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Action is the biggest Motivation
Conventional wisdom states our motivation leads us to perform an action.
Our feelings and motivation do guide us, but there is a way to change our mental state, our mood. The way is Action itself.
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While it is difficult to control our thoughts and feelings, it is entirely possible to control our external behavior and change our mood.
Mood follows action. This could be as simple as forcing yourself to exercise, run errands, or get dinner with a friend when you're feeling particularly low.
A firm daily practice takes some motivation to get going, but over time, the equation is reversed; dedicating yourself to a firm daily practice is what builds motivation.
Our constant practice of action alters our mood, taking a cue from our behavior.
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While controlling your thoughts and emotions has been long claimed to be extremely challenging, if not impossible, controlling your behaviour falls into a completely different category.
Consequently, while forcing yourself at the very beginning into adopting a routine that involves practicing, doing, may turn out to be quite challenging, you will notice how in time, the routine itself will start building up your motivation to go on with the ‘doing’.
It is often believed that action needs to be preceded by motivation, which is preceded by inspiration. Not at all. It's the opposite: Action provides the Inspiration that gets you Motivated.
Your actions create the emotional reactions to motivate your future actions.Not the other way around.
Lack of self-efficacy, that is your confidence (or belief) in navigating a challenging situation and shooting down potential obstacles is a fundamental reason for the inability to focus.
- Coined in 1977 by psychologist Albert Bandura, self-efficacy is different from confidence, as it relates to a particular task or topic.
- High self-efficacy results in less stress and depression and almost guarantees your personal accomplishment.
- A low self-efficacy results in procrastination, failure and blame games.