Motivation

A question I’ve received many times over the years is: “how do I stay motivated?”

You can listen to and watch all the motivational speeches or videos you want but at the end of the day what gets you out of bed 3 hours before you want to wake up? When you just want to hit the snooze button and go back to sleep and you look out the window and it’s still dark out and you’re thinking to yourself “man, I just want to stay in bed”.
How about when you’ve just come home from a long ass day of work, your feet are tired from walking and standing all day, your back feels like it’s been hit with a sledgehammer, you’ve had to deal with a bunch of bullshit and stress and you just feel completely exhausted.

So what now? Is it time to go lay down in bed and relax? Fuck no. The work doesn’t end when you get home from your 8 or 10 hour shift, the work just begins. Now you have to do all the work at your home life, now you have to go pick up the kids or your wife, now you have to be mom or dad, husband or wife. Now you have to give everything you have left to the people you Love, for the people you work so hard for, so that you can see the smile on their faces and continue to build upon those relationships.
Instead of coming home with a shitty attitude mad at the world for having a tough day because you’ve been working your ass off and still aren’t where you want to be and now you’re expecting everything to be handed to you on a silver platter, the world doesn’t just hand you things on a silver platter. If you want something in life then you have to be prepared and willing to work your fucking ass off for it every single day.

Guess what? The day doesn’t end there after you’ve worked all day at your job, ran a bunch of errands, walked home with bags full of groceries in -30°C your fingers are numb you have blisters on your feet, then you prepared food and cleaned your house. Now you have to go to the gym and train. Just as you thought you’ve given everything you had physically and mentally now you have to dig deep down and find a level of intensity and strength so high in order to reach the goals you’ve set out to achieve, in order to progress from the previous week the previous month the previous year.

The work doesn’t get easier as you progress in life the work gets harder, you want more then you have to do more simple as that. Motivation isn’t going to do that for you, if you’re seeking motivation all you have to do is look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, “am I where I want to be in life?” If the answer is no, then that’s all the motivation you’ll ever need. The discipline, the consistency, the relentless work ethic and desire to improve in every aspect of your life is what gets things done, is what gets you the job you want the relationship you want the body that you want.

Don’t ever settle for mediocrity, don’t ever settle for less than what you’re worth, and in order to find out what you’re worth you need to ask yourself what it is that you want out of life. Are you satisfied with just going through the motions and doing the bare minimum to get by with everything out of fear of being out of your comfort zone? Growth doesn’t occur when you’re in your comfort zone, it occurs when you do things that challenge you mentally and physically, that make you question yourself “holy crap can I do this?” When you thought you’ve given it everything you had but now you somehow have to do more in order to break through those mental or physical plateaus to reach a level beyond where you’ve ever been, because the difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the extra.

If you’re willing to put in the effort required to create growth and success in any area in life, then you can have and be everything you ever wanted. You just have to do the work regardless if you want to do it in the moment or not, motivation is irrelevant, it’s not required to achieve anything, action is what gets shit done. Not giving up when things get tough and continuing to push through any resistance that you or life adds is what gets shit done.

Everything in life that you desire to have can be yours, you just have to work for it. Don’t complain or make excuses as to why you don’t have something because the truth is, if it’s important to you you’ll find a way, if not, then you’ll find an excuse. Just shut the fuck up and do the work.