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I lost my spark. Where did it go?
Q: Have you ever lost your spark halfway to a goal and couldn’t figure out how to get it back? A: The key to staying motivated isn’t a personality trait or a gift. It’s something you can actively cultivate. Motivation is not a fixed thing. It’s not something you either have or you don’t. It’s…
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Have you been using the words “internal” and “intrinsic” interchangeably?
Myth: “Internal motivation” and “intrinsic motivation” mean the same thing. Truth: They don’t. And understanding the difference might be one of the most freeing things you learn about motivation. Intrinsic motivation is about joy. It’s the motivation that comes from the inherent pleasure of an activity itself. It’s about the pure love of doing it.…
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The thing I want most is somehow the thing I keep avoiding.
Q: Have you ever noticed that the thing you want most is the thing you keep avoiding? A: It might not be laziness. It might be fear. Fear of failure is fairly self-explanatory — most of us really don’t want to fail, and we’ll do quite a lot to avoid the possibility. But fear of…
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I’m working hard. Surely I must be on track.
Myth: If you’re working hard and staying busy, you must be moving towards your goal. Truth: Busyness is not the same as progress. And some of the hardest things to spot are the ones that look like high-achieving actions but aren’t. There are two ways we tend to undermine ourselves. The first is plain old…
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Am I working towards my goal, or just around it?
Q: Am I truly working towards my goal — or just keeping myself busy around it? A: Sometimes it takes looking at someone else’s story to finally see what’s been happening in your own. I once lived next door to a violinist who practiced scales and warm-up exercises every single morning for 45 minutes. Every.…
