Motivation is like inspiration – you can’t just wait around for it to strike. In his book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, Arnold Schwarzenegger breaks it down in simple terms. He states that there is nothing you can do about how you feel when you wake up, so the only attitude to have is ‘Let's get to work.’ He took his own advice and was making a huge amount of money from real estate deals long before he became a household name through bodybuilding, movies and politics. Throughout this process, he remained a highly successful businessperson.
As a mantra, ‘Let's get to work’ sounds almost too simple, but it works. Waiting around for motivation or deciding you’re not feeling great today isn’t going to help you as an entrepreneur or a business leader with a growing team. And there are plenty of reasons to believe that you really can get yourself into the right mood for work. A research paper published in a medical journal in 2022 showed that people possess a natural ability to motivate themselves, even in the absence of external rewards or pressure. The question is, how do you tap into it?
Busting the myths around motivation
A typical business day presents non-stop challenges that demand action, regardless of one's feelings of motivation. The common misconception is that motivation must precede productivity. However, leaders who wait for motivation before taking action will inevitably miss critical opportunities.
Part of the battle is against this idea, very much ingrained in popular culture and social media, that inspiration is the key to productivity and success. Such messages are very engaging, but they can easily create an ‘I’ll do this when I feel motivated’ mindset. But what if that moment never comes?
So, it’s a nice approach in theory, but it doesn’t work in practice. Ultimately, motivation can be seen as an emotional state – and like all emotional states, it’s not constant. It fluctuates over time, even within a single day, and is often influenced by factors beyond our control. If we rely on it too much, we are leaving our success to chance, and that’s no way to run a business that requires consistent execution.
Taking motivation lessons from outside of business
The life of an athlete is a prime example for businesspeople to consider. A committed athlete – whether that’s someone training to simply keep fit or an Olympic-level competitor – understands that they just can’t skip practice because they’re not feeling motivated. At 6am, they are in the pool or weight room or out for a run. The idea of ‘not feeling like it’ doesn’t come into play. They understand that reaching their goal demands total discipline.
For another parallel, consider the parent who gets their children ready for school every day – even when they’re exhausted or stressed out. Why do they do it? Because there is simply no alternative or ‘day off’.
These examples help us understand that action comes before motivation. Motivation may, in fact, emerge as a byproduct of the progress you make because of this commitment, but it is rarely the initial spark.
Becoming disciplined
We’ve talked about discipline in the context of an athlete in training or a parent getting their kids ready. It’s the key word here. After conducting several experiments, the research paper discussed earlier concluded that people are often highly motivated to complete a task, even when no discernible rewards or bonuses are involved. Sometimes, the task itself becomes the focus, with the action of completing it generating motivation as part of the process.
Also, regular habits and clear routines are more effective at predicting long-term success than short and irregular bursts of motivation. Therefore, it’s essential to design your days around clear priorities and structured workflows – this approach is far more likely to yield sustained results than waiting for inspiration to strike.
How to avoid the risks of waiting for motivation
Depending on motivation is a trap to be avoided. Often, an opportunity is fleeting and a decision must be made. There is no chance to wait around until you ‘feel ready’, otherwise you risk falling into these traps:
- Procrastination: Delaying action because you’re not in the ‘right mood’.
- Inconsistency: When your efforts are sporadic, you undermine productivity in the short term and longer-term growth.
- Resilience problems: It’s much harder to navigate the kinds of challenges and setbacks that are typical in business when you’re waiting to feel motivated.
Building a system to avoid the motivation trap
There are several steps to building a system that doesn’t simply rely on you feeling motivated:
- Carefully structure your day: Whether you’re a startup founder or the CEO of a multinational, your day needs structure to enable you to work on high-priority tasks first, regardless of how you feel. When you start your day knowing what needs to be done, you are better equipped to make progress.
- Breaking tasks into manageable steps: It’s normal for large projects to feel overwhelming. This is where ‘motivation’ may feel like it’s deserted you, making it hard to get started. To combat this problem, divide the project into a series of steps that allow you to see progress, however small, and this will drive more action.
- Creating accountability: When you’re not feeling motivated, having accountability (within your teams, to your mentors, etc.) can really help keep you on course.
- Being consistent in all things: Intensity may feel exciting when you’re working at speed, but it’s better to make small, regular contributions than to wait for those rare bursts of enthusiasm.
That moment of success
The good news is that motivation becomes much easier when success is achieved and you can see significant progress. It’s common for top executives and founders to report feeling very energised once momentum is established. However, we can’t rely on this, since every business journey starts at zero.
So, by embedding discipline and routine into the working day, you establish the necessary foundation to overcome challenging periods, preventing the failure that results from simply waiting for motivation. The journey is inherently difficult, demanding early mornings, late nights, many tough decisions and a relentless focus, but the moments of success make the effort worthwhile.
Going forward
Clearly, motivation is not the engine of achievement. It’s great when it’s there, but it’s not something you should rely on. If you lean on it too much, you risk stagnation and missed opportunities.
The most successful businesspeople don’t wait to feel ready. Instead, they simply keep showing up, following their routines, and doing the work. Over time, this kind of discipline generates real momentum and progress.
So, the lesson is clear – don’t wait to feel motivated. Build your systems and embrace discipline. Motivation will follow, but only if action comes first.
