The motivation lie

Coach Sall

I get to talk a lot about motivation. It’s a hot topic! Everyone wants it or wants to know how to get it!

When Dannii and I started our podcast during lockdown, our first episode was “Motivation and Working out from home”. Five of our top 6 episodes have the motivation in the title (the other one has the word “willpower” in the title, another hot topic!)

“Psychology Today” defines motivation as “the desire to act on your goals” and it tells us motivation is one of the driving forces behind human behaviour.

And there is the lie we have all bought into. We all believe we need to feel that desire to do something to be able to do it.

And that’s nonsense.

The fundamental difference between someone who achieves their goals, and someone who doesn’t is how they think. It isn’t about desire, it’s about taking action, doing something even when you don’t want to.

However, I’m not actually going to argue with Psychology Today am I?... Am I?

Well, here’s what you need to know. The dictionary definition of motivation is

“a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.”

I know you do heaps of things every day that you don’t really want to, we all do. You see, you CREATE your own motivation.

Once you have your reason, you can take the action, even when you don’t actually feel like it. And taking the action is what increases your desire… to take the action. That little dopamine hit you get when you do something hard, or something you thought was hard, or just something you didn’t really want to do is very powerful. 

Your subconscious will act on that, it will look for opportunities to do it again, and again. Suddenly… that thing you were so reluctant to do… that thing becomes a habit and habits have the power to improve the quality of your life.

So don’t wait to feel motivated to take action. Make sure you know your reason, take the action, and high five yourself for added recognition in your sub-conscious. And then it gets easier next time.

Coach Dannii and I recording an early episode of The Power of 30 podcast