Why Aren't You Motivated?

Hello! Thanks for checking out my first blog!

So I was doing my coding course today and a thought came to me…why aren’t some people motivated? 

Usually I find that there are three reasons for lack of motivation: 1. Lack of time (not having the time to do it) 2. Lack of energy (not having the energy to do it), or the most overlooked 3. Setting unrealistic goals.

We live in a society where everything is so overwhelming that we hardly can spare the time or energy to motivate ourselves to do something we really want to do — but let’s consider the possibility that you’re super motivated to do something. The equation to measure your motivation might look something like this: 

Motivation = Time x Energy (x Intent)

This equation assumes that motivation is a component where the amount of time and energy you have exponentially increases the amount of motivation you have -- your intent being the goal you wish to achieve, which is a value that you decide for yourself (ex. learn to play soccer vs being a professional soccer player).

Let's look at this from a real world perspective: If you go to the gym, you might have less time to do your workout but train harder than someone that has more time to do their workout. Studies even show that lifting more reps of light weights has a similar correlation as lifting less reps of heavier weights, given that the intensity of the workouts are the same. 

So if we turn those two scenarios into their own equations - the equations themselves would look slightly different, but ultimately you will have the same answer: 

Sets(10) * Weight(5) * Intensity(to failure) = Growth(50)*

Sets(5) * Weight(10) * Intensity(to failure) = Growth(50)*

*Lifting heavier weights has slightly more benefit as far as gaining raw strength, but that falls outside of the scope of this discussion.

If you replace Sets with Time and Weight with Energy, the Growth/Motivation will correlate the same in this particular instance. Intensity in this case is the placeholder for Intent -- you can have achievable goals or goals that mathematically can't even be met. Training to failure simply implies that you go on forever until you literally can't continue, hence the limit is self-imposed by your physical capabilities...but the benefits are still present! Some people set unrealistic goals in life in order to actually hit goals that are much further down the hierarchy. It's a tried & true psych-out method!

So basically what I’m trying to say is that you have three options here if you would like to grow: Find more time in a day to allocate, exert more energy in a shorter span of time or change the goal post.

Most of us struggle with finding time or energy to do what we need to do, but most of us also have habits in our lives that if we could get rid of them we could have more of one or the other (or even both). 

For example - How much time do you think you could save by simply not scrolling on Instagram for an hour every day? The literal answer is 365 hours/year - a little more than 15 extra days per year! That’s crazy! 

Moral of the story: Do what you can regardless of the circumstances that are presented to you (You did have to spend some of your time reading this, but hopefully it helped you grow a little!)

-poonk