We can talk about productivity and creativity and all the “-ivities” all day until we’re blue in the face but the truth of the matter is that we’re still going to find ourselves in seasons of complete lack in terms of motivation and if we let it get the better of us, that lack of motivation will kill our creativity and productivity.
But there’s something that we can do; there’s a way to fight back and it begins by understanding the nature of motivation.
There’s a book called “The Motivation Myth”, by Jeff Haden (https://amzn.to/382lLsm // affiliate link), it’s a phenomenal book, I learned a ton from it. The premise of this book is that motivation comes after we take action. After we begin, after we commit and invest effort into getting something done, to doing the work that matters, then we gain the motivation to keep going.
Some people call it sweat equity. ‘Sweat’ because it’s hard to start and ‘equity’ because an investment has been made. You have to take the risk up front and gain enough positive net value in something to continue on. Motivation is like the dividend that you recieve from a good investment. When you invest and take the risk up front of putting your effort into something, despite not being motivated, you get a dividend in the form of motivation that reassures you that it was a good investment of your effort. And then you get a cash out when you grow, learn, an advance once the project is done and it’s time to move on and apply what you’ve learned to something new… back to square one.
Action begets motivation. If you want to do something and you find yourself waiting for the motivation to actually start than chances are you’ll probably be waiting a long time. Especially if what you want to do is scary, and if you’re doing it right, if you’re truly doing work that matters, it should scare you at least a little bit.
So, as profound as I want this to be, it’s really simple: just start.
There’s no formula, there’s no hack, there’s no special tricks to get you going. Getting going is the trick that lands in the place where you’re excited to keep going. Getting started is risky, it’s scary, it’s unknown. What if you put in all of this effort and it doesn’t work out? That could certainly happen. What if you put in the sweat equity for the finished product to completely suck? That will definitely happen.
But then what if it doesn’t? What if this thing that you’re so afraid to start is the thing that launches you into the next phase of your career? What if making that Youtube channel is the start of your side hustle, maybe not being Youtuber but maybe the audience that you build on Youtube becomes the backers and buyers of the project that you like making in your garage on weekends?
The possibilities of success are actually more likely than the possibilities of failure. If you’re creating for yourself, your chances of success are like… 100%. If you’re creating for other people, with 7 billion people on the planet, it’s impossible to not find somebody, at least a handful of people, who are interested in what you’re doing. You just have to find them.
So I guess, if I’m trying to say anything with this quick read, it’s this: Just start creating, start doing, start with something easy and less intimidating so to get the ball rolling, but start first and the motivation will follow.
It really is that simple.
Thanks for reading. Much love. Peace.
