Motivation follows Action
Ah January 1st. A new year endless with opportunities and fresh starts ahead of you. It’s invigorating really! And most of us, I think, decided that 2021 was going to be a lot better than 2020. It had to be. So, we made resolutions, and goals, and headed off into the new possibilities of the new year; ready to make ourselves and the world BETTER. Somehow. January 1st is definitely a day for optimists.
But it’s March now (shocking, I know). It’s the in-between month; no longer winter, not yet spring. Here in Utah, everything is brown and a little bit dismal. The snow is melting and revealing not only brown grass, but also last years’ litter and unraked leaves. Fitting that it was March 44 BC that Caesar was warned to, “beware the Ides of March,” and then was murdered on March 15th, the date on the Roman calendar for settling old debts.
It’s starting to feel like January 1st, with all of its hope, was nothing more than a long-forgotten day set aside for dreaming. It’s no real surprise then, that March is the month that most of our well-intentioned resolutions are a lot like the trash that is suddenly showing up in my yard as the snow melts. Discarded, then forgotten. Something to clean up when we can get a little energy.
Did you know that a lot of people (and by people, I mean experts) are blaming the RESOLUTIONS? We’ve resorted to blaming goal setting now? Yes, yes we have. In my mind, the problem is not that we start the year full of things we want to change. The problem is not that we’re going to promise ourselves to take action and do something to improve. The problem is that we hit March and decide that sleeping in, watching Netflix in our sweats on the couch, and a bag full of Cheetos are more important than our hopes and dreams. More important than the physical, spiritual, mental, environmental, or societal changes we intended to make.
Despite our very best intentions in January, it seems that motivation melts away with the snow in March.
I think we all somehow grew up believing that motivation leads to action. We feel it in January, after our goals are made. We are motivated for change and we start to act. But motivation slips away, and we are no longer taking the steps toward our goals. Only 9% of people actually follow through on their New Year’s Resolutions.
My mentor, ultra-endurance athlete who went from couch potato to one of the 25 fittest men on the planet, Rich Roll, has a motto:
MOOD FOLLOWS ACTION
He says it all of the time in his books and on his podcast. It means that relying on motivation is not what it takes to follow through on our goals. Taking action is transformative. When your force yourself to take the steps you need to take you reach your goals – read your scriptures, go on a run, do a simple act of service every day, meditate, skip the cake, be more present for your partner – and you do this consistently, something incredible starts to happen: motivation INCREASES. Being consistent, even when you don’t want to be, takes some will power and practice, but over time the all-important, life-changing equation takes shape:
CONSISTENCY +ACTION = MOTIVATION (i.e., mood)
In the book, “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and Updated,” by Dr. David Burns, he uses science to back up this truth:
“Individuals who procrastinate frequently confuse motivation and action. You foolishly wait unto you feel in the mood to do something. Since you don’t feel like doing it, you automatically put it off. Your error is your belief that motivation comes first, and then leads to activation and success. But it is usually the other way around; action must come first, and the motivation comes later on.”
So, it’s the first week of March, and time to re-evaluate those New Year’s Resolutions. Get out the journal and take a hard look at the things you intended to change and get going. Me? I’m reading the New Testament and loving it, but also taking a crack at meditating every day. AGAIN. I’m working on serving more and complaining less. Lastly, I’m practicing being a better listener. AGAIN. Maybe March is more about REBOOT and LOOKING FORWARD than dead grass and old garbage. Let’s do this.
