Motivation is finite
Have you ever seen my blog home page? There is a phrase at the top — it's been there there since the blog was launched.
"Don't be the smartest, keep learning.", Daniel Marcovici.
It is a simple phrase, but there is a lot to it. This is something that I've been hammering into my mindset for the past few years. To be a learner — to have the act of learning as part of my value system.
There is a huge gap between motivation — or being inspired to do something — and actual implementation. The learner mentality is what allows us to face life's unknowns and drive us from inspiration towards implementation.
Motivation is overrated. We can watch motivational videos every morning to get us pumped, but unless we act on it, it will never become part of our reality.
Forging our value system
I believe that everything in life comes down to what our value system is. What is our identity, values, habits, routines. We need to figure them out and have them clearly defined.
To me, implementation is being able to face our fears and anxieties, the unknown, to stare at our inadequacies, and find out what skills are needed in order to go after what we are trying to achieve. Implementation is a question of skillset.
Nowadays, we see a ton of motivational content out there. It floods our Instagram, YouTube — it is everywhere! It makes us feel inspired and creates a false sense that we have actually accomplished something, but feeling inspired and taking action are two different things.
That's why motivation will always let us down. We are motivated to do something, we fail at it, and then we get stuck into an infinite loop.
The motivational loop
Let me walk you through it. We are motivated to try something but we are not sure how do it. We suck at it. We go ahead to do that thing we suck at and it hurts our ego. Our ego is tide up in being right, being good, being talented, being worthy — all permanent states that we often forget are malleable.
We get stuck and it damages our self-esteem. Our fight-or-flight system kicks in, we feel like running in the opposite direction, then our psychological immune system kicks in, it reminds us what we are trying to do was stupid anyway, we back off and never try it again.
Any one-time doing this is not a big deal. There are things we can't achieve. The problem is doing this over, and over, and over. I am sure we've all fallen into this trap many times, it is probably one of the most predictable patterns of humanity.
So what can we do to counter it?
Become a learner
What we can do, is to change our perspective and reward ourselves for being willing to take the steps. For being willing to try.
It goes like this — Ok, I am gonna do this. I know it's gonna suck. I know its gonna hurt my self-esteem, so what should I do to not trip over and run away in the opposite direction?
We need to stop valuing ourselves for being good at something and start valuing ourselves for being willing to learn.
This is a core part of my value system — I am a learner. Being willing to put in the time and energy to learn and get better. So when I see something I want to accomplish, then I know I am gonna have the fortitude and stamina to see it through because it taps into my identity of the learner decreasing my chances to give up early.
Developing the skillset
As I mentioned, implementation is a matter of skillset. It all comes down to — do we have the skills required to achieve what we are trying to do? Often the answer is — not right now.
So we hit the wall of our inadequacies, and because of the learner mentality, we don't meet that with stopping. We meet that with — cool, now I know what I need to get better at. We learn what the required skillset is.
So now that we know the skillset we need to develop — and I believe that we can develop anything with proper effort and time — it is just a matter of putting the work, consistency and patience.
Transforming skill into passion
We need to stop thinking that to pursue something, we need raging passion towards it.
Find something worth that has a real spark of interest, not love, not passion — a real spark of real interest. We constantly look for things we would love to do, so we give little attention to things we are interested in — that could then become a passion.
There is a process that takes something from interest to full blown passion. It is developing the skillset, and focusing on the process to get there.
If we are willing to go through that process we can evolve that spark of interest to the very thing that will drive our lives. Motivation will not get us there, only implementation and developing the right skillset will.
Be a learner, focus on the process!
