Do you wish you were more motivated?

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Do you ever wish you were more motivated? I hear this often from my clients, and I want to tell you how I coach them to get things done anyway.

The first question I’ll ask is: “If you were motivated, what would you be doing?”

I asked this last week to someone in a workshop I was leading for graduate students. “I’d be writing more consistently on my thesis,” they answered.

Writing is a tough one for many people, especially if you work on your own deadlines. When no one is holding you accountable, it’s easy to put writing off until the inspiration strikes. But if you’ve tried taking this approach, you know that it means writing very infrequently.

“Great,” I told the graduate student, “so what’s getting in the way of writing your thesis?” As with most people I coach, their answer came down to some version of “I don’t feel like it.”

This is where most of us get it wrong: we think how we feel in the moment is relevant to our ability to take action on what’s important to us. This is simply not true. If you wait to act until you feel like doing something, you’ll always be at the mercy of a whimsical mind.

The truth is that small wins motivate you to continue. Productive people don’t wait for motivation to fuel action. They act anyway, knowing that producing results fuels motivation.

Making progress on a project feels energizing, which gives you confidence and motivation to keep going. When you take action you spark a positive feedback loop: productivity fuels motivation, which fuels more productivity.

So how do you take the first step? Start by writing down the goal you want to make progress on. Make it as clear and specific as possible. For example, “I write three chapters of my thesis by June 1, 2020.”

Next, ask yourself, “What is the first actionable step?” We tend to start too big, focusing on a large task that feels overwhelming. Instead of “write the first chapter,” pick something like, “free write for 20 minutes about my central argument.”

Then get started as soon as possible. Make your first step so small you can do it today or tomorrow. Put it on your calendar so you don’t put it off.

Your brain will give you lots of convincing reasons not to take the first step. You’ll hear thoughts like: “I can’t get anything done in 20 minutes,” or “I don’t have anything interesting to say.” Do it anyway! Then repeat the process, step by step.

When coaching people on motivation, I often think of a quote from my mentor, master coach Maria Nemeth:

“People who are successful are willing to do what they don’t want to do. They are willing to do what they are afraid of doing. They are also willing to do what they don’t know how to do. They have learned to say ‘yes’ to their lives.”

It takes courage to move forward when you’re afraid, when you don’t know how, or when you simply don’t feel like it. But when you take the first small step, you’ll find it’s not as bad as you imagined.

After a few small steps you may even start to enjoy the process. As you start seeing progress toward your goal, you’ll feel motivated to continue.