"I've gotta work 'cause I have five kids. I'm not particularly excited about that. I don't love it, it just needs to be done."
"I exercise three times a week because I don't want to die from a heart attack like my father did."
The truth is that most of us alternate between can't-be-bothered, kind-of-motivated, and totally-in-the-zone for much of our lives. Many of us step in and out of motivation on a daily, if not hourly basis.
"I can't be bothered today" is a line I've heard thousands of times in my job.
"Do it anyway," I say.
"But I'm not motivated!"
"So do it despite your lack of motivation. Perhaps in the doing you'll get motivated! It's not normal, but it is possible."
The amazing thing about doing stuff — the stuff we know we should do even when we're not motivated to do it — is that once it's done, we're so glad we did it. We usually discover we are legitimately motivated after we've done it. Then we also discover we've developed some new getting-crap-done-even-when-we-don't-feel-like-it skills! There are good skills to have, trust me.
If we only do the things we need to do to create our desired outcomes and achieve our goals when we feel like it, then we'll never achieve much because we'll be perpetually starting and stopping. After all, nobody feels motivated, excited, pumped, positive, focused, and in the zone permanently.
Lesson one: People who succeed are usually the ones who continue to do what they need to, even when the feeling of motivation isn't there. Most people who start most endeavours don't finish them. They are great at starting, but crap at finishing. We don't want to think that we're like that and we don't want to acknowledge it, but we are - often.
Many of us have a history of starting and stopping all kinds of projects and endeavours. It might be academic stuff or some short-lived, self-improvement journey. It might be a potential business or moneymaking venture. It could be a diet or an exercise program, or it could be dealing with, or not dealing with, some undesirable habit - or a million other things. You know what they are for you personally.
We start reading books and only get to chapter two. We join a gym and only go four times. We change our eating habits - for three days. We plan our new business venture - for ten years! We get pumped, but then we lose focus. While there is always a range of reasons why we never finish what we start (some legitimate and some not), the truth is we spend far too much time rationalising, explaining, and justifying to others and ourselves why we never get the job done.
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