Quiet Motivation
When we talk about working on our goals, there’s a lot of emphasis on engagement, inspiration, and action. Of course, when it comes down to it the key to achievement finding a way to get on with what you need to do. And leaping that initial hurdle to get started does take a certain amount of intensity and focus. The challenge of staying focused is another challenge. We tend to believe it comes down to motivation and keeping a high level of excitement toward our goal. As anyone who’s pursued a goal for any amount of time knows, maintaining a high level of motivation is not only difficult, it’s impossible. This is why forming habits is so important, because in order to succeed long-term when motivation sometimes disappears, habit will carry us through.

Today, I’d like to offer another perspective on motivation . The word ‘motivation’ tends to conjure images of hyped up people running up staircases and yelling mantras at themselves in the mirror every morning. Or else it’s a steely determination, an intense focus of intention and action. There is, however, a side of motivation that we don’t normally talk about. While we’re emotionally invested in the goals that mean most to us, we also need motivation for the more mundane things in life. Mowing the lawn, paying the bills, and doing housework aren’t typically things we feel too strongly about, and yet we manage to get these things done regularly. Habit plays a role, but at heart we deal with these tasks because we feel we don’t have a choice. There are serious consequences to not paying your bills on time, and on balance, following through on these small annoying tasks saves us a lot of trouble in the long run. Essentially, you’re quietly being motivated by the desire for peace in your life.

What makes pursuing our important goals so difficult is precisely our emotional investment. We wrap our identities and self-worth up in our success and so we fear taking a chance in case we fail. Following through requires a delicate balance of investing our positive emotions and connecting with why a goal is important to us, but also not hinging our self-worth on the outcome as this only blocks us from getting started. So there’s real wisdom in our ability to follow through on boring, everyday tasks with no other reason than keeping the peace. And that’s the point, motivation doesn’t need to be loud and obnoxious, and you don’t always need deep, meaningful reasons to do something. Sometimes just wanting to maintain quiet is enough.

Applying this wisdom to our big goals can feel a little counter-intuitive, but it can be an effective way of infusing our hearts with positive reasons for following through without activating the part of us that believes the outcome is a direct reflection of our worth. Think about one of your goals right now. Whether you are doing well and making progress every day, or you are still struggling to really commit to it, spend a few minutes and think about all the ways in which not following through creates discomfort and distress in your life. What are the inconveniences not changing adds to your life? How would taking care of this on a daily basis add to your peace and quiet? What kind of calm and assurance might it bring you?

Motivation isn’t always about getting pumped up: sometimes the most effective motivation allows us to wind down.
Eric Sean

7792 Capital Blvd #4 Macedonia,
Ohio 2163224574