“I don’t feel motivated to do this”
“I need some motivation to do this”
“I need to set a few milestone goals along the way to keep myself motivated”

I am also guilty in saying some of the “excuses” above. This is a book authored by Jeff Haden to explore how to keep yourself motivated. Is it to set a reward in the end of the process? Is it to make a few milestone goals and keep reminding yourself everyday? Is it to paste post-it note all over the place with best quotes from the best people?

Hell no, according to Jeff.

“Dream big. Set a huge goal. Commit to your huge goal. Create a process that ensures you can reach your goal. Then forget about your huge goal and work on your process instead.”

Jeff is an advocate of “process”. One needs to create a process, a habit that will put one in the right state of mind or in the flow, and keep working on the process itself without keep looking at the goal. A lot of people believed that they need a spark in order to be motivated, be it some short term reward or some benefits to start the ball rolling. However, all these are temporary and unsustainable, which leads to one dropping out half way citing “I don’t feel motivated anymore”.

The book took an example from world famous guitarist. When asked what keeps him motivated to be the best, what was the secret recipe that made him the best, the answer was surprisingly simple. It goes something like this: “I wanted to be good in playing guitar. So I set the routine of keep playing, keep practicing, trying to be better and better every time. Never once I thought about how far I am from being the best. I just keep playing.”

One key learning that I agree well with this book is the setting up of “process” or habit. If you want to achieve something, it is important to set out the process which will guide you towards your goal. And then of course, stick with your process. Though I think at times it is good to measure how far you are from your goal and calibrate your process along the way as you go. But yeah, focus on the process is really important. That’s how I have been keeping myself writing consistently throughout the years. Noting down on thoughts, ideas, and then spent time in the days to work them through and eventually turning them into posts on my blog.

I do admit there were times when my process broke down, and then I just need to stop for a moment to get it fixed, and continue again. Perhaps I should start doing the same for my photography? I used to have a habit in place, but as life goes on, priorities changed, the habit cycle was broken. Well, if I wanted to do more, I really need to setup a new process for it. The same goes to other goals that I would like to achieve in my life.

“Motivation isn’t something that you have, it is something that you get when you start working on things.”

Hopefully you can extract something useful from this, do read the book to learn more as Jeff also detailed many other aspects about motivation. Till then.