What is Motivation in Four Words and How To Apply to Long Term Goals
One of the people I follow on Twitter who’s tweets I enjoy most is author Nir Eyal. I recently wrote several articles about his book Indistractable. Unquestionably, Eyal is a sharp guy worth following.
With this in mind, it’s no surprise that this morning one of his tweets immediately caught my eye. It was a tweet with a simple four word definition of motivation.
Motivation is “the energy for action”
As a person who is deeply curious about how to help young athletes direct their motivation, this struck me as a profoundly simple yet clear definition. In the work I do with young athletes, simplicity is critical. It’s very easy to recognize those things that give you energy versus those things that don’t.
Desiring something but not having the energy to do it is a common problem for both kids and adults. The trick is to reverse engineer this. Instead of focusing on what you want first, focus on what gives you energy first. In order to do this, figure out what things innately give you energy, and dissect all the reasons why. Once you have these insights, then you create goals that capitalize on what makes you tick.
Essentially this flips the equation around. The takeaway is that lack of motivation is usually not the problem. Typically the problem is having motivation to do things that don’t lead to one’s long term goals. Correspondingly, the answer is self-awareness and practicality. This means being self-aware about what drives energy, and then being practical about setting long term goals that are realistic as it relates to what gives energy to action.