Struggling to stay on track to achieve your goals? Then you've got to read this article...
[bctt tweet="Motivation is morphine" username="ignorelimitscom"]
The Media Bias & Motivation
Magazines, television, the radio... they all portray the success of an individual in a 'Hey presto, they woke up and one day they'd made it!' type fashion.
The media loves to talk about Bill Gates and the colossal amount of wealth he's accumulated, his 50 bedroom house and the soaring stock price of Microsoft.
But the media won't mention a thing about Gates' rise up.
The media won't tell you that from age 20 to age 30 Bill Gates didn't take a single day off, not one.
He endured the 10 dark years of working in the shadows, under the radar before anybody knew who he was.
But that's no sexy, that doesn't make for a good story, you wouldn't want to read that in a magazine, that doesn't entertain or inspire you.
But that's the truth.
[bctt tweet="Want success? Endure the 10 dark years" username="ignorelimitscom"]
Motivation is temporary.
Listen to a song, attend a Tony Robbins seminar or watch a motivation gym workout video featuring Mr. Olympia and you'll get a little dose of morphine.
You'll be motivated for a short period.
This is all well and good when we'll bursting with energy and determined, be it at the start of the week, the start of the month or the start of the year.
But just like Gates or literally any other individual that's attained massive success in the eyes of society there's going to be just as many days that you're beat down, unenthusiastic and struggling to build traction.
A song, a video, a temporary hit of motivational morphine by your chosen means falls short.
"SJ, if motivation isn't going to get me particularly far what're we meant to do then?"
It's simple.
Choose the right path my friend and embrace the suck.
Two Paths (Values Vs Feelings)
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth”
When it comes time to make a decision we’re faced with two paths.
There’s two ways you can go. This may not sound like a big deal, but your decisions compound over time.
Should you choose the path of the winner, time is on your side. With each passing decision you’ll move closer to where you want to be.
Should you choose the other path however, the path of the loser time becomes your nemesis. With each poor decision, with each passing day you fall into a downward spiral.
The Path Of The Loser
Losers make their decisions based upon their feelings, specifically how they’re feeling at the time the decision is presented in front of them.
They don’t care about their values, because they probably don’t hold any strong enough to override their current state, their current feelings.
If they’re motivated they might do the task at hand, but if they’re tired? Forget it.
Gates didn't spend those 10 dark years waiting for motivation to knock on his door...
The Path Of The Winner
The winner makes their decisions based upon their values. They know they’re not always going to ‘feel’ like doing what they need to do, but before they allow their current state dismiss or blow off an opportunity or task that they should be pursuing they fall back to their values. They value the outcome of the task so they do the damn thing.
If the winner is tired or feeling down but they’ve got the opportunity to better themselves, to take a step in the direction that is their goals you can beat your ass they’re going to say yes and do it 10 out of 10 times
Just Embrace The Suck!
"SJ, what about when I just can't bring myself to follow my values? When I'm tired and feel like giving up?"
At this point it comes down to a matter of will.
Embrace the suck is an old term, derived from the military used when it comes to doing shit you just don’t want to do.
Drill after drill after drill while hungry and deprived of sleep, there’s nothing enjoyable about that.
It sucks.
If you want to see the day, the course or the war through however all you can do is embrace the suck.
Grit your teeth and bare it, the more time you spend putting it off and complaining the less effective you are.
From the battlefield to the boardroom, if you want see your way through adversity and build character you’ve got to accept it, embrace it and then forge your path forward.
If you don’t embrace the suck you either remain at that same plateau, you quit or you die.
The more you deny or try to rationalise away your feelings of discontent, the stronger these feelings will actually become. So even though “the suck” sucks, the prolonging of it makes it even suckier. For longer. If you don’t square up and face your career discontent, you'll just prolong the agony.
