3277: [Part 1] How to Get Motivated: The "Do Something" Principle by Mark Manson on Taking Action

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3277, How to Get Motivated, The Do Something Principle Part 1 by Mark Manson of markmanson.net and I'm Justin Malik. Happy Middle of the Week Wednesday and welcome to one of the only podcasts in the world where blogs are narrated to you for free.

[00:00:46] Little bit of positivity every day which adds up over time. And sometimes I read longer posts that I split up into two. That's the case today. So I'll read the first half today then finish the rest tomorrow.

[00:00:57] But with that, let's get right to Part 1 and start optimizing your life. How to Get Motivated, The Do Something Principle Part 1 by Mark Manson of markmanson.net Action and Motivation Here's a newsflash for you. Action isn't just the effect of motivation but also the cause of it.

[00:01:24] Most people only commit to action if they feel a certain level of motivation. And they only feel motivation when they feel an emotional inspiration. People only become motivated to study for the exam when they're afraid of the consequences.

[00:01:39] People only pick up and learn that instrument when they feel inspired by the people they can play for. And we've all slacked off for lack of motivation before, especially in times where we shouldn't. We feel lethargic and apathetic towards a certain goal that we've set for ourselves

[00:01:57] because we lack the motivation, and we lack the motivation because we don't feel any overarching emotional desire to accomplish something. We typically think, motivation works something like this. Emotional inspiration leads to motivation, which leads to desirable action. But there's a problem with operating under this framework.

[00:02:20] Often the changes and actions we most need in our lives are inspired by negative emotions that simultaneously hinder us from taking action. If someone wants to fix their relationship with their mother, the emotions of the situation

[00:02:35] like hurt, resentment, and avoidance completely go against the necessary action to fix it, which is confrontation, honesty, and communication. If someone wants to lose weight, but experiences massive amounts of shame about their body,

[00:02:52] then the act of going to the gym is apt to inspire in them the exact emotions that kept them at home on the couch in the first place. Past traumas, negative expectations, and feelings of guilt, shame, and fear often motivate us

[00:03:08] away from the actions necessary to overcome those very traumas, negative expectations, and negative emotions. How to get motivated? The Do Something Principle. It's a catch-22 of sorts, but the thing about the motivation chain is that it's not only a three-part chain, but an endless loop.

[00:03:30] Your actions create further emotional reactions and inspirations, and move on to motivate your future actions. Taking advantage of this knowledge, we can actually reorient our mindset in the following way. Action leads to inspiration, which leads to motivation.

[00:03:51] The conclusion is that if you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, then do something, anything really, and then harness the reaction to that action as a way to begin motivating yourself.

[00:04:05] I call this the Do Something Principle, and I developed it on accident back in my years as a consultant helping people who were otherwise immobilized by fears, rationalizations, and apathy to take action. It began out of simple pragmatism.

[00:04:22] You paid me to be here, so you might as well do something. I don't care, do anything. What I found is that often once they did something, even the smallest of actions, it would soon give them the inspiration and motivation to do something else.

[00:04:38] They'd send a signal to themselves, okay, I did that, I guess I can do more. And slowly we could take it from there. Over the years I've applied the Do Something Principle in my own life as well.

[00:04:52] The most obvious example is running this website and my business ventures online. I work for myself, I don't have a boss telling me what to do and not to do. I also often have to take major calculated risks in which I'm personally invested both financially and emotionally.

[00:05:10] It's been nerve-wracking at times, and major feelings of doubt and uncertainty arise. And when no one is around to push you, sitting around and watching TV reruns all day can quickly become the more appealing option.

[00:05:24] The first couple of years I worked for myself, entire weeks would go by without accomplishing much for no other reason than I was anxious and stressed about what I had to do, so it was too easy to put it off.

[00:05:38] I quickly learned that forcing myself to do something, even the most menial of tasks, quickly made the larger tasks seem much easier. If I had to redesign an entire website, did not force myself to sit down and would say, okay, I'll just design the header right now.

[00:05:56] But after the header was done, I'd find myself moving on to other parts of it. And before I knew it, I'd be energized and engaged in the project. If I'm about to tackle a large project that I'm anxious about, or if I'm in a new country

[00:06:10] and I need to give myself a little push to get out and meet people, I apply the do-something principle. Instead of expecting the moon, I just decide, okay, I'll start an outline, or okay, I'll just go out and have a beer and see what's going on.

[00:06:27] The mere action of doing this almost always spurs me on. Inevitably, the appropriate action occurs at some point or another. The motivation is natural. The inspiration is genuine. It's an overall far more pleasant way of accomplishing my goals.

[00:06:46] You may recognize this concept among other writings in different guises. I've seen it mentioned in terms such as falling forward or ready, fire, aim. But no matter how you frame it to yourself, it's an extremely useful mindset and habit to adopt.

[00:07:03] The more time goes on, the more I realize that success in anything is tied less to knowledge or talent, and more to action supplemented by knowledge and talent. You can become successful at something without knowing what you're doing.

[00:07:18] You can become successful at something without having much particular talent at it. But you can never become successful at anything without taking action. Ever. A few tips on staying motivated. Hear that on tomorrow's episode.

[00:07:38] You just listened to part 1 of the post titled, How to Get Motivated, The Do-Something Principle by Mark Manson of markmanson.net. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Thank you to Mark. The first half of this post was great.

[00:07:53] I feel like he could have ended it there, but we're going to hear some more tips tomorrow. I can definitely relate to this in my own life. The just do something mindset was basically how this podcast started in the first place.

[00:08:06] I just wanted permission from a couple of authors so that I could get a few days worth of episodes recorded. I didn't really think too much about a website or everything else. I just wanted to create and have something, and then went from there.

[00:08:21] I easily could have waited until I had more authors saying yes or until I had a nice website built. But I think that could have put a wrench in the whole thing and I might not have started at all.

[00:08:33] Forcing myself to get a couple of episodes recorded really got the ball rolling. And from there, I haven't stopped. It's definitely a ready, fire, aim kind of situation. He's going to share some tips on staying motivated. We'll hear that on tomorrow's episode.

[00:08:49] But that should do it for now. So with that, thank you for being here and listening every day. It really means a lot. And I'll be back tomorrow to finish up this post. So I'll see you there where your optimal life awaits.