Breaking Free From Motivation
Learn how to not depend on motivation and take action even when you don’t feel like it
We all have experienced the feeling of wanting to do something, but not having the motivation to do it. And the solution is simple: don’t depend on motivation and do things, even if you’re not feeling like it! Okay, it’s not that simple, but with the right strategies, it can be really easier.
Having Consequences
An effective strategy is to have a consequence if you don’t do a task. Bonus points if the consequence involves another person. If you have to study right now, but you think that you’re not loosing anything by studying tomorrow instead, why study right now?
Having the consequence related to someone else adds a layer of accountability, and it becomes harder to ignore it. For example, if you say “if I don’t exercise, I won’t eat pizza for a year”, you will have to not eat if you don’t exercise, and it will take a lot of self-control to actually keep your word. The following example shows why involving other people is great.
Personal example: I recently made a bet with my girlfriend that if I don’t study every day in a week, on the weekend I will let her annoy me in whatever way she likes, without any complaints. So whenever I say to her that I’m feeling lazy and don’t want to study, she reminds me of our bet, and I do what I have to do. In that way, she is the responsible to the bad thing that will happen, not me, and (obviously) that she’s really happy to help me by annoying me.
Start Small
This is kinda obvious to some people, but I still think that it is necessary to be said: every time that you want to start a new habit, start with small actions, even if you think that you can do bigger things. Only if you are certain that the task is easy that you can advance and do harder things. It’s easy to overestimate our ability to do something before actually doing it, and if you exaggerate and don’t be able to execute a task, you will get discouraged, thinking you are dumb or not capable, when that’s not true.
Personal example: Last year I was trying to use some of my free time to study new things, but I started trying to study three hours a day every day, but I wasn’t even used to study in my free time, so three hours was too much, so when I understood that, I tried half an hour a day, and I actually managed to do that!
Planning and knowing yourself
I know that to some people, planning might be boring, but it’s essential. The more you plan, the easier it will be, because for example, when you need to do something new, it is harder to do it if you don’t know how, when and where you are going to do it.
Knowing yourself is also essential, because for example if you have all day to study, and you know that you are more productive in the morning, why would you study at night? It would take way more motivation to study at night, and you need to depend on motivation the least as possible.
Personal example: When trying to study in my free time, I decided to study after coming back from the gym because I’m pretty busy before that time, and I knew that YouTube is my weakness, and if I start watching videos I won’t stop, so when I got home after the gym I would rest by lying in my bed for ten minutes without my phone or anything, then I would study and only later, as a reward, I would watch YouTube videos, or whatever I would want to do.
Don’t trust in your memory
This is more like a personal tip. My memory is horrible, I forgot important things all the time. So, how do I manage to do what I have to do? I write down everything. Like I said before, know yourself. If you know that you will not be able to remember something important, write that down immediately.
For this one, I have a ton of personal examples, but this article itself is one of them. One of the reasons I write articles is to have a place with everything I learned, so if I am doing something wrong, I can go here and check if I forgot something.
Important notes
Remember that this is based mostly in my own experience, and that are a lot of reasons that you might fail to do something. To help you, here are a few:
- Sleeping very little
- Not having well-defined goals
- Having unrealistic goals
- Lack of focus
- Fear of failure
- Personal problems (like financial or health issues)
I didn’t focus too much on them because I wanted to focus on what I know best, but identifying the problem is always the first step. I hope that I helped you, even a little bit. If I did, follow me for more content.
Lastly, if you suffer from depression or other mental health issues, or if all that you tried didn’t work, I would suggest seeking professional help. It’s what I did, and is not a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength.
