The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win

by Jeff Haden

thought motivation was a prerequisite to starting a tedious learning process—a

But motivation is really a result. Motivation is the fire that starts burning after you manually, painfully, coax it into existence, and it feeds on the satisfaction of seeing yourself make progress.

What is motivation,really.

motivation is like a sugar rush: It feels great but is impossible to maintain, and when you come down you actually feel worse.

Humble beginnings can create the perfect foundation for success, because starting at the bottom creates almost endless opportunities to enjoy small successes.

There is only one recipe for gaining motivation: success. Specifically, the dopamine hits we get when we observe ourselves making progress.

Recipe to motivation

Those come all too infrequently, if ever. If you want to stay motivated, if you want to stay on track, if you want to keep making progress toward the things you hope to achieve, the key is to enjoy small, seemingly minor successes—but on a regular basis.

Motivation is something you get, from yourself, automatically, from feeling good about achieving small successes.

Where does succes come from

Success is a process. Success is repeatable and predictable. Success has less to do with hoping and praying and strategizing than with diligently doing (after a little strategizing, sure): doing the right things, the right way, over and over and over.

Success is a process you do repeatedly

Success is a process. Success is repeatable and predictable. Success has less to do with hoping and praying and strategizing than with diligently doing (after a little strategizing, sure): doing the right things, the right way, over and over and over.

Hoe yo describe success

When you consistently do the right things, success is predictable. Success is inevitable. You just can’t think about it too much. No obsessing allowed.

sin of commission.

sin of omission.

A slice of satisfaction, fulfillment, and happiness can be found in the achievement . . . but the real source of consistent, lasting happiness lies in the process.

Incredibly successful people set a goal and then focus all their attention on the process necessary to achieve that goal. They set a goal and then, surprisingly, they forget the goal.

They feel good about themselves because

they’ve accomplished what they set out to do today, and that sense of accomplishment gives them all the motivation they need to do what they need to do when tomorrow comes—because success, even tiny, incremental success, is the best motivational tool of all.

When you savor the small victories, you get to feel good about yourself every day, because you no longer feel compelled to compare the distance between here and there. You don’t have to wait for “someday” to feel good about yourself; if you do w...

You don’t need to wait until you can find more time; you have all the time you need. You don’t need to wait until you can find more money; money never drives success. (Though if you so choose, money can be the result of success.) And you absolutely do not need more motivation.

shows that people who talk about their intentions are much less likely to follow through on those intentions. Or if you prefer researcher-speak, “Identity-related behavioral intentions that

been noticed by other people were

translated into action less intensively than those that had been ignored.”* (I know: You don’...

but not because they actually have more. Instead, they’ve learned how to best use what they have. And as a result, they have what Angela Duckworth calls grit.

Grit vs willpower

My definition of “grit” is: the ability to work hard and respond resiliently to failure and adversity; the inner quality that enables individuals to work hard and stick to their long-term passions and goals.

Defining grit

Sure, other people may have skills you don’t have—at least not yet—but you have skills other people don’t have. You don’t need a gift. You just need yourself and a willingness to put in a tremendous amount of hard work, effort, and perseverance, because that is where talent comes from.

“I don’t really miss the result. I miss the work.”

The power in the process

In short, the process looks like this: Success → Motivation → More Success → More Motivation → More Success = Becoming Knowing you’ve

The process

But you also may have fallen prey to the myth of focus, which says that the only way to be a high achiever is to regularly remind, coerce, and torture yourself into putting forth effort.

The myth of focus

When you create a routine, embrace that routine, and see the results of that routine, you stop negotiating with yourself. You see your routine as a task, in the best possible way: Your routine isn’t something you choose to do; it’s just what you do.

Then a dream turns into a regret—and all of us already have too many of those.

Everyone has goals. The people who actually achieve their goals create routines. They build systems. They consistently take the steps that, in time, will ensure they reach their ultimate goal.

People who achieve goals

“SMART” goals:

“Time bound” is also a problem. Setting a date for completion is important, but it in no way helps you focus. Most goals tend to make an already complicated life even more complicated.

Dream big. Set a huge goal. Commit to your huge goal.

Create a process that ensures you can reach your goal. Then forget about your huge goal and work your process instead.

If your process is one designed to get you where you eventually want to go, all you have to do is work your process—and sticking with your process is so much easier when you create that self-reinforcing feedback loop of Success → Motivation → More Success → More Motivation → More Success.

Look at the process you created and determine what changes you need to make to your current daily routine so you can reliably work that process.

The work itself results in inspiration.

Ask for help. Asking for help is a sign of strength—and is the key to achieving a lot more. Ask

Successful people are successful because they do things differently from other people.

Choices are the enemy of willpower. So are ease and convenience. Think of decisions that require willpower, and then take willpower totally out of the equation.

to your goals—simply rework your environment so you eliminate your ability to be impulsive.

Waiting even a day for feedback creates a mental distance and a lack of engagement that is hard to overcome—which means that much of the time you spent trying to learn was wasted.

Find a person who challenges you. Find a person who lays out a process so seemingly daunting, so seemingly insurmountable, a course wherein the there seems insurmountable but so does the here . . . and who helps you achieve something you never dreamed you could. By

Your pro can get you to where you want to go because he won’t coddle you or tell you what you want to

hear; he’ll tell you what you need to hear and need to do.

Coaches coach, and they’re great if that’s what you want. But if you want to accomplish what the pros have accomplished, you don’t need a coach. You

Pros show you how to succeed—and expect you to take full responsibility for your own success.

Pros will help you stop believing that you can just do a little bit more of what you have always done and somehow that minor change will make all the difference.

Pay attention so you’ll notice when other people are struggling. Then come up with specific ways to help—that way you can push past the automatic “No, I’m okay” responses.

Stopping is nearly always a choice. We don’t have to stop; we choose to stop.