Motivation is a Myth... · Rishab Academy

Motivation is a Myth...

Ever get stuck? Like you have a project you love, you commit to it, you get halfway through... then you just lose steam? You abandon it, find something new and the cycle starts all over again. Ugh! If this sounds like you, stay with me. This post might change how you think about motivation.

I’ve read dozens of self-help books and watched hundreds of motivational videos but I’ve always struggled with motivation. Some people say it’s all nonsense but I know for a fact I’ve been motivated to do certain things – I just never knew why it disappeared so fast.

This book, The Motivation Myth, changed everything. Turns out most of what we believe about motivation is completely backwards! Instead of motivation being the spark that gets us started, it’s actually the result of doing the work, of seeing progress, of achieving success.

Mind. Blown.

We’re told success is all about mindset. We need to find that inner drive, tap into our passion, unlock our potential, blah blah blah. We think we need to be in the perfect mental state before we can tackle anything tough.

But that’s a recipe for failure. It’s like waiting for a bolt of inspiration to hit us before we even start.

"Actually, motivation is a result. Motivation is the pride you take in work you have already done – which fuels your willingness to do even more."

This means that instead of waiting to feel motivated, we need to take action first. When we get started, even in a small way, and see those initial successes, that’s what fuels our desire to keep going! "real motivation comes after we start". It’s not the initial spark; it’s the fuel that keeps us going once we’ve begun.

Here’s a quote:

"I was in the grip of an insidious myth. I thought motivation was a prerequisite to starting a tedious learning process—a spark necessary to get me going. But motivation is really a result. Motivation is the fire that starts burning after you manually, painfully, coax it into existence, and it feeds on the satisfaction of seeing yourself make progress. The problem with waiting for motivation to strike is that it almost never comes with enough voltage to actually get you started.”

Think about those times you did feel motivated. I bet it was because you actually did something, you started a project, you learned a new skill, you saw a tiny bit of progress. It wasn’t just a feeling; it was a direct result of your actions.

Okay, so how do we actually create motivation?

Jeff Haden, author of The Motivation Myth, says it’s simple: success. Not those big, life-changing successes (those happen way less often than Instagram would have you believe!) but those small, incremental wins along the way.

It’s like learning a new language. Sure, being fluent would be great but it’s those small victories. learning a new word, understanding a basic sentence, even just being able to say “hello”, that keep us going.

Here’s another quote from the book:

"Success is a process. Success is repeatable and predictable. Success has less to do with hoping and praying and strategizing than with diligently doing (after a little strategizing, sure): doing the right things, the right way, over and over and over."

Think about it, have you ever felt motivated just sitting around thinking about doing something? Probably not. It’s the act of doing, the act of pushing ourselves and making progress, that sparks our motivation.

It’s like that famous Nike slogan – Just Do It!

But it’s easier said than done, right? Even when we know what to do it can feel hard to take that first step.

So how do we actually get started when we’re 0% motivated? how do we get out of this “motivation trap”?

We’ll dive into that in the next part of this series, but for now, take a moment to reflect:

What’s your experience with motivation? Do you find yourself waiting for that perfect feeling to strike before starting something? What things have you been successful at, and how did that affect your motivation? Let me know in the comments!

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