How To Stop Wasting Your Motivation

by | Jun 6, 2015 | Personal Development, Productivity

The big question came to me the other day when driving in the car.

I began to feel my blood pumping a little bit harder. I was getting fidgety… and giddy even. I had listened to something so inspirational that I wanted to stop my car on the side of the road, and start working on a new project to implement what I just learned. Sadly, I had somewhere to be. All of that excitement was about to go to waste.

And it begged the question, what can we do to use our motivation when we get it?

Time Your Motivation Triggers

Some of my motivational triggers are from business and marketing podcasts, or books I’m reading, but I find I’m often consuming this content in very inopportune moments.

I listen in the car on the way to appointments or work… I can’t take action in the car, or once I’ve arrived because I’m busy.

I often read books before bed… I can’t take action when I’m sleeping. However, there is something to be said for putting your toughest questions in your head before falling asleep and letting your subconscious help you out, but that’s another topic. But ultimately, the excitement is usually gone in the morning.

So if you’re consuming content, in whatever form, that you find inspires and motivates, try to time it to allow yourself the ability to take action immediately.

What this means is you should listen to podcasts on the way home from work, or in the morning on the weekend. Read in the morning on the weekend, or spend time after dinner doing what inspires you so that you can take action before you’re asleep. Allow for some flex-time after your content consumption so you can make the decision to act or not, it’s not already decided by your scheduled tasks.

“There’s nothing worse than having a brilliant moment of inspiration and not being able to do anything with it.” – Joel Harrison Tweet This Quote

For most of us, a long day’s work, commuting, and home life are enough to tire us and tell ourselves we’ll work on it tomorrow…

This is why it’s so crucial to be able to use those moments of inspiration right away. Don’t let it retreat to the back of your mind because you’re too busy at the moment. The more you act on your inspiration consistently, the easier it will be to keep going because the progress will help to motivate you too.

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