Five lies we are told about motivation
By people who don’t care about us
Nine times out of ten, the same people telling you how to find motivation are trying to profit from your lack of it.
I mean look what I’m doing right now.
The fact is that true motivation is like water in a desert. Elusive.
You can bring a certain amount of water with you to the desert, but it will evaporate.
You can ask other people ride out to bring you water, but that water will dry up too.
No, to survive in the desert you need to look deep underground to find a reliable, sustainable source of water in order to survive. It may not be much, but it will sustain you.
The people offering to bring you water don’t care about the reason you are out in the desert, searching for something. They just want to sell you water.
They need you thirsty.
It is no different when you are pursuing creative expression, or trying to improve at running.
You can watch all the motivational videos by your favourite running brands but, ultimately, it’s you who will have to go outside and suffer for your art.
Finding that natural spring of motivation is nearly impossible. Most who appear to have found true motivation just work really, really hard. They bridge the gap between periods of enjoyment with hours and hours of hard work.
Here are five lies about motivation that we are told, subtly, by people who would prefer us to stay unmotivated.
1 – You can buy it.
You can’t buy sustainable motivation.
You can buy new running shoes, headphones and kettlebells, but don’t mistake the intense endorphin rush for motivation. This is just shopping for new stuff. Don’t confuse excitement about new gear with motivation to do the hard thing.
Now, I do love a new pair of running shoes as much as the next man. New gear gets me out of the door.
But will it sustain me through month-long training schedules? Never.
2 – It’s easy to find.
True motivation is not easy to find nor maintain. It arrives with us in an unpredictable fashion.
This is largely because of of the lies we tell ourselves.
Hear me out.
If you don’t know why you need motivation to perform at something, then you may struggle to know the best mental or spiritual fuel to help you finish the job.
Are you doing this for yourself, or to make your parents proud?
Are you seeking a better life for yourself or do you just want to show off to others?
Do you enjoy the process of training, or do you enjoy the end-goal ahead?
Truly you need to be honest with yourself about why you are struggling to find motivation, because otherwise you have no idea if you will ever find the motivation to finish what you started.
3 – It’s righteous.
As alluded to above, you may not even know what your inner motivation is.
Sure, your motivation to get fit may be to prevent heart disease and play with your grandkids one day.
But you may just want six-pack abs and get laid on holiday.
And, that’s OK!
Either way, motivation is not always righteous or honourable. Recognising this, and owning your reasons for wanting a specific goal is fundamentally important to finding the inner motivation needed to reach it.
4 – It’s unlimited.
Sometimes relationships run their course. The same is true with our goals.
If you are struggling to find motivation to achieve something then there is a high chance that this goal is not what you really want anyway.
How many years have you been saying you want to learn that new language, or smash that personal record in the 5K?
Be honest.
Perhaps your motivation has waned because you simply do not want these goals anymore. No amount of self-flagellation is going to bring back your desire to do something if it’s not what you really want.
5 – It comes from within.
This is not always true. Sometimes we know that we should do something even if we don’t love the process. After all, exercise is one of those things that, in evolutionary terms, we just need.
If you are struggling to find the motivation to throw on the running shoes, or write that novel, then you need external motivation.
David Goggins, Jocko Willink, Greta Thunberg. There are thousands of celebrities you can follow and from whom you may receive regular snippets of wisdom.
But the most effective motivator, in my opinion?
It’s an ordinary person who lives nearby.
They aren’t famous, but they have a real story.
They work at your gym, they publish on Medium, they go to the same running club as you.
They are on the end of a telephone call, and will remind you of the plans you made, before you became busy and lost motivation.
That is the sort of motivator you need. Find them, befriend them, marry them if you have to.
Share your motivation stories with me!
