When Motivation Runs Out

We started out the year on my blog by letting go of…whatever needed to end.

• Some of you let me know that it is a physical letting go of possessions that are weighing you down, and how hard that is for you.

• For others, it is the self-talk you’ve been using against yourself for years, and you realize that if you keep holding on to it, you will never have the life you dreamed of.  

• For others, it is letting go of how they thought others perceived them. (And that?—that’s brilliant. What a burden you don’t need to haul around.)

So as we move into the new year—this time of retrospection and introspection—we can draw a line and leave certain things in the past. And regardless of what came before, we can search for the question that will draw us forward.

If ever there was a time to search for whom and what we were created to be, I believe this is the time. We need to let go of the things that weigh us down, or those that lull us into comfortable complacency. Because the times we are living in are not comfortable, and we dare not remain complacent. We need to step through the gate we pondered last week, and know which direction to go.

But then…we have to figure out how to walk that path, and sometimes that is just as hard.

Yes, we’re searching for the where, hoping a soulful question will lead us in the right direction. We’re examining the why, because knowing it is sometimes what we need to affirm the direction we choose. But knowing both will only get us so far. Because day in and day out, what we need to know is how.  

I heard a friend of mine say, “Motivation and inspiration only last so long, and when they are gone, what a person is left with is discipline.”

I searched the Internet to see if he was quoting someone and found thousands of hits for those combined keywords. Even a Pinterest board.  What I am saying here is that this is no original epiphany. People have understood this for a long time, and it’s a popular topic for blog posts, books, speeches, etc.

I even found a quote from Abraham Lincoln, who said, “Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.”

And Aristotle, who lived a long time before Lincoln, said, “Through discipline comes freedom.”

Want to know why this is important? Because discipline is what gets a person past the questioning, through the gate and on their way. It’s strapping on your shoes, picking up your pack and putting one foot in front of the other.

Even when you don’t feel like it. Even if it hurts. Even if you’re not sure you’re doing it right.

Discipline means doing the work. It doesn’t matter how much you listen to the rah-rah speeches if you never pick up the ball and try running with it. Discipline is practicing. And failing. And trying a new way to get the job done.

It’s making the choice, every time there’s a choice, to do it, whatever ‘it’ is for you.  Choose to do it when it’s hard and when it’s not hard. When it doesn’t seem to matter much whether you do it or don’t do it. Because every time you do it, you will get better at it, or learn something, and it will get easier. And every time you don’t, you lose a little more faith in yourself.

Don’t wait until the details are all lined up so you can. Just sweep those to the side, and get to work. Get out your calendar and make a schedule. Put the words on the page, the paint on the canvas, the water in the sink, or your shoes on your feet. Because the world needs the work you want to do. It needs the gift you have to give it. This isn’t the time to wait for someone to come and beg you to start. Just start. Whether you have the energy or inspiration or not.

I know that there are countless systems out there, meant to organize and prioritize a person’s way of living or working towards success. And everyone seems to find or create a different method, because everyone is different.

For me it’s more of how NOT to procrastinate.

So right now I’m trying a more simplified approach. I try to address the thing I dread the most, first. I spend only a certain amount of time on it because if I do it any longer than that, I am so discouraged I don’t want to set foot back in my office for days. Because the thing I dread the most is a critical requirement for me to proceed beyond the gate.

Once that time is up, I get to move on to what I really want to do that day. For those, I have a Priority 1 task, and a Priority 2 task. (Thanks for the tip!! You know who you are!)

For me, those things center around writing and publishing. My personal life falls outside of those tasks. But now I have more time for my personal life…because I am not procrastinating so much!!

While I am just starting this new method, what I have found so far is that I am so relieved after I finish the Greatful Dread (which is not to be confused with the Grateful Dead.) and so proud of myself, that everything else goes more quickly and efficiently because I am no longer procrastinating. I don’t need as much caffeine, either, because I am so excited about making progress on Priority Thing 1 and Priority Thing 2, and that gives me the energy to keep going.

We’ve all had those moments when we’ve heard the speech or read the book or listened to the podcast and our hearts seemed to swell up inside us, filled with inspiration. We would do it! We would fight the fight, or brave the unknown, or finally clean out that closet and fold everything nice and tidy into little squares and the world would be right again!!

And then we realized…there wasn’t any gas in the car…the trash was overflowing…the kids didn’t have anything to eat for breakfast...and no one showed up for the class…and the meeting turned into an unproductive waste of time…

And our hearts twisted and deflated like a balloon that came untied and slowly sank back down to earth, all the inspiration and motivation lost in the wind.

Discipline is what it takes to start one task and keep at it until it’s done, and then start the next, and finish it. Every damn day. Don’t give up. Don’t wait to start. Brush your teeth, put on your shoes and go. Now.

And don’t ever stop.

So, do you have a method to help you stay disciplined and get the job done? In the comments box below, tell us what you do and how it helps you. What you have to say might just help someone else.

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