invest your time and energy in the right “mo”
In his book Discipline Equals Freedom: Field Manual, Jocko Willink writes, “Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished—you will likely fall short. So. Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on motivation. Count on Discipline.”
Motivation, either extrinsic or intrinsic, is not enough. Staying disciplined and taking consistent action is the key to achieving your mighty goals and creating the life you want.
Don’t wait for motivation, instead invest your precious time and energy in generating solid momentum.
Building momentum (in the beginning) is not easy and it takes incredible effort, but once it gets rolling then everything seems achievable. You are able to achieve anything you want. It's analogous to the launch of a rocket ship. The space shuttle consumes tons of fuel during the initial minutes of its flight than it does for the remaining trip; the simple reason being that it has to break free from the pull of gravity. Once it is successful to do so, it can simply glide in the orbit.
We are innately wired to stay at rest. That's why whenever we are building a new habit or starting a new venture we need a huge amount of energy to break the inertia and get things moving forward. But once we are able to build momentum, we become unstoppable and unbeatable even though we put in considerably less effort. As Charles J. Givens once remarked, "Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort."
Interestingly, one of the top motivational speakers in the world, Mel Robbins also advises, “Motivation is garbage. Stop waiting to feel like it. Whatever it is that you want - wake up and go get it. With hard work, patience, and optimism - you can make absolutely anything happen.”
Understanding that we can still push ourselves to create positive change even if we may not "feel like it" is empowering. It's also the first step in doing the things we don't want to do but know we need to anyway.
“When you think about what change requires, it requires you to do things that are scary, uncertain, or new,” Mel says. “You will never feel ready or motivated to do the things that are scary, irritating, or hard; and if you can accept that as the reality, you now have the secret to change.”
Always remember: Successful people are not achieving remarkable things simply because they're motivated. Nope, that’s far from true. They're creating change and making life happen because they make a deliberate decision to show up and put in work every single day.
Momentum leads to monumental. It’s the reason why the rich end up getting richer, and the successful become more successful with time. Building momentum is similar to the snowballing effect. A snowball is small at the top of the hill, but as it rolls down it gets bigger and bigger. The compound effect is put into action. We need to start small and keep building momentum day after day with positivity and enthusiasm. A daily, consistent positive momentum is what will get any project or endeavor off the ground and achieve new heights.
FUN FACT
Red wine isn’t good for you. To get the health benefits of resveratrol, you would need to drink 1,300 glasses per day and first die of alcohol poisoning.
