Let’s talk about motivation.

But first, let’s be clear. I’m not a coach or a consultant. I have no dog in this fight. There's no motivation seminar or course at the end of this email.

If you want to sit on your ass, that’s fine with me.

However, if you want to have drive and goals that match your ambition, you need what others will call motivation.

I say, “what others will call,” because motivation isn’t a thing you are granted or born with. It’s not given to you by a higher power or a habit-forming process.

Motivation is about having clarity of action and intent. Motivation isn’t a bucket you need to fill that gets empty, it’s a process.

If you don’t have a goal or an intention, you won’t be motivated. The directionless may seem to have motivation, but I wouldn't call stumbling through the darkness the same as being motivated.

The enemy of motivation is not knowing what to do next.

Not knowing the next step is a point of friction. When there is friction in any process, our brain tells us to do something else.

We get distracted. We start doing unrelated, easier tasks that we know we can finish, just like the person who starts finishing some long-time ignored task just before the family goes on vacation. They are falling into the trap their brain has set of doing the thing you know to avoid the upcoming unknown results of travel.

The way to stay motivated is to break your goals into smaller tasks you can accomplish and understand. The way to stay motivated is to understand that motivation isn't a process, it IS the process.

When you don’t know what to do next, you will need to rein yourself in and it will be hard to get back on track.

The way to stay motivated is to practice what you do every workday. That means writing or programming every day. Dancing, practicing law, running, cooking, painting, whatever it is that you do.

Being a professional means doing it, even when you don't feel like it, as Seth Godin would say.

No get out there and be profitable!

~Matt