimes”. Motivation sucks and I’m going to tell you why. There’s a reason why motivated people barely hold on to the end. They mostly fall off the wagon somewhere along the line and some hold on longer than others but they just don’t reach the end.
Motivation sucks and here’s what you have to do instead.
Why motivated people rarely hold on.
Ever went to sleep with a God-like feeling? You felt pumped up and ready to crush that workout first thing in the morning, finish that paper, start the new diet or whatever you want to do. But the feeling is gone once you wake up. It’s just 8 hours later but it’s gone. So you try to pump yourself up with motivational speeches on YouTube and this might work for a while but the feeling disappears as well. So you start skipping training sessions (or whatever you do). You go less and less until you eventually quit. You might be surprised but I’m not. The reason why is pretty simple but let’s see if you can figure it out yourself. Let’s take a look at how motivated people present themselves.
They say the following line over and over: I feel motivated…
Do you get where this is going? Motivation is a feeling. Just like happiness, sadness and so on. You can’t be in a certain mood 100% of the time. There will be times where you just won’t feel like doing it. Do you think that I feel motivated every single day when the alarm clock goes off at 6 am? Do you think that I’m motivated when I feel tired and have to do another training session? I don’t. I never feel motivated. Well, I might but I don’t give a lot of attention to it.
Why motivated people rarely hold on.
Can you guess what would happen if you’d ask motivated people why they do a certain thing? The answers would be diverse but something along the lines of money, fame, cars, impressing women, belts and so on. All those things are external motivation and that feeling will fade quickly. You’ll settle for less and quit because it’s just not motivating enough. You need a mindset to fix if you constantly need external motivation to do something. Or you’re doing the wrong thing, that’s a possibility as well. It’s up to you to figure that one out.
So what are you if you’re never motivated?
Don’t feel motivated. Be driven instead. A relentless, obsessive drive will make you better not a feeling that comes and goes. You’re not 100% in control of your emotions so control your inner bitch, become driven and get after it. I don’t feel like getting better. I want to get better. There’s no better feeling than knowing that you’re growing in whatever you’re doing. And sometimes you just need to push yourself even when you don’t feel like it.
So forget about the motivation speeches on YouTube or as the insecure benchpress fuckboys like to stay: “forget about feelings.”
In conclusion: I wouldn’t be in shape if I only trained if I felt like it. I would be out of shape for sure. Do what you have to do when you have to do it not when you feel like it. That’s it.
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Till next time
Alex
