I am pretty sure that at least once in your life you have tried to answer the
rhetorical question “Which came first? The chicken or the egg?”
I have the tendency to believe that the chicken came first. Don’t ask me why. I just cannot believe that an egg appeared out of the blue.
In any case it does not make any difference to me. I enjoy eating both in no particular order.
Today’s post has nothing to do with food though. I made this introduction because I was recently puzzled by a similar dilemma.
During my journey in life I have come across many situations where procrastination knocked on my door. I refused to take any action simply because I felt demotivated.
Most of the times, I would open up my magic bag -full of motivation tricks- and would try them one after the other until my motivation battery is charged well enough, to push me into action.
It can be a motivational video, an inspiring audio, a book, a picture, a memory or the visualization of a future success.
But sometimes I fall short of motivation tricks. Luckily there is a secret weapon which comes in handy, to fill the void of missing motivation alternatives.
The secret weapon is called “action” and the misconception is that “action must always follow motivation”.
People tend to believe that lack of motivation is a show stopper for action.
But why should you be a prisoner of motivation, when you can -right now- do something to achieve your goals?
Act and motivation will follow. If you don’t feel like doing anything, just commit to do a very small step.
- Stop worrying that you have to write a 300 pages book. Start now and write only 100 words for the next chapter.
- Stop being afraid of the 42K of your next Marathon race. Go out and have a short 5K training session.
- Do you have too many tasks at work but you fail to even start working? Pick up one task -just one- and work until you are done with it.
- Do you want to cultivate the habit of getting up earlier in the morning? Try for the first 5-10 days to set the alarm for just 10 minutes earlier than usual. Then gradually you can set it for an additional 5-10 minutes earlier.
The next time that you will find yourself procrastinating over anything, take a couple of minutes to think of and write down, one simple action you can do today, to make a tiny progress towards your goal.
Commit that you will do that simple action whatever it takes.
Nike encapsulated the philosophy of taking action in three words. “Just do it”. It is now your turn.
Analyze your problem, plan the next small action step and just do it.