When we're unproductive or wasting our time, we like to tell ourselves we're missing motivation.  We intuitively think that we need this motivation to give us the spark to get started.  However, we can reframe and restructure our lives so that we never need to worry about motivation again.

When motivation doesn't move you to action

Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win,  explains why we misunderstand motivation.  Motivation is something you can create yourself. When you put in the effort, you will improve. Improvement feels good and motivates you to do what is on your list.

You can't create motivation yourself

The ultimate motivation myth is that we all need motivation to get something done. But instead, we gain motivation when we see ourselves making progress. It is not motivation that leads to action. It's action that leads to success, which leads to motivation, which leads to more action, which generates more success and motivation. This creates a positive dopamine feedback loop.

Why motivation is not the spark

We are often told that to get motivation to do something, we should set some kind of goal to motivate us to get started. This theory is misguided.  While there's nothing wrong with setting a goal, a goal isn't enough.  Having a goal to run a marathon will not get you across the finish line. Instead, success depends on the process. When we focus on process, we build the foundations for success and the momentum and positive feedback loop to sustain motivation.

Processes over goals

Conventional wisdom says we should try and be specialised. We should get really good at one thing. Instead, we should be thinking like generalists. There are so many different skills we can learn that will synergise. Innovation doesn't come from being very specialised in one field but from combining innovation from multiple areas in interesting ways. We don't have to study all fields at once. You can become very good at almost anything in five to seven years, then move on to the next thing.

Becoming serial achievers

Debunking some of the popular myths around motivation.

Get FREE access to my Productivity Masterclass here: https://skl.sh/aliabdaal11 In this episode of book club we're talking about The Motivation Myth by Jeff Haden. We look at how most people understand (or misunderstand) motivation, whether too much emphasis is placed on it and how to get started without needing any. Get the book here: (UK) https://amzn.to/38caRQf (US) https://amzn.to/3igE6pK -------- MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎬 Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 😃 How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism TOOLS OF THE TRADE: 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 📚 How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound 👻 Where I get my Website Themes from - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-themes 👻 My personal Ghost Website Theme - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost-theme-ali What I Use For Analytics - https://go.aliabdaal.com/tubebuddy 🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES 📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam 📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb 🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). BE MY FRIEND: 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/ 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.youtube.com/c/notoverthinking), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://aliabdaal.com/newsletter/). 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭 PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

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