Feeling Unmotivated? Read This. | Weekbook #1

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Since starting my self-improvement journey I have progressively climbed the mountain without hinderance, at least until recently. Over the past few weeks an unfamiliar feeling has crept in, slowly eating away at my usual positive outlook on life. For the first time in a long time I’ve felt demotivated and I’ve been in a rut.

If you haven’t been through this experience try and imagine that you’re out for a run, making steady progress at a comfortable pace, before a brick wall springs from the ground and blocks your path. The only way for you to continue forwards is to either break through the wall or climb over it. Sometimes we get through in an instant, other times it takes time and patience.

Earlier this week, I decided enough was enough. I sat down and did what I always do when I’m struggling to find the answer. I reflected on my recent actions and choices. The answer was starring me in the face, I realised that I had broken away from my core habits, the foundation of everything I do. I had stopped exercising and eating (relatively) cleanly, instead I had descended into a bout of laziness and junk food.

So, I challenged myself. Recalling the lessons I picked up from Atomic Habits (see “5 Lessons from Atomic Habits”), I knew I needed to go back to basics to kick-start my habits again, making it as easy as possible to succeed and as hard as possible to fail. I placed my workout equipment in my home office, which is located directly between where I have my morning coffee and our dressing room. As a result, I knew I would need to walk by my equipment every morning when I went to shower, forcing myself to making a conscious decision each day to either workout or skip it again. As Monday morning came around and I saw that equipment starring me in the face, I called upon my all-time favourite lesson to give me that final push — “just start”.

Motivation doesn’t have to be the reason we take action. Indeed, sometimes taking action triggers us to feel motivated and propels us forward. That is exactly what happened in this case. Simply starting that workout was enough to propel me through that first workout. Then one workout become two, two became three and now I sit here writing on Saturday afternoon, after returning from a morning jog, my sixth day of working out in a row.

Lessons for the week:

• Just start — whatever it is you’re considering doing, start today.

• If you’re unsure, reflect. The mind is incredibly powerful when left to wonder and explore.

• When motivation doesn’t lead to action, let action lead to motivation.

Book Notes

All notes are from the book I am currently reading: Indistractable by Nir Eyal.

• On being distracted: “We already know what we should do. We just don’t know how to stop getting distracted”

• On the indistractable model: “Everything we do sits one side of an imaginary line. One side is traction, leading us towards our goal. The other, distraction, preventing us from achieving what we set out to do. All our behaviours and actions are the result of a trigger, either an internal one (our brain) or an external one (a notification on our phone). Note that the goal is irrelevant to the indistractable model, the focus is whether we move towards it or away from it.”

• On human behaviour and taking action: “The drive to relieve discomfort is the root cause for all our behaviour”

Try this Podcast:

Ending Quote

“Challenges are not just a measure of greatness, but the pathway to it.” — Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday

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