From the Inspirational Thought Unit
Today a friend of mine shared with me this this tweet by author Brad Stulberg:
A big misconception is that you need to be motivated to get rolling.
You don't.
Research: Motivation often FOLLOWS action, not the other way around.
In Practice: You don't need to feel good to get going; you need to get going to give yourself a chance at feeling good.
So the question is how do you get going in the first place? Might I suggest the 5 minute trick: Tell yourself you're only going to do something for 5 minutes. This is a little prank you're playing on your brain.
You might even set a timer to really sell the idea to the brain that it's just going to be short and painless. One little hack that I like to do is start a work playlist that I ONLY listen to when I'm doing focused work. I'll tell myself I'll just work until the end of the first song.
What happens is that somewhere around minute 3 or 4 your brain gets absorbed into the work and now the motivation kicks in. Thirty minutes later your brain realizes what you did, but it can't get that mad at you because you're accomplishing something and feeling good about it.
-Jake