2951: The Best & Less-Than-Best Motivations for Learning by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits on Motivation & Inspiration For Your Life

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily, episode 2951, The Best and Less-Than-Best Motivations for Learning by Leo Babauta of Zenhabits.net

[00:00:10] And I'm Justin Malik. Happy Friday! Welcome to Optimal Living Daily or OLD or old,

[00:00:16] one of a few shows where we read articles to you. You can find all of our shows by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this.

[00:00:23] And with that we're going to get right to today's article as we optimize your life,

[00:00:28] The Best and Less-Than-Best Motivations for Learning by Leo Babauta of Zenhabits.net

[00:00:40] We all go through dips and motivations sometimes. The key is to figure out a better motivator and adjust your plan.

[00:00:48] Today I'd like to talk about a few common motivations that don't work that well

[00:00:52] and then share what I've found to be the best motivations for learning that keep you going strong even after a month or two.

[00:00:59] Let's start with some less than best motivations.

[00:01:03] Number one, a big goal. People are often very motivated in the beginning of any challenge by setting a big goal for themselves

[00:01:12] and there's nothing wrong with this at all. However, I found that without other motivation you can lose steam after a week or two.

[00:01:20] Why? Because you don't achieve the big goal in a week or two and in fact if it's a long ways away after a couple of weeks

[00:01:29] you might not be much closer. So go ahead and set a big goal but have something else that will motivate you in the short term.

[00:01:37] Number two, wanting to make quick progress. This is something I've experienced and I'm not alone.

[00:01:45] We want to make a lot of progress in a short amount of time and it can be frustrating and disappointing when we don't make the quick progress we'd like.

[00:01:53] The truth is that any real progress takes time and while you might get a quick spurt of learning done here and there

[00:02:00] most often it comes with dedication and months of work. That said, if you have realistic expectations

[00:02:07] seeing yourself make modest progress can be very motivating.

[00:02:11] Number three, it sounds nice. Lots of times we take on a challenge because we think it'd be cool to complete it.

[00:02:18] I think it'd be cool to be able to do some amazing magic tricks for example but in the end I'm not that motivated to put in the hard work

[00:02:26] required to do some really skilled magic tricks. That takes hours and hours of practice weeks and weeks even

[00:02:33] and I don't care that much about it. I just think it'd be cool. If you don't care that much about the learning goal

[00:02:40] you'll quit when things get hard.

[00:02:43] And number four, creating your ideal self.

[00:02:46] Often we have a list of things we'd like to learn or improve because we want to reach an ideal we have for ourselves.

[00:02:52] We want to be fit, healthy, mindful, talented, multilingual, accomplished and more.

[00:03:00] And while there's nothing wrong with having these ideals the truth is that you lose motivation after a week or two

[00:03:06] if this is your primary driver. Why? Because at some point you stop caring about the ideal.

[00:03:13] You feel that it's not worth the effort. You're already pretty cool as you are without needing to improve.

[00:03:20] Okay so these common motivators don't work so well but what does work?

[00:03:25] Let's talk about the things I found to be good long-term motivators.

[00:03:30] The best motivations.

[00:03:32] These five things are great motivators that can last beyond a week or two in my experience.

[00:03:38] Number one, curiosity.

[00:03:41] This is my favorite motivator. When I take on a new learning challenge it works best if I'm genuinely curious about something.

[00:03:48] If something is mildly interesting to me I probably won't stick with it for that long but if I want to go deeper and deeper

[00:03:55] and learn everything I can about something I will stick with it.

[00:03:59] So try to examine how much curiosity you have for the thing you're learning.

[00:04:04] You can spark the curiosity sometimes but other times it's better to scrap what you're learning and find something that really gets you curious.

[00:04:12] Number two, exploring something new.

[00:04:15] For me it's often not about accomplishing something cool or reaching some ideal or goal. It's more about exploring.

[00:04:24] This is obviously very related to curiosity but for me allowing myself to explore in a less disciplined way is often the more sustainable method of learning.

[00:04:34] I let myself play, let my curiosity lead me, let the discovery be the goal.

[00:04:40] Try loosening up on your learning and allow yourself to have fun discovering.

[00:04:45] Number three, doing it with someone else.

[00:04:48] I love this method. Often I'll take on a challenge with Eva or a friend or one of my kids.

[00:04:54] It's fun doing something with someone else and often if one person loses motivation the other person will help keep you both on track.

[00:05:02] I'm also very motivated by wanting to help the other person and while doing something for myself is also a great goal,

[00:05:09] doing it for someone else helps a lot.

[00:05:12] Number four, caring deeply about it.

[00:05:15] As I mentioned we sometimes don't care that much about creating an ideal self or reaching big long term goals.

[00:05:22] So what do we care about? That's a question we have to ask ourselves and if you have an answer that's a great thing to devote yourself to learning.

[00:05:30] If you don't have an answer then devote yourself to exploring that question by learning different things.

[00:05:37] And number five, to prove that you can take on difficult things.

[00:05:42] For years I quit when the learning got difficult but that's when real learning happens, when things are difficult and you push through.

[00:05:50] When you're failing and wanting to quit.

[00:05:53] We learn by pushing ourselves into uncomfortable areas and if we always quit we'll never get very deep into anything.

[00:06:00] So my best motivation recently is to prove to myself that I can stick to difficult learning challenges.

[00:06:07] So far I'm proving myself right.

[00:06:10] You just listened to the post titled The Best and Less Than Best Motivations for Learning by Leo Babada of Zen Habits Donnet.

[00:06:22] Thank you to Leo.

[00:06:23] I'm definitely guilty of some of the first ones he mentioned like wanting to make progress fast

[00:06:29] and sadly as we get older progress seems to come even slower.

[00:06:33] But hopefully we're a bit wiser which makes up for that.

[00:06:36] Hopefully.

[00:06:37] But I agree having something deeper and more meaningful helps.

[00:06:41] As does an accountability partner, that's something we hear on this show from time to time and even on optimal health daily.

[00:06:47] It really does work.

[00:06:49] I still say that this podcast probably would have stopped.

[00:06:53] Actually I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have started at all had I not had an accountability partner.

[00:06:59] It was really critical to get this going and to keep going.

[00:07:03] But really the other aspects apply too.

[00:07:06] Caring deeply about it.

[00:07:07] That's facts for me.

[00:07:09] Exploring something new and curiosity.

[00:07:11] Also very applicable when I started this show.

[00:07:14] This show is always my best example of something done consistently over time that has grown and become something I'm proud of.

[00:07:21] It truly does fit Leo's description.

[00:07:23] So see if you can apply these to some part of your life that you're working on.

[00:07:27] Hopefully it helps.

[00:07:29] With that, thank you for being here and following the show or subscribing.

[00:07:33] Thanks so much if you've ever shared the show with someone that goes a really long way to keep all of this going.

[00:07:38] Hope you're having a great Friday if you're listening in real time and I'll see you tomorrow over the weekend where your optimal life awaits.