You Don't Need Motivation, You Need Routine
You can define motivation in many ways. The reason to do or behave in a certain manner. The feeling or reason that helps us fight resistance. The willingness and strong desire to get up early instead of sleeping in. Go work out after work, even though you had a crazy day. Motivation is why you pick up the book and read it. It’s the reason you eat good, stop smoking, meditate, work overtime or go to therapy. What about the times when you don’t feel motivated? Or you tell yourself, “I lack motivation.” Or you force yourself to find a sliver of motivation within you
You don’t need motivation. You simply need a routine. Whether that is a morning routine, evening routine, workout or work routine. A life without design is erratic as the expression goes. Or the other one, if you fail to plan, than you’re planning to fail. Your life must be designed and you do that with a routine. By having a routine you think less and simply act, based on the script you gave yourself. You no longer need motivation or need to find it.
Bill Walsh, legendary head football coach in the NFL would avoid failing to plan by having the first 25 plays of each game decided in his head. This way he knew, that he and his team could walk into the stadium and start the game with zero stress. With a plan, a routine. Regardless of the outcome of these 25 plays it allowed the team to simply act out the script, follow the plan, let the routine take over.
When you have all these choices to make it can take your energy away. This is called decision fatigue and can completely melt away motivation. With a routine your life and days are designed, like a blueprint to a home, a detailed recipe for the meal or a manual to build the bookshelf. The result is avoiding uncertainty and decision fatigue. When you know when you are going to do this or that you completely avoid procrastination too.
So how do you stay motivated?
With routine. Most people wake up each day and decide it all then. What to wear. What to eat. You check your phone before doing anything else, delaying the decisions from taking place. To do that each day is exhausting and will definitely lead to burnout, fatigue and a complete lack in motivation. Opening the door to procrastination.
This is why routine is so important. Not just any routine however. A routine that is focused. Where you can use applied time. Where the result is being efficient. Routine creates repetition and in a world full of chaos and mystery, routine gives you control. When everything else seems out of control. Through that repetition you gain the motivation. Especially when motivation is fleeting and can deplete itself within you.
Many studies have been done on decision fatigue, how making decisions melts down self-control and motivation. In addition, why habits are so important. When you perform your routine or script enough, it becomes a ritual. It’s the way you code your life. You ultimately become self-motivated and confident. You rely on routine so you don’t have to rely on motivation which let’s be honest, won’t always be there.
From when you’ll wake up to when you’ll work out. When you journal, meditate and read. The point is to find the things that matter and work them in your life each day so that it’s automatic. Routine. So you don’t have to think about it. Now, everything cannot fit. It’s up to you to find what’s important. You’ll never lack motivation because you are simply following the code for your life. The manual you created to build your life. The recipe for you to live the good life. The script that you act out each day.
You’ll never need motivation when you have a routine.
Thought Provoking Questions : What do you value and find important? Do you need motivation for that? Or routine?
Dan Roman is a writer that releases a daily meditation. A quick read. Sharing wisdom and asking thought-provoking questions. Influenced by the obstacles, success and failures in life and of others. Using history, books, current events, philosophy, and ancient wisdom. These writings are actionable, thought-provoking, designed to make your life better.
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