I had a question from a student recently that highlights a problem that a lot of us have, and the problem is we think that we can't get the motivation to do something while in reality, we are simply not willing to get the motivation to do it.
His question was, "One of the biggest problems I've been having is the struggle to see the consequences of not studying or not doing an assignment until the last possible second - and by last, I mean really last. I really need to be getting onto these things earlier, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I try to imagine the way it would feel like to have it done, or even try to imagine the consequences of not doing it which is always a lower grade than I want. I've just found myself lying around, doing nothing - or literary doing anything else that I could possibly do besides actually working."
So this highlights the importance of having a strong system in place; it's not that he can't motivate himself to do something, it's just that he as of yet not been unwilling to set up the system to create that motivation.
Your motivation to do something that will help you in the long term has to compete with your impulses to do other things at the same time, which means that motivation is defined by three main factors:
Rewards
Mainly this is the desire to get the reward for doing that thing. You want to get a good grade in a test, so you have to study for that test.Consequences
But there is also the possible consequences of not doing that thing; the pain that you will bring upon your future self if you don't get this thing done.Distractions
But there is also the impulse to get into other activities. For example to go on Reddit, to go on Facebook, to hang out with your friends or to go on a Netflix binge. These are always competing with your motivation in the moment.
So essentially you have to find ways to treat each of these values in order to generate the right amount of motivation to get yourself to do whatever it is you are not currently doing, and here is the key insight here:
You can build system to build that motivation. You can build a system that creates heavier consequences for not doing what you are supposed to do, or you can create a system which gives you ancillary rewards in addition to the main reward that's given by the task.
You could also set up systems that make it harder to get into those distractions, for example you could find apps that will block the websites that you don't want to be distracting yourself with, or you could go to the library so you are not near your friends who may decide they want to go bowling.
See, all these are things that you can do, so the problem isn't that you can't motivate yourself, it's that right now you are unwilling to lay the groundwork and build the systems in order to generate that motivation. The pain or discomfort of not doing what it is you are supposed to be doing has not yet become great enough that you have decided to make a change in your life.
In an ideal world, we shouldn't have to threaten ourselves with the consequences of failure to generate the motivation to do the things that benefit us in the long-term. But we don't leave in a perfect idealized world where we are always looking to the future 24/7. We leave in a world where our impulsive desires in the moment are often the things that rule our minds.
"When idealism doesn't work, find a practical solution."
So we have to work within those parameters - within those limitations and create systems that will help generate motivation. When you tell yourself that you just can't get the motivation to study to do some work, are you really being honest with yourself or in reality are you just not willing to put in that groundwork. Are you just not willing to build the systems and create the motivation? If that's the case then look at what you have been doing in the past to create that motivation, and if it's not sufficient then it time to make that change.
Cheers everyone,
Have a lovely day.