We’ve all been there…. We start something new—a job, a project, or a hobby—with the goal of doing the best we can and seeing it through to the end. Then there comes a point where we feel our motivation slowly slipping away and before we know it, we’ve either quit the new workout routine or have hit pause on reorganizing the cluttered desk. It’s no secret that motivation can be tricky to maintain.
What are some myths about staying motivated and how can we overcome them?
1) Visualization alone can keep you motivated
Visualization can be an effective tool in achieving your goals and staying motivated. When you can see yourself arriving at your destination very clearly, it becomes easier to achieve.
Here’s the thing, though, when that’s the only thing you do, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. If, for example, your goal is to start a new job in a different field by next year, and the only thing you’re doing is visualizing yourself in a new office, don’t be surprised if you lose your motivation halfway there.
Visualization alone won’t bring you closer to your goal and, unfortunately, you’ll realize this when you’re sitting at the same desk a year from now.
Visualization plus doing the actual work of getting where you want to be—i.e., learning new skills, making new contacts, and actively looking for a new job—are the keys to staying motivated and achieving your goals.
2) Money is enough motivation for everyone
Most people work primarily for financial reasons, and that’s human nature. Everyone has bills to pay, after all.
It’s a myth, however, that money is enough to keep people motivated. For example, if a workplace has a toxic company culture that doesn’t respect its workers—or an environment where employees feel like they don’t have a direction to grow—money won’t be enough to make them stay in their jobs, and more importantly, stay productive in their jobs.
It’s true that money can be a main motivating factor for most people in a variety of situations, but this doesn’t apply to everyone and to all situations.
If you’re looking into a new work situation, consider other motivating factors like how employees are shown appreciation and recognition, having a clear path to career advancement, and/or experiencing a caring and understanding management team.
3) Don’t think about failures and setbacks
Some people mistakenly believe that if you think about all the times you’ve tried and failed, it will make you so discouraged that you’ll lose all motivation to achieve your goals. Now, in all reality, this could be true if you dwell on your failures and then make the exact same mistakes that hold you back. If you think about that time you botched a presentation in front of your bosses over and over again, you’ll obviously start to lose confidence in yourself and then have a hard time staying motivated to do a good job in the future.
Reflecting on and learning from your failures and setbacks, however, can actually help you stay motivated. When you start to see your failures as learning moments instead of times when you just weren’t good enough, your setbacks can help you stay positive and motivated to do better next time. In our example, you could take a good look at what happened during that failed presentation to see what went wrong—so that you can make changes and improve on the next go-around. There’s endless wisdom to be collected from what appear to be our biggest failures and most devastating setbacks.
4) Everyone can be motivated in the same way
The myth that we can all be motivated in the same way can apply to organizations, workplaces, and even to families. We’ve all heard of companies that try to motivate its employees in the same manner, or parents who try to motivate their children similarly.
Let’s face it, not everyone will react the same way to the same motivating techniques. People are unique individuals. Some people might respond to money or rewards, while others become more motivated when they are given more responsibilities or a higher position of authority in the organization.
It’s important to see that just as every person is unique, the way to motivate each person is unique as well. What works for one person won’t necessarily work for everyone else. Don’t be discouraged if what works for one of your friends or colleagues doesn’t work for you. Remember: you are unique.
5) Fear is a great motivator
Another myth about staying motivated is that fear is enough to motivate people. There’s fear of authority, fear of losing a job, or fear of retribution. These can potentially all be valid motivating factors. However, they are not enough to sustain motivation.
After a while, fear loses its power. Even with children, fear as a main motivating factor to get them to do their chores or their homework stops working after a few tries. If you’re using fear to keep people motivated, think again of other more constructive and positive ways.
Our bodies are not meant to live in a constant state of fear. So, if you’re trying to trick yourself into feeling motivated by using fear, you’ll ultimately be damaging your own health and wellbeing. Again, let’s turn towards encouraging and beneficial motivating factors like enjoyment and satisfaction in doing an activity or task—rather than fear.
6) Motivation is needed before action
It’s all too true that if you wait to feel motivated before you do anything, what you need to accomplish might never get done. Discipline is more important than motivation when it comes to getting things done. Being motivated is great but honestly, sometimes it’s hard to come by. We need to make sure that we have enough self-discipline to do what we need to do even when we’re not feeling motivated.
Let’s say you want to wait to feel motivated to attend your first yoga class. You might find yourself never attending. There are endless reasons to procrastinate or to decide not to try something new. In this case, set motivation aside and use the quality of self-discipline instead to move yourself to take action.
7) Just do your best
Words are definitely important, but words are not enough to stay motivated. Telling yourself, or others around you, to “just do your best” sounds great, but it’s not enough to stay on task.
Although giving your best effort in everything you do is what we all would like to keep in mind, the saying itself is vague and offers no clear guidance. Instead of saying “just do your best,” what works better is to put forward a clear and detailed plan with achievable bite-sized goals, objectives, and action steps. After accomplishing the task(s) you set out to do, you’ll feel motivated–even without the popular mantra.
Still, these catchphrases continue to be seen as effective motivating factors. It’s important to realize that most of them sound good in theory but are not actually effective when applied to real life—to people with different personalities.
Studies have shown that having a solid game plan with clear goals and objectives; cultivating a positive, uplifting work environment; and maintaining self-discipline are important and work better at keeping people motivated—rather than these popular, yet untrue, motivation myths.