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Productivity and Motivation

#MondayMotivation: The Ugly Truth About Motivation

Motivation – you either have it or you don’t right?

That’s not necessarily true. There’s an ugly truth when it comes to motivation: it often takes motion to keep it going. That’s why you’ll meet some people who will say, “I can’t sit down yet. If I do, I won’t be able to keep going.”

The fact is, no matter how passionate you are in life, there are going to be times when your motivation falls through the floor.

And that’s the thing. We talk about “motivation” as though it’s this tangible thing, something that one can “catch” or “drop” or “lose.”

What if I told you that your motivation is always there with you, and it doesn’t necessarily take a lot to stoke its fire? What if I told you that if you create a habit of showing up, the motivation will follow?

When we “lose” our motivation, it’s a sign that we may be either chasing the wrong things or that we need to slow down and rest. ‘

The ugly truth about motivation is that we don’t need it to get things done if we’ve already got the habit of showing up to do the work. You need to just keep showing up. If you show up, the work will get done. Set small, manageable steps for whatever it is you want to do, and then have the habit of making incremental progress each day. Your drive to continue the streak will continue to grow, and you’ll be amazed at how far you can get from where you are now. Just. Keep. Showing. Up.

Ronda Bowen

Ronda Bowen is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. She has a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Northern Illinois University and a B.A. in Philosophy, Pre-Graduate Option, Honors in the Major from California State University, Chico. When she is not working on client projects from her editorial consulting business, she is writing a novel. In her free time, she enjoys gourmet cooking, wine, martinis, copious amounts of coffee, reading, watching movies, sewing, crocheting, crafts, hanging out with her husband, and spending time with their teenage son and infant daughter.

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