Imagine this scenario; you are waiting until you feel motivated or inspired instead of "just" going for the goals that you really want to achieve. How many times has this happened to you? It's a self-sabotaging behavior that many of us tend to do over and over again.
It often goes like this:
Motivation → Inspiration → Action
The problem with this is that motivation comes and goes. The same is true for inspiration, sometimes it's there, and sometimes it's not, even if you need it.
Waiting for motivation is a sort of procrastination. Procrastination is something that does make you creative sometimes, but it's also something that you should be aware of. So behind procrastination often hides resistance. And behind resistance often hides a fear of failure or success.
Steven Pressfield writes in his book "The War of Art":
"Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it's the easiest to rationalize. We don't tell ourselves, I'm never going to write my symphony. Instead, we say, I'm going to write my symphony; I'm just going to start tomorrow."
(Highly recommended to read this book if you suffer from creative roadblocks.)
Well, somehow, it has crept into an artist's (also unrealistic) image to let the muse kiss you, to wait for the spoonful of motivation or until inspiration overtakes you. The problem is that it doesn't allow you to realize your potential fully and minimizes your output. Wouldn't it be exciting to explore what's behind the urge to wait until the muse comes? Imagine you took action and are fully on fire, and when the muse comes, they see you don't need them.
Many changes and actions that would make sense in our lives (sometimes even urgent ones) are inspired by negative emotions, which at the same time prevent us from taking action. It is rather difficult for motivation to bear fruit in this condition.
Therefore, don't rely on motivation; build momentum by taking simple action. You can't make a rowboat move forward if you wait for motivation instead of just taking the oar in your hand and rowing. It also doesn't make sense to scream at a little fire; you have to take action and put in some wood to get hot.
It can be viewed in a circle. No matter where you begin, you can start. So why not choose action?
Action → Motivation → Inspiration
Through action, we create momentum, which moves us forward. And this momentum leads to progress which then creates the desired motivation to keep going.
And this is not common sense; this is physics.
Newton's first law of motion states:
"A body remains at rest, or in motion at a constant speed in a straight line, unless acted upon by a force."
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The beauty of it is that you don't have to make giant leaps every day; even tiny actions are enough to make use of this dynamic. The key to this is simple: create a Daily Ritual/Habit. If you're interested in building a small habit that's easy to keep, you'll find 13 tips to help you do it in this article.
