Monday Motivation | You're Never Gonna Feel Like It

A dilemma that I find myself facing, time and time again, is feeling motivated to follow through on an action that I vowed to do.  One moment, inspiration strikes and I quickly make a declaration based on that feeling of excitement.  Then, when it comes time to move into action, I don't feel like it.

Sure, I may produce a myriad of excuses, but if I were really, really honest with myself. The reason why I'm not doing it is because I don't feel like it.  I don't feel like working out or I don't feel like working on that project that was one of my best ideas only 24 hours ago.  The list goes on.

Over and over, I allow the silly excuse of not feeling like it to cause me to stall.  Here's the truth.  Whenever it comes to taking on a new action that creates new results, I will never feel like it.  Why not?  Because new actions require a great amount of effort. It requires acting in the face of resistance.  And, most often, we choose the path of least resistance.  That's the easy way out.

If we simply act on our feelings, then 98% of the time, we'll choose to avoid taking action.  With this in mind, we have to realize that "not feeling like it" is merely an expected reflex.  THAT MEANS THE WE SHOULD EXPECT IT.  Once we are aware of our natural tendency to renege on our proclamations, then we can start the process of overcoming this limiting habit.

Instead of focusing on the negative feelings associated with taking  action, I urge you to think solely on the benefits that await you.  I like to refer to this as "The After Feeling Effect."  I rarely feel like exercising.  But whenever I do it anyway, I get to experience so many short and long term benefits.  Same thing applies for whenever I tackle something on my to do list that I've been avoiding.  Almost 100% of the time, I know I'll experience a feeling of euphoria after completing something that I didn't feel like doing.  I know that you all have experienced this too.  Never, ever have I regretted a single work out in my life.  Never have I regretted taking an action that can grow my business.  But I have lots of regret about all the times that I chose to say no.  With the After Feeling Effect, I stay focused on all the goodness that will happen as a result of moving in spite of my feelings.   If we can overcome our resistance, we'll be rewarded handsomely.

Bottom line, when it's time to take action, don't expect to feel like you did when you made the decision to do so.  It's not realistic.   The only time you might experience the benefit of being motivated to take action is when you've successfully created a habit.  We all know that it takes many days of consistency to create a habit so until it happens, don't look towards motivation to carry you through.

The end game is to have what we want.  That is why we created our intentions in the first place.  We can only get to what we desire if we understand the principles of success.  Success requires action even when motivation is absent.  If you can really apply this in your life, you can change everything.