Motivation f***** up my life for 15 years straight.
I’ll tell you the story of what happened. Although what I’m going to tell you worked with me, it is proven to be scientifically wrong.
In the late 90s I was fat kid.
A really fat kid. To be specific I was one the 3 obese kids in a school of 300 hormone filled judging assholes.
I was from the 1%, not the Lamborghini-riding, chick-banging 1% you hear in the news, I was at the bottom of the hierarchy, ground zero. That time sucked…big time.
Back then I had a simple idea of how life progressed. How positive change happens. This idea was force-fed to me by movies and cartoons from the day I was born.
“I’m Fat because I’m waiting to get motivated”
So what exactly is Motivation?
What exactly is it that you’re waiting for?
I kept waiting for a long time..years passed. I was not motivated and the result was exactly the same. I was still fat.
Then one day, I asked myself a question.
What’s the difference between Motivation and Excuses?
I didn’t read any journals or papers or googled this thing up.
I answered the question by myself.
I realized that motivation is an excuse and excuses imply that I’m slacking off.
I read this before, I don’t remember where but it makes perfect sense.
If a pretty poster is all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind Robots will be doing soon.
Here’s the clear truth that no one wants to talk about.
Your mind is trying to keep you safe.
- Motivation = Change
- Change = Risk of Danger
Your mind hates nothing more than the risk of danger, so you’ll stay in bed.
The excuses come in the form of very well packaged nice and “positive” kind of words.
Words that will make you feel good about yourself.
Words that make you feel happy even when you slack off.
Making you feel good at staying comfortable in the safety and warmth of your bed sheets.
My life was transformed, but it wasn’t through these words.
- It wasn’t with Motivation
- It wasn’t with Talent
- It wasn't with Perfect Timing
- and it certainly wasn’t with Luck
You will never feel motivated to do the hard things in life. Motivation is not this Magical Lightning bolt that will strike you so you can move your ass and do the hard things in life that everyone else is afraid to do.
It’s not easy to have a good body, that’s why out of a 100 people only 3 of them will have a fit and healthy body.
Sorry to bring up bad news but if you'll wait for motivation you'll wait your whole damn life. Because of this simple premise:
Here’s how I did the transformation
I tricked my mind.
I started from the end, broke down my huge goals into very easy and safe tasks.
After I achieve these small tasks, I increase the dosage.
Back then I couldn’t run..
Instead of saying I’ll never be able to run a marathon this is what I did for 30 days.
- Day 1 goal: Run 500 meters.
- Day 2 goal: Run 520 meters.
- Day 3 goal: Run 540 meters.
- …
- Day 30 goal: Run 1200 meters.
This formula worked really well with me and I applied it to different paths in my life.
I’ll tell you a story of a man in the city of Croton, Italy. This took place more than 2,500 years ago. The same formula made him the strongest wrestlers and athletes of all time, there lived Milo of Croton.
Legends say he could carry a grown bull on his bare shoulders.
He was said to have achieved this strength by starting very early on in childhood, lifting and carrying a newborn calf and repeating the feat daily as it grew to mature bull.
Whether this is a legend or not. It makes sense.
Usually, this story is cited in the context of Progressive Overloading. But I’m citing it here as an anti-motivational story.
As each small task is finished you enter into a reward cycle and your brain gets fixated on dopamine, you feel better.
You grow as you push yourself forward
Not only do you feel better after each task but what happens over time is as you start to see yourself becoming the person that takes action.
“You start to see yourself becoming the kind of person that speaks even though your voice is shaking. You get out of bed even though you don’t “feel” good” (Robbins, “5 Second Rule”, 2017)
You build the skill of confidence and courage, you grow.
Trick your brain
One of the good books recently written on the same subject is The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins.
Your brain doesn’t make decisions based on logic
One of the topics she tackles is that 95% of the decisions we take are based on “How We Feel” at the moment we take the decision and feelings hold us back from risky decisions.
- Do you feel like making that cold call?
- Do you feel like getting up in that cold morning?
- Do you feel like making that 4th set of reps?
- Do you feel like having that hard conversation with your spouse?
The default answer will be a “BIG FAT NO”. Take control and leverage your brain to take action.
If I’ll bottom line this: Always remember motivation is complaining.
You will always feel motivated to do the easy things.
- It’s easy to be motivated to scroll through Facebook
- It’s easy to be motivated to eat a juicy cheeseburger with melted swiss cheese dripping from the sides.
- It’s certainly easy to be motivated to have sex.
This is easy, that’s why everyone is doing this.
7 years ago, two MIT economists Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee did a brilliant research to understand what are the skills needed for our new economy and what are the factors that will that affect the overall financial outcome of the individual, they wrote their outcome in their comprehensive book: Race Against the Machine
High Skilled Workers
The outcome of this research is that the new-market will only value Highly Skilled Workers, those who are doing complex jobs (i.e jobs that require “motivation” to do).
All other disposable low skilled positions will be automated by software or replaced by robots.
This is no joke, look at Singapore.
So if you are still motivated to scroll through social media yet “don’t feel motivated” to do the hard things, remember this..
The Robots will come for you. That’s motivating enough for me.
-Mahmoud El Magdoub
No comments:
Post a Comment