The Secret to Getting Motivated: You Must Act Your Way Into The Feeling That You Want
There’s a common self-sabotaging behavior that many of us fall victim to over and over again: We wait to feel motivated or inspired before we take action toward the goals we genuinely desire to achieve.
How many times has that happened to you?
You do want to improve your fitness level, but you “just don’t feel like working out today.” You do want to start plucking away at that business idea of yours, but you’re “just not in the best mental space right now.” You do want to start painting again, but you “just don’t feel inspired right now.”
Truth is, you’re not always going to be motivated to chase that big goal of yours. And if you’re waiting for the muse of inspiration to reveal itself to you, time is going to wither away and no goddess will descend from the heavens to save you.
The presumption that you take action because you feel a certain way, isn’t a reliable recipe for success. Instead, make it a habit to act before you feel like it. Why? Because by simply taking direct action against that which you resist, the momentum you create will indirectly induce the emotions of motivation, inspiration, and anticipation that you’ve been craving all along.
Over a century ago, psychologist and philosopher William James explained this phenomenon:
“Action seems to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.”
In a way, this seeps into the simple Stoic principle that a good life is born out of the habit of always focusing on what you can control. While you can’t always control the complex internal chemical reactions that trigger your emotions, you can always control how you choose to act and respond at any given moment.
You Procrastinate Because Your Brain is Designed to Keep You “Safe”
Perhaps you’re now thinking: “Maybe I’m not taking action because I’ve made it a habit to anchor myself in the excuse of not being inspired.” Well, you’re right—and part of that is due to the inner biology of your brain.
When you’re about to take action against something that is of interest to you, you’ll be faced with a lot of resistance. That’s because you’re about to do something that’s quite uncomfortable.
Resistance camouflages itself in many shapes and forms. Laziness is a form of resistance and procrastination is another. As Steven Pressfield writes in his book, The War of Art:
"Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it's the easiest to rationalize. We don't tell ourselves, I'm never going to write my symphony. Instead, we say, I'm going to write my symphony; I'm just going to start tomorrow."
At the root of it, however, this resistance stems from an area in your brain that is trying to keep you safe from venturing out into an uncomfortable zone.
Science explains that procrastination is a fight sparked between two parts of the brain: The limbic system (the unconscious and emotional part) and the prefrontal cortex (the conscious and rational part).
When faced with the notion of an unpleasant activity, the limbic system often wins, and so, we procrastinate. That’s because the limbic system is designed for one thing and one thing only: To keep you comfortable and safe.
Going for a run outside will make you feel uncomfortable, hence your brain triggers an emotional response in the form of laziness. Sitting down to work on your business idea or to paint can sometimes be too challenging, hence your brain triggers an emotional response in the form of procrastination.
So you put off for tomorrow what you could and should have done today. You do what feels good now—doing nothing—because that offers temporary relief from discomfort.
This natural tendency to procrastinate is precisely why sometimes, you shouldn’t wait to feel your way into the action that you want, because, quite frankly, you might end up waiting forever. Rather, you’ve got to act your way into the feeling that you want.
Don’t Rely on Motivation, Build up Momentum Instead
You can’t row a boat by sitting idle in it, waiting for a whiff of motivation. No, you’ve got to pick up an oar and paddle. Doing so is what allows you to create momentum, which is then transferred to the water, causing the boat to move forward.
The same applies to your daily life.
The only way to change how you feel is to take action. Repeat that action enough times and each wave of effort you produce snowballs into a swell of momentum that keeps you going. Soon enough, the speed at which you’re moving and the advancement that you’re scaling will generate the motivation you require to persist onward.
And that’s not common sense, that’s physics. Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force.
So when you find yourself sluggishly waiting for a surge of motivation or a dose of inspiration to fall upon you from the sky, remind yourself of this universal truth: An object at rest will stay at rest.
You’re uninspired because you’re at rest. You’re not motivated because you’re at rest. You’re feeling lethargic because you’re at rest. And you continue to dawdle and procrastinate because you haven’t learned how to reorient yourself to prefer the behaviors that are going to move your life forward.
So instead of waiting to feel a certain way before acting, act now.
Act your way into motivation. Keep showing up to resistance with a bouquet of flowers and a box of dark chocolate. Size it down. Create motion through action. That’s how you build momentum. And the energy you produce from that momentum is what will sustain the motivation you had long been waiting for.
The Key to Action, Momentum, and Motivation is Simple: Create a Daily Ritual
“How do some of the most prolific artists in the world motivate themselves? They don't merely set schedules, they build rituals,” writes James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits.
Truth is, the work of great creatives isn’t contingent upon motivation or inspiration. It’s dependant upon consistency and routine. They show up at the same time day after day to put in the work. They keep moving. They honor the process even on the many days when they don’t feel like it.
In his book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, author Mason Currey notes the rituals of many prominent artists: Maya Angelou rented a hotel room and wrote daily from 6:30 AM until 2:00 PM. English novelist Anthony Trollope obliged himself to write three thousand words before going off to his job at the postal service. And to this very day, Japanese writer Haruki Murakami wakes up at 4 AM every day to write.
“A solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies and helps stave off the tyranny of moods.”
― Mason Currey
The goal is not to meditate once a week, write one article, or sit down for a single business brainstorming session. The goal is to do these things repeatedly. And the secret is to build a ritual around each action.
The way I see it, a consistent ritual is what allows you to open the door through which the muse of inspiration will flow in and reach you.
So if you find yourself stalling on your goals because you’re not feeling too inspired or motivated right now, you’re playing the game of amateurs. The only way to step into the league of pros is to stop waiting to feel inspired and motivated, and instead, make it a daily habit to take action, regardless of how unmotivated or uninspired you currently feel.
Stop waiting and start acting.