Motivation

What about maintaining motivation, how can you work to build a skill to do just that?

I think it’s important to understand what motivates you first and foremost, as well what demotivates you. Speaking with those around you and clarifying, adjusting and preparing for these things can provide a great scaffolding for success.

In a world filled with instant gratification, it’s often hard to see progress in ourselves and around us. We don’t have the stark contrasting difference noticing ability when we witness the shifting in real time. It’s only once we see the time lapse we can truly see what’s going on.

What can we do, then, to measure and monitor progress? Does it hit us all at once, one day, where we’re like well shit I can totally do this now, or I feel like I finally look different?

I’d argue we’re highly motivated by progress and our brains release dopamine in reference to our accomplishments. It’s also in service to giving ourselves credit where credit is due. I think the struggle we have with it all, has to do with two things, first timeframe, it can take a while to build a skill, reshape the body, etc etc.. second is the incremental results, we’re terrible at noticing the small changes, but really good at noticing something starkly different.

For me I find that flexibility in what you do is paramount. The fact I can burn out programming, but learn something new while doing it, and building the skills to where they are today, vs years ago, it makes launching into the next venture easier and easier, which in turn allows me to capitalize on the motivation while I have it. At first it was never really completing something, or getting it half way, but right now, I’ve pushed things where I’ve never taken them before and continue learning so next time or version two will exceed previous milestones. When I burn out on one thing though, having a variety of choices makes it easier to fall into something next to keep moving forward, even if it’s not always in the same direction (some might argue backwards, but it’s just a matrix of skill boundaries). So I shift to writing, or business development, or research into something like Venture Capital, taking a course, learning a language, all things which have their own motivating aspect, and all things that you can build upon as long as you keep it fresh enough.

The other thing is getting somewhere with these things, setting goals, making sure you have something you’re aiming towards, even if it’s just education or knowledge. But setting something up so that you still push yourself. If you can develop this habit, I cannot tell you how great your days will be. Even on the rough days we all have, having some outlet, without guilt, is amazing. Empowering.

I guess I’d just ask of you what are your motivators, what are your goals, how do you plan on achieving them, and what steps are you taking today, no matter how small, to get there?