Why motivation is you do not actually need

I'm not very motivated person. I do not have a strong will power or self-pumped. I do not get up at six in the morning to read, meditate, drink green tea, and run 10 kilometers. It's all because I do not believe in motivation.

How can one live without motivation? Well, personally, I have built for themselves a system of habits and routine matters in which it has no place. I struck out this variable out of the equation. So now, no matter whether I feel "motivated" or "inspired", I still stay productive.

I understand that the routine does not sound very glamorous, but it really works. Over the past 12 years habits They guided me and supported at every step. Starting from the days when my company was JotForm simple idea is in the air, and ending with the present day, when I have 110 employees and 3.7 million customers.

Everything that I have achieved, arose due to habit and routine, not motivation. If you create yourself a reliable system of action that is not based on the strength of will, you do not have to think more about how to motivate themselves.

What is motivation

Simply put, motivation - it is your desire to do something. In this sense, there are different degrees of intensity - of little interest to the irresistible desire to act.

When your desires are strong, easy to motivate yourself. But if the interest is not enough and you have to fight with them, you are ready to do anything, just not to get to work or go to the gym. You start to put off unwanted action and procrastination comes into its own - until you feel the real agony of idleness.

At some point the pain of doing nothing is stronger than the pain from the action.

Steven Pressfield, author of "War of the creative"

I like this quote, because, as I suspect we are all experiencing these painful moments - when remain seated on the couch becomes more painful than to get up, put on shoes and go do something useful.

What is motivation

In his book "Drive: what really motivates us," Daniel Pink on the shared motivation two kinds: External and internal.

• Extrinsic motivation comes from other people. It may be money, or the praise and recognition, or the approving glances of the opposite sex when you do not look awkward on the tennis court.
• Internal motivation comes inside. It is the desire to act, when the only reward is the process itself.

Intrinsic motivation due most honest and sincere reasons. For example, if you create your own business, or wanting to help people to solve important problems, not because blinded by lust for fame or fortune.

Motivation can be harmful if you take too much relying on it.

No matter how much you love your business, there are times when you do not want to act. Maybe your problem is too difficult, and her performance seems impossible. Or, conversely, it is too boring. That's when you help and not the motivation, and the weighted strategy.

How to deal with cases without relying on motivation

1. Choose to focus on anything

Take, for example, me. This year I have three business priorities:

• Hire truly qualified people in the company.
• Write quality content for your blog.
• Educate our customers productivity.

These three topics cover the full range of my studies. If a project or an idea does not fit into one of these groups, I refuse it. Not distracted by minor problemI can make progress on important matters.

For example, I spend the first two hours of each day writing down your thoughts. This may be a way to solve any problems, ideas or anything else like that. At that time, I did not appoint any meeting and did not respond to emails.

But when I come to work without much inspiration, then I allow myself to do instead of taking notes something else. If it is, of course, it fits in my three main areas of activity. For example, I can read articles or books on the dates of my threads, meet with my development team, or watch video lectures.

All these things provide me a new burst of inspiration and motivation. And once that happens, I'll be ready again generate ideas. So I shifted the ball rolling.

2. Remember that motivation is not obligatory

articleThis Is the Best Advice on Motivation I Have Ever Read for the publication of The Cut Melissa Dahl said:

The only motivational advice that can be useful to someone: you do not have the desire to do something, to actually do it.

Melissa Dahl, author of books on productivity, journalist, editor of the magazine New York Magazine

This is brilliant advice. Your actions are not required to conform to your senses - especially when you we must move forward.

You may feel tired, but I still wear glasses for swimming and go to the pool. You may prefer, rather, chained themselves to the chair than reopen PowerPoint - but still sit down and do the damn presentation.

Melissa also cites Burkemana Oliver, author books "Antidote. An antidote to the unhappy life ", who writes:

What makes you think that, to begin to act, you have to wait when you want to? I believe that the problem is not a lack of motivation, and that you feel as if you need it.

Oliver Burkeman

Make a habit of winning your feelings. You may want to watch a video with lions, but instead you sit down in the morning at the computer and open a new document. You write a few hours and do not pay attention to their emotions. Finally, progress has gone. And then just repeat this process every day.

3. Delegate whenever possible

The other day during a morning workout I came up with a great idea. One of those forced to say "wow".

Unfortunately, she had no connection with my three main priorities that I mentioned earlier. What did I do? I created a note on your smartphone and asked my deputy to do this.

I was tempted to take matters into their own hands, but I could not afford to be distracted by something else.

I understand that the delegation is not always possible, especially if you are an employee or have small company with a small number of staff. I know what it is - when you can not afford to hire someone, so he did the dirty work for you. Because my company there were periods when he had to save every penny.

But if the delegation is possible, it pays off. Unload itself is meaningful in two cases:

• If you can save valuable time, energy and concentration for more important things. These resources are invaluable, it is not necessary to spend them on the little things.
• If someone else is better than you can handle. In my team, there is almost always someone who has more specialized knowledge and skills than me. These people show the best results in less time.

How to act in the long term

All of the above applies to daily motivation. But how do you keep the desire to act in the long term? This is an important question. The answers are different people may vary. But in the end we all are motivated joy and a sense of meaning.

Oliver Burkeman introduced me to the Buddhist Susan Pivert. She was very tired of what you need to be "productive" and make daily lists. Instead, Susan decided to focus on getting pleasure from their work.

When I think that the reason for my motivation - genuine curiosity, and my work coincides with my ideas about who I am and who I want to become the office immediately transformed from a labor camp in the game area.

Susan Pivert

Susan asks himself the question: what would it was interesting to do? And then it focuses on the fact that she really likes. And as a result of her work look as if it has a serious discipline, but Susan reaches them without much effort.

Discipline is very important. And, of course, there are things that should be done, but do not want - for example, to pay bills or clean the litter box. But I suggest rather than to achieve the objectives through "do not want" to try to find something that really gives you joy.

Susan Pivert

We all are going through difficult times, doing the work that we I do not like, Suffer various injustices. But if you are struggling will try to enjoy what you are doing, you will gain peace of mind. And your motivation will grow. And if not, it is still you and not really necessary.