Motivation can be a tricky thing, quite powerful, but often elusive. There are moments when getting going feels effortless, almost like you’re swept up in a wave of enthusiasm. Then, there are those other times, where finding that spark feels nearly impossible, leaving you caught in a cycle of putting things off. Here, I’ve brought together some of the most insightful ideas and practical research on how to both start and maintain that drive.
You won’t find a high-energy, cheerleading type of motivational speech here; that’s just not how I approach things. What we will do is explore the underlying science of not only igniting motivation initially but also sustaining it over time. Regardless of whether you’re looking to inspire yourself or lead a team, the aim is to cover the essential aspects.
Feel free to use the links provided to navigate directly to a specific section, or you can just scroll through to read it all. Towards the bottom of this page, you’ll also discover a comprehensive list of all the pieces I’ve shared on this topic.
Let’s begin by looking at what motivation truly is and how it functions.
1-The first question we might ask is, what exactly is motivation?
And as we consider that, it’s helpful to clear up some common misunderstandings about it.
Once we have a clearer picture, the next step is to explore how to actually get motivated and translate that into action.
2-We’ll discuss approaches for scheduling your motivation.
3-Also, strategies for finding that drive, even on days when you just don’t feel like it.
4-And we’ll look at how to embed motivation into your routine, making it a habit.
Finally, we’ll turn our attention to keeping that momentum going, ensuring you stay motivated over the long haul.
1-We’ll cover maintaining motivation through something I call the Goldilocks Rule.
2-And examine how to reach your highest levels of motivation.
3-We’ll also address what to do for those times when your motivation inevitably dips.
Now, let’s really dive into what motivation is and how it actually operates. While the scientific community often describes motivation as a general readiness to act, viewing it as the collection of psychological forces pushing you to take action, I believe we can frame it in a way that feels a bit more practical and insightful.
What then, is motivation, if we try to pin it down precisely?
* Steven Pressfield, in his book The War of Art, offers a line that I think really captures its essence. He suggests, and I’m paraphrasing here, that there comes a point where the discomfort of not doing something outweighs the discomfort of actually doing it.
Put another way, a moment arrives where altering your situation feels less burdensome than letting things remain as they are. You might find it simpler to push through the initial awkwardness at the gym, for example, rather than enduring the feeling of regret while staying on the couch. Or, facing a bit of discomfort during a sales call becomes preferable to the persistent worry about a shrinking bank balance.
To me, that seems to get right to the heart of what motivation is. While every decision comes with its own cost, when we are truly motivated, the challenges of taking action feel less daunting than the stagnation of not moving forward. There’s a point where we cross a sort of mental line—often after weeks of putting things off, perhaps with a deadline looming—and suddenly, the thought of not doing the work becomes more difficult to bear than simply getting it done.
This brings us to a crucial question: What steps can we take to increase the chances of regularly reaching this point of action and experiencing sustained motivation?
Let’s touch on some common misunderstandings surrounding motivation. One of the less obvious, yet truly impactful, aspects of motivation is that it frequently emerges after you’ve begun a new activity, rather than beforehand. There’s a widespread belief that motivation just shows up if you watch a video or read an inspirational book, hoping to absorb it passively. Yet, actively engaging with something can often be a much stronger driving force.
More often than not, motivation itself is a consequence of taking action, rather than its prerequisite. Just making a start, even if it’s a tiny one, serves as an active source of inspiration, which then naturally builds momentum.
I often think of this as the “Physics of Productivity,” as it echoes Newton’s First Law when applied to how habits form: things that are moving tend to keep moving. Once you’ve kicked off a task, it becomes considerably simpler to keep it progressing.