Overcoming Laziness

Why You Should Never Wait Until You’re Motivated To Start Something

Posted by john on September 26th, 2006 — Posted in How To Be More Motivated And Productive

“I’d like to get started, but I just don’t feel motivated.”

How often do you hear yourself saying that? It’s a dead end. Let me explain.

The startling truth about motivation is that you don’t get motivated to do something until after you’ve started doing it.

If you sit around waiting until you feel the fire inside you, you’ll just keep doing nothing. This is because, as Zig Ziglar has said,

People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why I recommend both daily.

(Here is the source for that and other motivational quotes.)

That’s not all. There’s a logical problem with waiting till you’re motivated — it means you must want to do that thing more than anything else at the time.

As an example, let’s say you got a job in sales and your task is to call business prospects to see if they want to buy. When would you ever want to do that more than anything else? Never! It sucks to make those calls, especially if you’re not naturally outgoing!

And even if you did decide you wanted to do it more than anything else, you’d still need to make that exact same choice tomorrow. That’s a huge risk since you might decide you’d rather just sit around and play games on your computer that day.

So that is why to get started on a task, what you need is something other than motivation. What you need is a lack of choice. That gives you focus, when your only option is to do the thing you need to get done.

Eliminate all other possibilities. Make a rule for yourself that you cannot do anything or think about anything other than making those phone calls.

When you don’t have time to think about your other options, it becomes 100 times easier to get started on your task. You may think about how much you hate it, but at least you’ll do it!

(Of course, it’s much better have a positive attitude, but that will come in time, once you’ve developed a goal-oriented mindset.)

So remember: never sit around waiting until you feel inspired before starting something.

Action Questions:

1. What is your goal you want to accomplish? (The more specific the better. For instance you could want to make $100,000 this year.)

2. What are you willing to do to achieve your goal? (Again, be specific. If you’re a salesperson whose goal is to make a six figure income, don’t say “whatever it takes.” Instead say, “I’m willing to call as many clients as it takes to have one appointment set up for each day of the week.”

Once you’ve answered those two questions, and you’ve eliminated all other possibilities of things you can do, you’re ready to take action. And then once you’re actually doing it, you may just find yourself feeling motivated!