Why Motivation Is Not Enough
Want to Make a Big Change? You’ll Need More Than Motivation to Get You There.
Whether it be losing weight, quitting drugs, or cutting down on drinking, at one time or another we have all felt the urge to make a big change or improve our lives. Before you actually embark on that change, though, you’ll probably psych yourself up by replaying all the reasons why you really need to quit eating donuts for breakfast, why you need to stop smoking weed everyday, or why you need to avoid that first drink after work altogether. This pep talk will likely fuel your motivation and excitement about your upcoming change journey even more. You might wake up the next morning and tell yourself, “Today is the day. Today I am going to change my life for the better.” You may even feel like you have everything inside of you that you need to reach your goal and that this time you are really going to make it happen. And then you start, you take the leap towards the new you and everything falls magically into place with no speed bumps or hurdles along the way.
If something sounds fishy about this scenario, you’d be right. Motivation isn’t enough to get things done. Sure, it may give you momentum to get going, but it won’t sustain you through the lows along the way. And there will be lows.
I experienced this vicious cycle countless times in my own life while trying to quit meth. It always seemed to start with me waking up in the morning telling myself, “You’re good today, you don’t need this. You can get through the day without using." Motivation to quit wasn’t the problem. I had PLENTY of motivation because meth was literally destroying everything in my life and I so badly wanted to be free of it once and for all. On my quit-days, I would go about my day doing the usual things I would need to do, repeating to myself over and over, “you don’t need to smoke meth, you’re good.” The only problem was that during this time my life revolved around drugs and other people who used drugs. No matter how determined I was to quit, by the middle of the day I was using again. It drove me absolutely insane. I would wake up in the morning 100% serious about making it through the day without using, but I never seemed to fail to disappoint myself. I thought that something was seriously wrong with me and that I was always going to be a prisoner to my addiction.
What I didn’t know at the time, and what I hope you take away from this article, was that motivation and excitement are not the things that get shit done. I thought that motivation was the key to success and that excitement was the thing that was going to save me, but that’s not true at all. Yes, motivation and excitement are both important, but they’re useless on their own. Motivation alone wasn’t going to break me free from my addiction. Sure, motivation was fuel to get me started, but I was lacking the infrastructure that would get me to the end. I needed an engine that would help me convert this motivational energy into actual transformation.
It’s no wonder then that I always failed miserably, because my life was centered around drugs.
How could I expect to transform if I was lacking an engine to get me there?
The Engine
Here’s a way to better understand this; think of motivation as burning coal. You can burn all the coal that you want, but without an engine you have no electricity. The energy by itself doesn’t get anything done. In order for there to be electricity the energy has to be fed into a system. If you don’t utilize the energy or don't put it into something that matters nothing is going to change.
What does this mean for you right now?
It means that you may feel motivated, but just wanting something to happen won’t get it done. You have to channel that energy into something. Find an engine, put your energy into it and create your momentum. It’s not that these people who are able to turn their life around are more motivated than you. It’s that they found a system that adequately converted their enthusiasm into results (systems like AA or IGNTD to name a few). There are a lot of different systems out there so if you start one and it doesn’t work for you, keep searching for one that does. When I first started there weren’t a lot of options out there, so I ended up using more traditional systems like AA to channel my energy into. I had so much motivational energy to convert that I began seeing results rather quickly. My life was transforming before my eyes. At some point though, I outgrew this outdated system and began searching for one that made me feel that I actually had power over my addictions and wasn’t a victim to it. When I couldn’t find one, I decided to create one of my own (which eventually became IGNTD.)
Today, my system for recovery is so efficient that instead of running on pure motivation or adrenaline, it runs on autopilot using these three principles: Honest Exploration, Radical Acceptance, and Individualized Transformation. And I break these principles down for you briefly below and even further in the IGNTD Hero Program so that you too can use them to sustain your recovery journey.
Promoting a More Sustainable Recovery
If something doesn’t feel right, you have to create space to explore it honestly (Honest Exploration) so that you can better understand where it’s coming from and why it’s creating discomfort and pain in your life right now. It’s easier to direct your motivation into action once you are able to identify which triggers, obstacles, and weaknesses are holding you back. During this process it is important that you adopt Radical Acceptance so that you can meet yourself where you are right now and reassure yourself that you are doing the very best you can. Shaming and judging yourself will deteriorate your engine and disrupt any progressive movement forward. The process of identifying and removing these obstacles and doing the work is what we call Individualized Transformation. This is the end result you have been striving towards but have been unable to reach thus far.
Putting these principles in place will help you break the cycle of waking up every day full of motivation to change only to find yourself going to bed with the same disappointing results. I know, because I used these principles years ago to help me break free from my addictions, and I continue to use them daily to nurture my relationships and nourish my life.
When a problem arises, I explore it honestly, “What’s wrong? How did I get here?” I then come to terms with it, by accepting the feelings of discomfort and removing any shame and judgement surrounding it, and finally, I get to work fixing the smaller things that need to be changed in order to keep me on track toward transformation.
At IGNTD, these principles have helped transform hundreds of people’s lives, not because we are wizards waving a magic wand but because we gave them an engine that works, one that transforms their motivational energy into action. And we can do the same for you. We know there are some things in your life you’re motivated to change right now, but you have to stop believing that *just* being excited about them is going to be sufficient. Instead, you need to find an engine that will help you transform that motivation into power. Only then will you be able to break free from your addictions and live the life of your dreams.
If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction and wants a shame-free approach to break free, the IGNTD Hero Program is here to help with a free 14 day trial.