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Motivation is Overrated!


by: Cindy Aurelia

The mountain is you,

I know it’s very true.


Have you ever wondered how some of your favorite role models or actresses gain their motivation? Through the lens of social media, it may seem like they own a future-perfect life that everyone ever dreamed of. Multiple tiered houses, catching private jets, and front-line designer items. 


Sometimes, we caught ourselves comparing our lives with theirs. We might wonder, “Why can’t I be the same?” or wish we were as privileged as them. 


A quote by Steve Furtick was a powerful reminder for us, “The reason we struggle with insecurity is that we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” 


We need to realize most of the time, the “life” they’re showing was only tiny bits of highlights of their life. Deep inside, they also have their struggles, breakdowns, and challenges that they must overcome. It’s just they didn’t show everything on the camera. 


With this, we gather a new question. “How can they be so motivated?” “How can they wake up, do their jobs, and have their life so put together?” 


The answer is, they don’t.


Some of us might need daily motivation. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing you need to feel guilty for. In fact, motivations are an awesome kickstart. It’ll pump you up and you'll obtain that enthusiasm and overall high spirit energy. 


Regardless, motivation is inconsistent and unreliable. 


Motivation always comes in waves. It comes, and it goes. You may have loads of energy or nothing at all. There’s nothing in between. Our biology inevitably wants a never-ending of “Something else.” You wouldn’t survive if you only depend on motivation to actually start doing something. We need to grab another key point: consistency and persistence.


Being consistent is stable. It’s something you can rely on. Being consistent means you may not be motivated, but you still get back up. Consistency is a habit, it's a way of life. Consistent means you’ll have tiny steady steps that eventually obtain your goal.


You might ask, how do we develop consistency?

            Being consistent means it's you VS you. Your challenges, your mountain, is you. 


First, you must set realistic, detailed, and countable goals. For example, you don’t say that your goal was increasing muscle mass. You need to specify and give your indicator of success. Giving yourself a schedule will increase your probability of consistency. You might want to change it to, “Decide your muscle mass target, set a specific workout routine, fulfill 2x mass of protein intake, sleep >7 hours/day” etc.


Another thing is, to make sure to start things small. You don’t need to carry everything together at once and feel overwhelmed after. We’re more likely to stick with it, and gradually increase our goals over time. You might also want to have a role model or a work partner to keep you on track.


In the end, the only person who is going to get through this is yourself. You might as well enjoy the process.


If I ask you, “What do you want in life?” some of us might answer directly, “I want to be happy, or I want to enjoy life.” This response is a very predictable and common answer, it doesn’t really mean anything. 


If I changed the question to, “What pain do you want in your life?” You might need to think a good minute. Our nature makes us love what feels good. However, are you ready to face the ones that don’t?


Because happiness is obtained through struggle. It comes through problems you’re facing right now. It’s a lifelong journey that grows into lifelong fulfillment. The only solution is to have an active engagement in that negative experience— not by avoiding it.


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