Action And Performance Precede Motivation

Very true..Motivation is a very personal feeling. No wonder it is short lived when we search for it outside..

 

Yes. Action precedes motivation.
Novice chess players know this to be true. For them, any first move with a pawn or a horsie is the same as any other, no matter how the masters of the game choose their first move. Once the novice is in the game, and the "game is on", the moves come easy. I had often observed that this is the immigrant story in America. The first move was tough, and then, as they say, "the game is on". Failure, and being sent back, ain't an option. What-is-not-failure would evolve through the years, as the immigrant considers and chooses from the options offered in the game.

Goals are usually fuzzy, and continue to evolve as we gain more information.

 

This is so true, thanks for putting it into words for me to understand.

Coincidentally, we had this poll in our group chats - what is the one chore that you always tend to say "not now, later"
The answers were ranging from washing car to washing dishes to folding laundry. but I just wrote "that would be my answer for 99% of the chores".
I realise I have starting trouble. Once I start , I will do an efficient job mostly unless I started so late that there is too little time. But taking that first step , sigh!

An aside- I also feel sitting down has a lot to do with procrastination.
I have a standing work desk. When I am working at the standing desk - I do not postpone getting some water, toilet trips, just check on kids , odd random jobs that i remembered. But when I am sitting on the couch and working on a laptop table, I have to accumulate stuff enough to do before I move - sorta like I have to justify the overheads of moving the table and heaving myself up and walking.

Next time I have to do something, I am going to imagine being on a movie set , and Rihana shouting "Action".

 

I feel motivation triggers a person to make an action. But an action increases the motivation by many folds as opposed to a dormant motivation. They are closely interconnected. Motivation derived from others' action or reading a book or even through our own inspiration is valuable but when motivation is derived from our own actions, it is invaluable.

If we call our thoughts as observations, motivation as modeling and the actions can be considered as real application of thoughts and motivation. Modeling gets perfected as we perform actions.

Viswa

 

Hey Rihana, really interesting thought. Am trying to motivate myself to get off the net and start doing some work. Maybe the best course of action would be getting into action. Have promised myself to start at 3pm and shall keep up my word!

On a more serious note, yes, this seems to make sense. Positive results have a motivating effect and no results can be achieved without action. So it has to be action first, followed by results and then motivation comes along.

 

When we get inspiration to do something we have to take steps to act on it. If we keep postponing we may lose interest.

Do not give in to procrastination by PushpavalliSrinivasan posted Oct 30, 2017 at 1:43 PM

PS

 

True that!

In the long ago days of my youth, Hindi was a required subject but I was reluctant to open my textbook. Just a couple short months before the final exams, I set a timer planning to read as much of the darn book as I could in 10 minutes. It turned out to be rather entertaining. Once started, I got through the entire book in a day!

As an adult, when I'm faced with chores I'd rather avoid, I still set a 10 minute timer. It serves to get me started and is the only reason our home is still habitable.

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It is a much needed post for me now. Glad that I read your post today!! Wonderful writing Rihana.