You Don’t Need Motivation If You Have This One Thing
Self-discipline and motivation are limited, use this instead to achieve difficult goals
I have been trying to lose weight for a long time.
I have even lost track of the number of times I have started a diet, only to say I will start again next week.
I have these spurts of motivation, where I go all in and control my diet, exercise, cut down on alcohol and whatnot..
But it lasts for just a few days! Always!
It is not like I do not have any motivation or that I cannot achieve this.
I know I am very much capable of reaching my goals, in fact, I have done it previously when I have lost 33 pounds!
And I asked myself why then am I struggling to achieve this now?
Why doesn’t my motivation last?
Why cannot I be more self-disciplined?
I did a little retrospective.
8 years ago I moved to the UK from India.
I worked extremely hard to make this change.
Before I could move to the UK to do my masters,
I had a full time job in India
I had a small child..
I had a family and a house to take care of ..
and in between all that I was preparing for my GMAT admission tests ( admission tests to get into an MBA program ) and applications
I was exercising to lose weight
I was sleeping less than 6 hours daily in-order to work full time, take care of my child, my family and home and prep for an MBA program.
I did not need motivation to do any of the above then..
I did not need to muster self-discipline to make it happen..
I had intrinsic motivation..
I just knew that I had to make it happen…
I wanted to make this happen — Very badly!
I did not have to think about the hard work or the sacrifices or the efforts..
I just knew this was the only way for me to escape from my current life ( which I was unhappy about ) and to change the trajectory of my life.
Voila !
That’s it..
I just wanted it bad enough that I was prepared to do any amount of hard work without even thinking about it twice
Now, I am living a good life.
I wrote about the measure of a good life here.
And it hit me, the reason I am not able to achieve my weight loss goal is because ..
I don’t want it bad enough
Correct. I just kinda want it, but don’t want it bad enough.
And that’s the reason I keep failing to motivate myself for over 2–3 days or maintain my self-discipline for more than 2–3 days.
If you are in a similar boat as me and you have goals that you are failing to achieve, ask yourself this question.
How badly do you want it?
If your answer is ‘very badly’, you will find a way without needing any motivation.
If your answer is ‘kinda want it’, good luck. Until this becomes ‘badly want it’ you will probably keep failing.
Find a way to turn your answer to ‘badly want it’
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