Welcome back! If you checked out last week’s newsletter, I spoke a lot about how we can have a healthier relationship with motivation.
We should welcome motivation when it comes, but not miss it when it’s absent.
But the question becomes, what do we do when we lose motivation?
If we choose to rely on motivation, this almost always results in failure and disappointment, particularly when it comes to building habits.
One of the hardest things with building habits is consistency. After almost running my YouTube channel for a year with consistent uploading and now, starting this newsletter (on a semi-consistent basis) I again see how difficult it is.
Yet again, I find myself referring to James Clear.
Right now, I’m near point C with uploading YouTube videos each week. It’s essentially become a part of my life that I’ve come to accept. I just need to upload that video every week, no matter what.
With this newsletter, I’m still new to it. It’s requiring more ‘activation energy’ than I would have really thought.
Obviously, in the beginning I was highly motivated to start this newsletter but now that ‘motivation wave’ has ended. This is where developing habit is really tested.
I’m probably climbing to point B right now. It’s getting harder but I do know, that with most habits, if I just stick it out, I’ll soon be over the peak.
This is likely because of the messiness and demands of all the projects I’m partaking in at the moment, so side note: If you’re interested in helping out with my YouTube channel and joining my team to help with doing research and scriptwriting, (and/or want to help with creating content, scheduling content, idea generation), feel free to apply via reply to this email to see if we can work together ($).
Why are we even talking about this?
Motivation disappears when you need it most. It’s not usually one of our most loyal friends. However, habits are those supportive friends who are there no matter what. If we look at the research, even with conservative estimates, 40% of our lives are just us following habits, acting on autopilot. If we can optimise this 40%, so that the habits we have are effective and efficient, we’re all set!
Motivation-dependent systems are nothing compared to habit-dependent systems.
When we can achieve this, we take away the need for waves of motivation and just execute on things like how we always brush our teeth at night before going to bed.
It’s all about putting in the reps, showing up every day. 80% of success is just showing up every day.
It becomes easier the more you do it. Keep going.