Turn Motivation into Determination

When are you at your best? When are you most productive? I used to think I was always most productive when I was hyped up on motivation, however, that has changed as I have begun to hack my job. 

Motivation is really just a subjective word to describe the times you feel like doing something. Why do we wait for a subjective time to “feel something?” I have recently taken motivation out of my vocabulary for multiple reasons:

1. You Truly Choose When You’re Motivated

Like I said, motivation is a subjective word that essentially “gives you permission” to act on something that is typically deemed productive in your own eyes. If this is truly the case, you should be motivated all the time. Why wait for an “inspiring time” to choose to act on it??

2. Motivation is Temporary

For motivation to work, you need to feel “motivated” throughout the entirety of the project you are “motivated” to undertake. Typically motivation is the feeling that sparks the “need” to accomplish a task. Well, what do you do when that motivation runs out?? Do you simply quit? Motivation is a lot of fun until it becomes hard work.

3. Feel Motivation Continuously

As I said above, what do you do when motivation becomes hard work? Motivation is a “fun word” in my opinion, and accomplishing major goals when you expect it to be fun makes accomplishing your goals nearly impossible. When you set your mind to a specific task that you feel “motivated” to pursue, I urge you to move from a motivated mindset to a determined mindset.

4. Turn Motivation into Determination

So if it makes you feel better to use the word “motivation” for the instant you feel inspired to do something, then that’s your prerogative, but don’t use it beyond that or you will become complacent and uninspired. When you use a word like “determination,” it tells your mind and body, “This might suck, but never give up and you see your hard work come to fruition.” It’s all a big mind game in the end.

These are my main reasons that I have removed “motivation” from my vocabulary. When you embark on the Hack Your Job journey, there will be limitless reasons you will need to be strong in determination and understand why you will need much more than momentary motivation to become the person and the professional that you are striving to become.