Action Precedes Motivation

All too often, we sit around and wait for some type of motivation genie to come along and sprinkle it’s magic dust on us so that we may begin down the road to our goals. This is the exactly wrong approach. In most cases, motivation is a result of action. Sometimes, it may feel as though we are spurred to action by some insight or inspired notion, but this fades quickly and cannot sustain.

It’s when we start to do, we begin to feel the forces of motivation propelling us further forward. I’ve heard many a friend or acquaintance say something to the effect of, “I’m just not motivated to reorganize my living space/go to the gym/enroll in school/stay on this diet” and so on and so forth. What I say is that you may wait all your life, if you expect motivation to knock on your door at 6pm and ask itself in. There is a neurological framework for this, something so a part of our brains biochemistry that illustrates and ensures, when we jump in, we are rewarded with the motivation to keep going.

We also have to consider what we want to be motivated towards. Perhaps the end goal is not something that grabs us, it is not intrinsically motivating. It is not something we actually want to do from a source inside, but perhaps something we feel we ought to do, from a force or forces outside of us. Of course there are many things we must do that we will not find appealing, but if it is a means to an end that we desire, then it is that understanding that plays an important part in our motivation.

Motivation is an expansive topic and it has been studied and researched tons, but here I’d like to give you a quick motivation fix. If you want to find the motivation to start doing something, simply start. I’ll bet you two cookies and a chocolate milk that you’ll soon feel that very motivation you’ve been waiting for all along.