Why Motivation is a Myth

When we're unproductive or wasting our time, we like to tell ourselves we're missing motivation.  We intuitively think that we need this motivation to give us the spark to get started. 

However, we can reframe and restructure our lives so that we never need to worry about motivation again.

Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win,  explains why we misunderstand motivation. 

Motivation is something you can create yourself. When you put in the effort, you will improve. Improvement feels good and motivates you to do what is on your list.

The ultimate motivation myth is that we all need motivation to get something done. But instead, we gain motivation when we see ourselves making progress.

It is not motivation that leads to action. It's action that leads to success, which leads to motivation, which leads to more action, which generates more success and motivation. This creates a positive dopamine feedback loop. 

We are often told that to get motivation to do something, we should set some kind of goal to motivate us to get started. This theory is misguided. 

While there's nothing wrong with setting a goal, a goal isn't enough.  Having a goal to run a marathon will not get you across the finish line. Instead, success depends on the process. When we focus on process, we build the foundations for success and the momentum and positive feedback loop to sustain motivation.

Conventional wisdom says we should try and be specialised. We should get really good at one thing.

Instead, we should be thinking like generalists. There are so many different skills we can learn that will synergise. Innovation doesn't come from being very specialised in one field but from combining innovation from multiple areas in interesting ways. We don't have to study all fields at once. You can become very good at almost anything in five to seven years, then move on to the next thing.