Motivation is a liar

Every time I open my social media feeds I see posts about motivation. Finding the motivation to do this. Having the motivation to do that. I have heard the word so many times it is easy to forget what it means.

Motivation – noun – the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. (Oxford Dictionary)

I have stared at this definition for a few minutes now. I don’t like what I see. I am going to call it like I see it: Motivation is a liar.

What do I mean? My general desire is to do as little as possible. I am human. I take the path of least resistance. It is what keeps me from achieving things, sure, but it is the truth. My willingness to do things? That is pretty suspect too. I have great intentions, but it is easier to not achieve.

Is that where I choose to stay? No. Of course not. The point is I know myself well enough to know that my desires and my willingness can not stand in the way of what has to be done. My choices and my responsibilities have to be executed on regardless of how I feel.

I can’t sit and wait for motivation to hit me. It is a nice boost of adrenaline when it does, but that soon fizzles out. I have to have more there to go off of. I have to have a plan and the self-discipline of executing that plan so that I can leverage the times of high motivation and still move forward when the motivation is not there.

I want to be remembered as a man of my word. When I say I am going to do something, I want you to be able to take it to the bank. It will be done, because I gave my word that it would. I can say with few exceptions that this is who I am with other people. This is not always who I have been with myself, but that has been changing.

I listened to an interview Kobe Bryant gave about how he was able to accomplish everything that he did. He told the crowd that he had signed a contract with himself. He made the deal willingly and had to execute what he agreed with himself on. That was the reason he was the hardest working man in any room he was in. He made the deal and then made good on it.

This is my reminder to myself for today. Motivation is a liar. There are goals to be achieved. There are tasks to be executed. The deal has been made. It is time to go to work.