Motivation May Not Be Totally Useless but It Isn’t the Most Important Thing Either. Find Out Why Motivation Is Irrelevant.
Hello Aluxers! Many of you asked us how to find your motivation, and we are here to finally answer. But before we answer that question, here’s something that you need to understand.
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Motivation is tricky. It’s definitely a great tool to use to get started on a project but it can’t be the only asset you use to reach your goals. Think of New Year’s resolutions or Mondays. Usually new beginnings are super-charged with motivation. You work hard for the first 1-2 weeks, feeling like you’ve conquered the world. Then your fuel ends and either you find another inspiring article to move you forward or your enthusiasm dies away.
The motivation industry is based on precisely this instant, but momentary, gratification. They give partial solutions and half-truths so that you can read another article the next day or buy yet another self-help book.
What they don’t say, however, is that motivation alone is not enough. If you base your entire strategy exclusively on external stimuli, it’s like putting icing on a cake … without having the cake!
It is your goal that must push you to work to achieve it, not some good windbag who is only interested in selling his books.
There is another hard truth you need to understand: You will never reach your goals if you don’t make progress. And here’s the thing, Aluxers: making progress is difficult, it takes time and consistency, and it is definitely not fashion!
It’s a lot easier to post a picture of yourself after a Sunday run, feel super cool because maybe we’ve been exercising for an hour and get loads of likes. It makes us feel good, it makes us feel important and even a little better than everyone else who hasn’t gone running. Does this help you reach your fitness goal? Well … sorry, but no! Not if that run you posted on social media is the only thing you did all week to reach it!
Try exercising every single day for 20-30 minutes after work instead of just once in a while. Given how hectic and messed up our lives are, you probably won’t have time to post all of your workouts on Instagram, but you’ll almost certainly see your waistline drop much faster!
So if we can’t rely only on motivation to get what we want, how do we reach our goals?
Discipline and habits win motivation 100 to 1! Do you remember what we said earlier? Making progress takes time and consistency. Discipline and habits help in this. Let’s go back to the fitness goal example. We have decided to lose 10 kg so we have to commit to doing sports regularly. First off, we must dedicate a moment of the day to this activity: let’s say in the evening, after work. At this point, we set up a routine that helps us not to escape from the commitment we made.
Make your life easier by preparing the necessary for training already in the morning. Or, better yet, get changed directly at work: you won’t even have to go home and be tempted by the lure of the sofa and Netflix! Repeat this operation every single day and, like nothing, it will become normal, just like brushing your teeth! We highly recommend you check our video “15 Steps to Master Self-Discipline” for more suggestions on how to become unstoppable.
If you’ve been following us for a while, Aluxers, you know that our goal is to make our channel the place where future billionaires come to get inspired. This should already suggest how little we rely on motivation and how much more important it is to us to be inspired.
Inspiration is something that comes from within. No artist is motivated to create their own works. No entrepreneur is motivated to found their own company and make it grow. Each of them starts from a vision which is nothing but inspiration made images first and reality right afterwards. Maybe some of them got the spark when they saw the work of other people, but it stops there.
Those who achieve exceptional results have an inner fire that never goes out. Some people call this self-motivation, but inspiration is something much deeper. Think of a writer who got a writer’s block: you can feed him all the motivational videos you want, but until he finds his inspiration he will never start writing again!
Inspiration comes from within but sometimes it’s hard to hear it. We are literally bombarded by information and other people’s opinions and ideas, and it is sometimes difficult to listen to our own voice. That’s why it is important to learn how to master our own minds.
Our minds are a very powerful tool. They can be our best ally as well as our worst enemy. Successful people know this well, that’s why most of them dedicate time every day to taking care of their mind through meditation and other similar practices.
Tuning into our mind helps us focus our goals better. When our vision is clear, it becomes even easier to put in place all those actions that will lead us to achieve what we want.
We know that mastering your mind is easier said than done and that’s why we decided to help you out on this. Go to Alux.com and check our Mind Mastery course, click on the “Enrol now” to get notified when we open the doors and be ready to blow your own mind!
Speaking of vision, one of the most effective tools to reach goals is visualization. Take 10 to 15 minutes for yourself, go to a quiet place and envision your desired result. Feel it as if you are already there. This technique is used in many fields. Professional sports players are well known for playing a game in their heads before doing it for real.
Soldiers also use it very often to put them in the right place before going on the field. Not to mention that people like Jack Dorsey, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey have largely relied on these techniques in their successful career.
Be careful though! Once you have created your result in your mind, do not stay stuck there! It’s time to get real!
Sometimes the risk is to live too much in our heads and not enough in the real world. Once you’ve done all that we have listed above, it is time to put that into practice. We would all be super-fit, super-rich and super-cool if just thinking about it would make it happen, but only those who actually put in the work get those results.
Positive actions create positive results, and it compounds. Think of weight loss: the more you work out and the better you eat, the healthier you get. Again, do not expect to start big if you’re starting from scratch. Hack your way into motivation with more practical tools like :
– The 5 Minute rule: if it takes 5 minutes, just do it
– The 1 Word rule: if you need to write something, start with 1 word
– Minimum required action: if you need to clean your room, fold 1 t-shirt.
– The Pomodoro Technique: work 25 minutes, rest 5. It works magic!
– Environmental cues: if your plan is to work out in the morning, set up your workout clothes next to your bed or even sleep in them: you won’t be able to ignore that hint!
Build up from these simple actions and you’ll find yourself reaching your goals without almost knowing it.
If you are thinking about setting some new goals for yourself, check out TOP 10 Goals To Aim For In Life.
Alright Aluxers! We hope to have answered to your question about motivation.
Remember that motivation is short lived and therefore it takes just a little part of the whole process. If you really want to succeed, you cannot base all your strategy on motivation alone.
Instead, find what really inspires you, what lights you up from the inside out and not the other way round. Be realistic and put in place practical tools that will actually move you forward towards your goals. You can’t reach the top of the stairs if you don’t climb one step after the other consistently and although this might not be the funniest thing to do, you know that it’s also the only way!
And if you still need a bit of inspiration, we’re here for you Aluxers! Come to our channel any time you wish and we’ll make sure to give you the best content to support you in your successful journey!
