You’ve Probably Been Thinking About Motivation All Wrong
To find your focus, understand the relationship between motivation and discomfort
It took me five years to write my last book, which was a lot longer than it should have taken. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what to do — I did. I just didn’t do it. I wasn’t motivated.
My book, Indistractable, is about how to stop getting distracted. Ironically, the problem was that I kept getting distracted. That is, until I learned the key to finally doing what I set out to do.
When I finally understood the biology behind why we do what we do, I didn’t just write the book; I became more productive at work, started exercising and eating healthier, and spent more time with the people I love, all because I finally realized I’d been thinking about motivation all wrong.
The biology of motivation
Like most people, I only had a vague understanding of what motivation really means. I thought of it like the wind: It came and went, and if I were lucky enough to catch it in my sails, I could steer my ship toward my goals.
The problem with this thinking is that if the wind isn’t blowing, you’re dead in the water. If we depend on feeling motivated to do what we don’t feel…
