Stop Using Motivation to Stop

What’s the thing that you’ve been telling yourself you’re going to do? Have you been telling yourself you’re going to do it for a while?

The perfect time to start doing the things you want to do is now. You don’t have to accomplish this today, you just have to start it today. We all get a little caught up in outcome goals. Some of us want to get rich, or retire, or lose 10lbs. The reason we aren’t there yet isn’t because we lack motivation, or we don’t want it enough…it’s because we haven’t changed anything yet.

So today, write down your goal. Look at it and decide, what’s one thing you can do today that will help eventually make that goal a reality. Do that one thing, however small it is.

When it comes to getting things done, we often think that willpower has to be the thing that carries us through. The mentality that a motivational force must stop you from doing something other than the thing you want (i.e. Stop you from watching TV to look for a new job, stop you from snacking on chips instead of eating vegetables) is very unhelpful. Motivational forces are not good for stopping…they’re good for propelling. Motivation won’t stop you from snacking on chips, but if you pause to call on why you need motivation, it can be the force that makes you start by snacking on vegetables.

And for now…just start!