How to Stop Relying on Motivation and Still Achieve Your Goals

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I want to do it, but don’t feel like doing it. This is the most common reason for not doing the things that matter.

Waiting for motivation to kick in has never helped anyone.

Or rather it helps to start, but disappears when you are in the thick of it — when you need it to keep going and make it a success. It being a goal or a project or whatever you want to achieve.

Motivation is unreliable. It shows up on New Year’s Eves, on your birthdays, or maybe after watching TED talks or reading life changing books.

Instead of relying on motivation, shift your focus towards systems, mindsets, and working with your energy levels.

In this post, I have written about how to stop relying on motivation and exact steps that will help you to do so.

Why Motivation Doesn’t Work

1. Motivation spikes at the START and disappears during the middle

This is the reason why people quit their New Year’s resolutions by February.

You might have watched YouTube videos and listened to podcasts that got you pumped up. That’s the motivation you needed — but only to get started.

Then when reality hits, like when you have a bad or busy day, motivation is the first thing that leaves your side.

So when you really need motivation to complete what you began or develop a habit, it disappears.

2. Motivation needs perfect conditions

Have you ever felt motivated on a bad day? Or when life hits you hard?

Motivation dies down on such days.

Motivation needs the perfect conditions to survive.

Life isn’t perfect.

This is why motivation alone will not get you out of a rut or help you survive a bad phase of life.

3. Motivation expects you to feel good first

When have you done a Google search about how to be more productive or time management tips?

It’s mostly when you aren’t spiraling down — when you are feeling good or having enough energy to begin something.

Motivation kicks in. You start and give up.

Meaningful work happens only when you begin first. You do it before you feel ready.

Motivation is like a guest that visits you once in a while.

And if you are waiting for it to show up in your life, then you will reach nowhere or achieve anything.

How to Get Things Done Instead of Relying on Motivation

1. Reduce the activation energy

Beginning is the most difficult part.

Just thinking of doing a one-hour morning routine or a full exercise routine shuts down your brain.

So make getting started ridiculously small that your brain cannot resist.

How could you do this?

a. 2-minute rule: “When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do.” — James Clear

If you want to begin reading, start by reading one sentence or a paragraph. Want to exercise? Start with one push up.

This might seem stupid. But that’s the point.

As James Clear says: It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.

The 2 minute rule helps you get started because it is super simple.

You are allowed to quit after 2 minutes. And you might do it too.

After a few days or weeks, the momentum has been built. So you will most probably continue doing it to the desired time or frequency.

b. Design your environment to make it easier

Your space around you has an important role in making it easier to get started with a task.

How can you design your environment?

Keep the book you wish to read in a place that you can see every day.
Keep the yoga mat, workout clothes, and shoes ready the day before in a place you can see.
Want to eat healthy? Keep junk food out of your visibility, in a place hard to access — or the best thing is not to buy them.

2. Build tiny systems, not goals

We always think of the end goal only and completely ignore the process and steps that make it happen.

All of us are so goal-obsessed.

The focus and efforts should be redirected to the systems that make it happen.

Systems are how you achieve goals.

If you want to learn cooking, then the system is buying the right ingredients, trying out different recipes, reviewing what went right or wrong, and then repeating the process.

You need to make sure that this system runs even if you don’t have motivation.

Because the regular repetition of these systems helps you achieve the goal without even thinking about it.

Systems help you to:

Reduce decision fatigue — you don’t have to think to get started
Remove willpower from the equation
Make progress inevitable because the path is built-in
Build identity — “I am someone who shows up”

3. Become self accountable

Identity plays a huge role in getting things done.

If you see yourself as a person who never gets anything done, you might not even try again.

But when you see yourself as a person who shows up, who tries, who gets up after failing, then you don’t need motivation to get started.

You will see yourself as a person who gets things done.

The best way for this is to become self accountable.

Being self-accountable means you make a promise to yourself, you track what you do, and you become the person who follows through – with or without motivation.

Self accountability helps in shifting your identity.

When you are an adult, you are responsible for your life and actions. Self accountability helps you become a responsible person and achieve your goals without anyone pushing you.

Related Post: How to Become Self Accountable – 5 Easy Steps

4. Use energy based planning

Your energy levels aren’t constant.

Some days you are so energetic that you feel like conquering the world.

Other days it feels impossible to brush your teeth.

If you try to maintain the same level of output every day, you will fail.

So, the key to such days is to maintain the momentum.

A. If you are someone who is just starting out

It’s possible that you might have started a habit or a personal project when you were in an optimal state — good mood and enough energy to move forward.

But life is funny. Sometimes it feels like life has been waiting for you to start something just so it can begin to trouble you.

On days when you are low on energy, it feels impossible to do anything.

The best remedy, especially if you are someone starting out, is to continue practicing the 2-minute rule.

Even on low-energy days, when you feel like crap, stick to the 2-minute rule.

It’s for every kind of day — good, bad, or amazing.

B. If you are someone who already has the habit

You aren’t immune to bad or low-energy days.

Every day you will not have 100% energy.

Some days are bad. Or you might be in survival mode for weeks.

On days like these motivation disappears.

If you are someone who has been exercising regularly or reading or journaling or gardening — suddenly you will not feel like doing it.

It’s because you are low on energy.

On such days you will feel it is impossible to get started.

Instead of thinking “I must do it all or I must do nothing,” do the Bare Minimum Version.

It feels like taking a step back.

That’s not true. On such days, it’s important to keep the momentum alive.

It’s always easier to go back to the full routine if you kept some part of it alive rather than having to begin from scratch.

No matter what your motivation level is, plan your days like this:

High-energy day: Full version (30 min studying, full workout, writing a full page)
Medium-energy day: Lighter version (10 min studying, half workout, one paragraph)
Low-energy day: Bare-minimum version (2 min studying, stretch for 1 minute, write one sentence)

These tiny survival actions become the reason you succeed in the future.