Manufacturing Motivation

 In order to maintain consistency, you need to manufacture motivation.

I know it sounds weird to say but it’s not always possible to “find” motivation as we often say. Finding implies that it exists somewhere and you need to search for it, but how far can the search go? And what happens when you don’t find it?

The stages of starting something, whether it’s a habit or a hobby, is usually like this:

-You find that natural motivation or inspiration for something which becomes the trigger for you to actually start it, it’s your taking off point.

-Once the motivation tapers off, discipline keeps the ball rolling

-But sometimes the discipline falters, what then?

That’s when you need to take a moment to remember why you began in the first place. It sound’s cliché but this evaluation is important.

Upon reflecting you might realize you don’t need or want this thing in your life anymore, which would then save your time and effort. On the other hand, if it is something you want to keep doing consistently (and the consistency is key here) then you need to re-create that spark of motivation that got you started.

 -.-

This can happen in a variety of ways and has to be tailored specifically for your case, but I’ll lay out some examples here:

• Re-immerse yourself in media surrounding the habit/hobby

                Ex: If your habit is working out twice a week then maybe start watching workout videos, join a group online for support, scroll through posts related to working out which might teach you something new for you to try.

 

• Change the way you interact with your habit/hobby

                Ex: If your habit is trying to journal every day, then change the way you’ve been doing it. Maybe switch to bullet points or pictures instead of paragraphs or try using journaling prompts.

 

• Create or buy something related to your habit/hobby to get you excited

                Ex: Create a new workout playlist to pump yourself up, buy different colored pens to make your journaling more fun.

 

Do whatever makes you feel happy or excited related to that habit or hobby.

 

Something I did recently to manufacture motivation was buy the moisturizer I use for my nightime routine since my other one was running low. I started this nightime routine earlier this year and kept it up for a while, but in the past few weeks I’ve found myself faltering.

Just the act of going to the store and seeing all the different skin care options and picking out what now feels like “my” moisturizer re-invigorated my desire to keep up the routine.

I think people sometimes think that manufacturing motivation sounds fake, but it’s a necessary part of maintaining consistency with something. If you naturally find it again then of course, that’s great, but we can’t always get that energy and will naturally.

And that’s when we need to take it into our own hands.

Please leave a comment to share your thoughts! And I’ll see you in the next one!