Motivation - it’s a big topic. It’s a sexy topic. And I think most people totally misunderstand both its importance and how it works.

And I think most people totally misunderstand both its importance and how it works.

Let me start with a controversial opinion. Motivation is less important then discipline. Motivation is great. It gives you drive, desire and it propels you to take action.

But discipline is what keeps you taking action day in, day out. Whether you're "feeling it" or not.

And that matters. Because you can have a goal that motivates you and compels you. But there will still be plenty of individual actions that are boring, dell, or even unpleasant. But you have to do them anyway.

I'm motivated and pumped about the new training product that I'm building. Creating the graphics and editing the subtitles? Not so much. They are necessary though and have to be well done.

Discipline is what keeps you going when you don't feel motivated about a particular task. Motivation is what gives you something to be disciplined about.

So how does motivation work?

GOALS & CONSEQUENCES

Mention motivation to most people, and they think of goals and objectives.

Yes. And no.

You must have had the experience of wanting something? But not wanting it enough to actually take action?

That's the issue right there.

Wanting something - even wanting it a LOT - is rarely enough. There's more to it than that. We need clarity.

There's a also a missing piece. That missing piece is consequence.

CLARITY

When people say they have a goal, they very rarely do. They have a preference.

They'd rather be rich than poor. They'd rather be successful than a failure. They'd rather have a nice house than a crappy one. They'd rather go on fabulous holidays than go to wherever they can get a deal for. They'd rather have a nice car than an old clunker.

The difference between a preference and a goal is clarity. If you're not sure what I mean, read Arnold Schwarzenegger's book Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life. He talks about not just having a goal but seeing it in glorious detail. Feeling the sand of a California beach between his toes. Smelling the ocean.

He was specific about what he wanted to achieve. The titles he wanted to win. The money he wanted tro earn. He didn't want to be an actor. He wanted to be the world's biggest star.

That clarity and specificity drove his actions. How to train. What to eat. Setting up businesses. The roles he would and wouldn't take.

Without that, he could have won one title and stopped. He could have made a living as a cover model. Instead of becoming a millionaire in property even before he made his first movie. He could have been the tough guy of the week on TV.

But clarity gave him a way of knowing whether he had reached his goal yet. And it also gave him something to move toward that he deeply desired.

TOWARD MOTIVATION

That Toward motivation is what most people think of as motivation.

Having a goal that you can see, hear, feel, taste and smell so clearly that you will NOT stop until you have achieved it. You can then apply discipline to moving toward that goal.

AWAY-FROM MOTIVATION: CONSEQUENCES

Toward motivation is where you're going.

Away-From motivation is what gets you started. It compels you to take action.

That goal that you didn't get started on that I mentioned earlier? If you had greater clarity would it be more desirable? Of course.

But would you get started? That's where the Away-From motivation comes in.

Toward motivation is about what you will get if you succeed.

Away-From motivation can be summed up in a simple question "What will it mean if you don't?" or, to put it another way, "What will happen if you don't start?".

For example, for years I had a goal for the life that I wanted tio achieve - and the business that I needed to build to provide it.

But what drove me was the thought of going back to where I came from. And how I would feel about myself if I didn't do everything that I could to succeed.

Going back to where I came from was a horrible thought. But the thought of feeling that I could've, should've, but I just didn't try was too awful to even think about.

The emotional consequences of not doing everything I could were too awful to consider.

PRO-TIP ON MANAGING YOUR STATE

Don't go for either/or.

Change your physiology first. That will make it easier to change your self-talk by asking yourself good questions.

If you try to change your self-talk first, you’ll probably tell yourself to bugger off!

THE PROPULSION MACHINE

A clear goal to move toward, and the clarity about the potential consequences of not taking action are the lever. What applies force to the lever is TIME.

If I don't get going, six months from now, how will I feel about that? Three years from now if I look back and know that I haven't even tried, what will that be like?

To put it more directly:

Potential GAIN creates desire.

Potential PAIN creates action.

That combination of Toward and Away-From motivation creates the Personal Propulsion Machine.

ONE MINUTE NEEDLE-MOVER

Get clarity - real crystalline clarity - about what you want achieve. And why.

Be honest about what it is that you're moving away-from. You need to find a consequence of staying where you are or moving backward.

If where you are is not that bad, it's too easy to get comfortable with the status quo.

How will you feel if you don't try? If you let comfort hold you back? Five years from now if you look back and know that you could've, should've - but didn't give it your all - how will you feel about yourself?

This week’s Needle Mover:

Take the time to write your goals.

In full sensory detail. What will you see, hear, feel, when you achieve it? Write it longhand, in pen. It makes a difference in the way your brain processes it.

Now write down WHY you want all that. What will it mean to you?

Lastly, write down how you'll feel about yourself if you don't try. Feel how that combination affects you.

​Now start taking the actions that will make it happen. Discipline yourself to do those every day.