Move First, Motivate Later: How Action Creates Momentum.

This week’s installment of “You asked about it, let’s talk about it!”

Move First, Motivate Later: How Action Creates Momentum 

Very often at my presentations, participants will stop me afterwards and ask how to get motivated, find motivation, stay motivated. Can you empathize?  Yes, Me Too!

And I get it!  Yes, this is a struggle for me some days and for many people I work with.

One of the last deep subjects my dad and I talked about is Motivation.  We discussed that folks don’t always start a task motivated.  You get up, put on your shoes and walk out the door. You take your walk. I know that doesn’t work for everyone and I respect that, but it works for many of us. 

We start because we have to, but we might not yet be motivated. 

(And let’s define Motivation here, per Webster: the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something: the condition of being eager to act or work: the condition of being motivated;)

Sometimes we are motivated, and that’s great, but sometimes we start because we have to.

For example, I recorded this content to turn into my article and episode at 3:30 on a Monday while driving to Wisconsin to check on my son's apartment.

Was I Motivated? No. I don't need to be motivated, to be eager and willing, to make this happen. It's just on my list. I have responsibilities to other people that I take seriously. If I hadn’t taken action a few months ago and promised my son I would check on his apartment while he was in Minnesota for the summer, I would not be driving to Kenosha on a Monday afternoon.  I guess at the heart of it, I was motivated by my love and commitment to my son, but why that day?

We don’t always start out motivated. In this example, I started with “I promised I would check on his mail and apartment while is gone.  We’re going to go see him on Friday, so I should check on things this week in case there’s mail for him.” There wasn’t.  I don't regret that at all, the offer, because that is exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I don't consider any of those things needing motivation. It's just what's on the list. 

We don't always start motivated. 

But, we find motivation or we get motivated as we take action.  As we move.  Motivation to act rarely comes while sitting still.

I drove to Wisconsin because I took action and said I would do so.

However, I was motivated, eager and willing, to make it happen on that Monday. The commitment was months ago, but the motivation, the eagerness, came when I decided to do it that day. And once I decided on the day, I realized I could tack a couple other errands on to the road trip and make it ever more impactful.

I knew I needed to do it, I decided that Monday was THE Day, and then I got myself ready to go. I moved, I was motivated and THEN - I was building momentum, which keeps us going, right?

Now I have momentum. The bag was packed, gas in my tank, and my son's apartment key was in my bag. The schedule was arranged for the block of time on that Monday. Why on earth WOULDN’T I go?  Of course I'm going to go. And, that is Momentum. 

(Ok, per Webster: Momentum: the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. Or the impetus gained by a moving object)

And since we’re being scientific today in addition to psychological, do you know about inertia? Inertia is Newton’s First Law, a law of physics. Now I’m being all Physics-ish, that is a different son! My youngest is finishing his Physics Education degree and student teaching in the Fall.

Inertia is a property of matter where “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an outside force”. If we rest, we stay at rest. But if we can overcome standing still, if we can start moving, then it's easier to keep moving.

Movement, motivation, and momentum. So, momentum does not make us take the first step but because of inertia, it can keep us going.

We don't start out motivated. We commit to something because we love it, or we must, or the uncomfortableness has gotten to a point that we have to do something. And if that hasn't happened yet then that hasn't happened yet. 

We don't start out motivated. We start, and then we get motivated. We get motivated by moving. We start the ball rolling, and then we get motivated. And once we get motivated and start to make progress, then we gain momentum. And momentum keeps the ball rolling. Keeps us making progress. So inertia, in this case, is working in the favor of progress. So now that we have started moving, the problem is only when we stop moving. If we keep moving, the momentum itself, even if we aren't, you know, even if our... efforts are misguided or chaotic or like a million other things. 

We're still going to make progress because momentum will keep us moving.

We might not be motivated - the eager and willing definition of motivated - to go to the gym or make healthy choices but we start anyway because the doctor told us to. And we make it easier to go by leaving our workout clothes ready for us to put on every morning, or signing up for a gym membership, finding a cycling class you love or a pilates studio near your home helps you feel motivated - the eager and willing definition. And once we are motivated and doing the work, we find it easier to keep going.  To go more regularly, 

I want for you, and for me, to have intentional movement, intentional action. Working towards your goals, working towards making things happen that you want to make happen. But without action, we don't find motivation. If we are waiting for motivation to strike before we act, we may never act. 

Years ago, a client said she was waiting for the morning that she would wake up and she would feel like organizing. That she would hop out of bed and that would be the day she would get her life in order. She was waiting for motivation to come first. But then I asked the question, had that ever once happened in your life ever before this point? She said no.

We need to learn from experience, and experience needs to win over optimism. If our experience is that never once in our lives have we ever hopped out of bed on a random Thursday and said, “ooh, today is the day I'm getting organized”, then we should not be expecting that trend to change unless we change it.

This client was waiting for motivation to come instead of taking the first step, enjoying small successes which helps build motivation, then using momentum to continue to succeed.  Taking action, it's not all or nothing. It doesn't have to be perfect. But the 1st step, deciding that we want to get that done and taking the first step, move first them motivate!

Here’s an example:

I have a project to complete. I have created a new presentation, Clutter 2.0, and I want to send an email to all the libraries where I have presented to tell them about the new program and get on their schedule for Fall.

This is an item on my to-do list. I have the email composed, I can look at my notes for the libraries where I have presented before. I am not going to wait for the motivation, the eagerness, the willingness, to arrive before I act.  

Motivation might not come until I open up my document of all the presentations I've ever given, look at all the places I’ve presented. The risk of hearing “No, Thank You” could slow down my momentum, but I am confident that at least some will say “Yes, Please.”

But I know that when I open the document of all the places I've presented, I'm going to feel excited to send that email. I’m very proud of the new presentation content that I created in May. Once I send the first email message and pat myself on the back and probably do a little happy dance, I’m going to copy that first sent email into a new message and send another email. And another. And that is how we build momentum. So, we have those first tastes of success. We find motivation to do the work and also to keep it going. And then momentum helps us to keep it going. But we don't start out motivated. And if we wait, if we wait, until we're motivated to do something, we may never do it. We move, we find motivation, we gain momentum and we succeed.  (and then you can do a happy dance, too!) 

To Recap:

• Movement leads to small successes, which helps us gain motivation.

• Motivation leads to more successes, which provides momentum.

• Momentum continues because of inertia, “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an outside force”.

• Sometimes, we don’t start out motivated. We have to move and the motivation, the eagerness and willingness, will hopefully come.  And once we start to make progress, momentum will continue to move us towards our goals.

• Identify those first smallest and easiest steps to take every day.

• Identify the external forces that act on us to slow us down, and consider how to overcome those!