Motivation to Pursue a Difficult Goal That’s NOT Convenient or Necessary
Writing in this blog today is much more difficult than normal. Our society is currently facing an unending cycle of trauma, drama, and suffering. On a day like today I can’t help but to ask myself what’s my motivation?
Today marks the 705th day in a row I’ve published a post on this blog. I don’t have to do this. There is nobody paying me, cheering me on, or checking-up on me. I’m pretty sure If I skipped writing today, very few if anyone would notice.
Writing everyday is simply something I told myself I would do 705 days ago almost on a whim, and then I just started doing it. On many of these 705 days I have a lot of other work on my plate or I’m traveling, vacationing, or attending an all day youth wrestling tournament. It’s not convenient at all for me to write on these days and it’s definitely not necessary. Simply stated, I have no external motivation for writing today or any other day.
Unfortunately, like many other parents, youth wrestling and youth sports in general is not a priority right now. At this point, nobody knows if and when things will get back to normal. As a result, with each passing day it gets harder and harder to use my role as a parent on the youth sports journey as motivation. It’s not that youth sports is no longer a critical tool for me to raise my children with purpose, resilience and character. It’s that this tool is on ice right now. What’s more, the topics I love writing about most seem trivial when compared to the reality of our society today.
It’s Not Motivation That Helps You Sustain Your Routine Through Adversity
All things considered, it would not only be easy for me to pause my daily blogging routine for a while, everyone would understand as well. In short, what typically motivates me is gone. It really just feels like I’m all tapped out of motivation.
If this was day 7 or day 75 in my writing routine, I don’t think I would keep going. However, after 705 days of consistency I no longer need motivation to sustain my routine. My routine is embedded in my subconscious. If I didn’t write today the pain would be more than the pain it’s taking me to push myself to keep going.
This is the lesson I ask you to takeaway. Most of your personal goals beyond making a living, keeping food on the table, and a roof over your head aren’t necessary. For most people, goals beyond these three necessities are a luxury. In addition, the more difficult your goals, the more inconvenient they are when your basic needs of income, food and shelter are at risk.
Given that, motivation is not always going to be there to keep you going. Instead, you will need pain. The pain of quitting must be more than the pain to keep going. To that end, you can only get to this pain point when you stick with your routine for so long that the behavior is no longer something you do, it becomes who you are.