Beast Mode: Motivation and The Key to Success

Article Source

“Everybody wants to be a beast, until it’s time to do what real beasts do.“

-Eric Thomas

“There’s always some beast in everybody.”

-Michael Jennings (my father), last night at dinner

Many (most?) people, suffer from a sense of frustration of not having achieved what they want to achieve in various areas of life (I often feel this way). We fail to be all that we can be. The days, weeks and years roll by without attaining our most important goals whether they are health related, like losing weight, career-related, relationship-related, financial etc.

What can we do?

The Most Important Question of Your Life

I love the quote at the top of this blog post: “we all want to be beasts until it’s time to do what real beasts do.” So true. Wishes, desire and motivation aren’t usually the problem with achieving our goals. We all want to be beasts. As Mark Manson explains in his excellent article The Most Important Question of Your Life, it is deciding what you want to give up and what pain you want to endure that is the hurdle. We focus on the result when we should be focusing on the process. From Mark’s article:

A more interesting question [than what we want], a question that perhaps you’ve never considered before, is what pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?

Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out . What determines your success isn’t “What do you want to enjoy?” The question is, “What pain do you want to sustain?” The quality of your life is not determined by the quality of your positive experiences but the quality of your negative experiences. And to get good at dealing with negative experiences is to get good at dealing with life.

Based on this life perspective, when we have a goal like losing weight, saving more money or getting ahead in our careers, we should not ask whether we want that result, but rather what pain are we willing to suffer to achieve our goals? We should ask this every time we have a goal. If we are not willing to change, to give up something, to endure the pain or effort, maybe we should conclude that we just don’t want it enough and throw out the goal.

Source: Truth Training, East Hampton, NY

What do real beasts do? They train. They practice. They work. They take chances. They fail. They get back up and do it over again. If we don’t want to be a beast in furtherance of our goal, we should switch to a goal where we are ready to go into full beast mode.

Success is About Process

Thus, the key to achieving success is not goal setting – it’s process setting. Success results from creating habits and processes.

As Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip “Dilbert” and author of a number of books says,“Losers have Goals. Winners have Systems.”

Similarly, Jeff Haden in his book The Motivation Myth relates that “Incredibly successful people set a goal and then focus all their attention on the process necessary to achieve that goal. They set a goal and then, surprisingly, they forget the goal. Sure, the goal is still out there. But what they care about most is what they need to do today—and when they accomplish that, they are happy about today. They feel good about today.”

“Losers Have Goals. Winners Have Systems.”

-Scott Adams

A related point is that counting on willpower to get you to your goals almost never works. We only have so much willpower and draining it in one area usually depletes it availability for another area. It also tends to decline as the day goes on. Read more about why using willpower isn’t a good way to achieve goals: Willpower! Instead, we must establish habits and focus on process.

The Truth About Motivation

In the The Motivation Myth, the author argues that true motivation actually is the result of success, not the cause of success. Once we start something and have some success, even small, we become motivated to continue because we crave success. At some point, our continued success will shape our identity and foster habits that will reinforce the new behavior. From the book:

The process looks like this:

Success → Motivation → More Success → More Motivation → More Success = Becoming

Thus, choose a goal, create a process and then set your goal aside. Then just start. Focus on the process. Love the process. Embrace the process. Revel in little successes the process creates daily. Break it down hour-by-hour and day-by-day.

You get to choose your goal—but after that, what you want to do is irrelevant. What matters is what you need to do to achieve your goal. You can’t have dessert with every meal and lose weight. (Well, theoretically you can . . . but jeez, that will be hard.) You can’t complete a triathlon without doing an awful lot of running, biking, and swimming. (Well, theoretically you can . . . as long as they give you a week to complete the race.) You can’t get promoted without outworking everyone around you. (Well, theoretically you can . . . but don’t you want to earn the job instead of politicking your way in?) So don’t start unless you’re truly willing to pay the price.

-The Motivation Myth

Enjoy the Journey

A key mindset for success is that of enjoying the journey – even the bad parts of our journey. Enjoy what real beasts do! Love the process!

Artwork by Liam Ashurst

I wrote about this mindset previously in Mile 21 Thinking – tell yourself that you want to be doing what you are doing and experiencing what you are experiencing – even if it is painful or hard. Tell yourself that there is no place you’d rather be. If you decide to get in shape, tell yourself that you love the exertion and pain. If you want to get a professional certification, immerse yourself in the studying and tell yourself how lucky you are to be learning when studying late at nights and on weekends.

If that doesn’t work and what you are doing still sucks, then embrace the suck. As the Navy Seal from the fantastic book Living with a Seal says: “If it doesn’t suck, we don’t do it.” Beasts love suck! Be a beast (we all have some beast inside us)!

Again from Mark Manson:

Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long workweeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist lifestyle are ultimately the ones who live it and make it. This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So choose your struggles wisely, my friend.

Create a More Productive You: 7 Motivation Tips You Need to Follow

Around 92 percent of people don’t achieve their goals. Do you have the motivation to make their dreams come true?Article Source 

The difference between wanting to achieve and making it happen can be huge. It can be a struggle to motivate ourselves sometimes.

Our motivation tips can help you get through the day checking off your achievements effectively. Ready to discover how to increase motivation? Let’s go!

1. Set Specific and Achievable Goals 

Setting goals is an important part of motivating yourself.

You need to learn to set goals which are clear, specific and challenging. Yet, you shouldn’t get too ambitious that your goals aren’t realistic or achievable.

Researchers have found that setting goals effectively can help you to improve your performance nine times out of ten.  

The goals represent the reasons why you want to motivate.

Your goal may be to learn the French language by next year to go to France on vacation. This is specific and a challenge. You need to decide whether you can achieve it or not.

When you’re struggling with your grammar textbook, this goal is the reminder of what you want to achieve and why.

 

2. Get Enough Sleep

Over one-third of Americans don’t get enough sleep. We know that lack of sleep can cause several health problems. 

Yet, it can also undermine your motivation. When you’re exhausted constantly, it’s difficult to keep your mind on the task at hand.

You may even be trying to achieve your goals by staying up late at night. This probably isn’t going to do the trick.

Focus on establishing your bedtime routine. That should comprise regular bedtimes and wake-up times and avoiding alcohol and screen time before sleep.

When we’re eager to achieve our goals, sleep is normally the first sacrifice we make. Actually, this only undermines our capacity to reach our targets. 

3. Take Your Time in the Morning 

Most Americans are stressed and so busy most of the time. Waking-up and rushing out of the door in the morning isn’t great for motivation.

You need to slow down your pace of life for some headspace. Do you ever have a moment in the morning to relax?

You need to avoid checking your emails as soon as you wake-up. Try spending a few moments looking out of the window or calmly meditating.

There are numerous ways you can take your time in the morning. Go for a walk around your yard, practice some yoga or listen quietly to some music.

Getting prepared for the challenges of the day ahead will allow you to stay motivated for longer. 

4. Concentrate and Avoid Procrastination

Everyone’s familiar with procrastination.

Defined as “the action of delaying or postponing something”, struggling to focus is a symptom of a lack of motivation. 

And yet, some people are bigger procrastinators than others. Around one in five people are characterized as “chronic procrastinators.”

What causes you to procrastinate? For most people, it’s the internet. Whether it’s scrolling down your Facebook newsfeed or reading recipe blogs, it can distract you from your task.

When you don’t need the internet – unplug it! Remove any other distractions from your workstation. 

You could also implement a timetable. Short bursts of “deep work” are much better than constantly being distracted by small things. 

5. Get Inspired by Others

When you’re feeling down and out. You cannot gather yourself to keep going forward with your goals.

This may be the time to look to other people for inspiration and motivation. Ask your family and friends for advice. What do they do when they lose motivation?

You may also want to look to some inspirational stories from history. What did the great figures from history conquer when they were struggling to keep their eyes on the prize?

The internet may be ripe for procrastination. However, there are few better resources of inspiration as well. Check out YouTube Ted Talks to get inspired!

Are there any social media groups of people tackling the same goals as you? You may be able to learn from each other and support one another in your enterprise.

Surrounding yourself with other inspiration people can keep you motivated. If you know people who are determined to achieve their goals as well, this is a great incentive. 

6. Give Yourself Lots of Rewards

There is always a carrot and stick approach. Trust us, you want the carrot over the stick.

Giving yourself little incentives and rewards for making progress can help you stay motivated when times get tough. 

However, ensure that your rewards don’t undermine your goals. For example, if you want to lose weight, don’t pick rewards that are edible. 

There may not be anyone else to make sure you’re staying focused or punishing you when you give up. You need to learn the skills of self motivation!

7. Live a Healthy and Physically Active Life

You may think that a healthy and physically active life has nothing to do with staying motivated. But, you’d be totally wrong!

It’s so important to eat a balanced and healthy diet. That includes eating lots of whole-grain foods, fruits, and vegetables.

Even switching to a plant-based diet could help. Have you ever seen a de-motivated vegan?

Being physically active is also essential. Your goal may require you to be sat at a desk the whole day. Yet, working out regularly can keep you focused on your task.

Get Productive With Our Motivation Tips

If you’re struggling to stay productive, this could be because your motivation keeps letting you down. By following our motivation tips, you can ensure that you achieve your goals and perform to your ability. 

If you found this blog post helpful and interesting, you can browse the blog to find more.