In January, I did stuff I didn’t want to do and now I can’t stop.
At the beginning of the year, I read a book called The Motivation Hacker and decided to start implementing what it called “Success Spirals.” You can read more about the start of my journey here. But basically a Success Spiral is a mini (typically) daily goal, which you track for a predefined period of time. For some, this might be as simple as: for the next 30 days, without fail, every morning I will walk to the end of my street and back. You then do it, without fail, for the 30 days and track each day you do it – no cheating.
The trick is to make it so easy that you just do it.
Now, in fairness, the author of The Motivation Hacker, Nick Winter, does warn you: whatever Success Spiral you choose, make sure it’s something you really want to do – because you will.
I ignored the warning.
So, for my very first Success Spiral, I decided to create a writing habit. I have always wanted to write more. I decided to start small, like Nick Winter recommends, and make a simple habit that was so easy, it was almost too easy not to do.
I would write 200 words per day. That’s it. I had to write 200 words every day (including weekends) throughout January, about anything.
January’s over. I’ve written over 10,000 words; but even as we start February I continue to write. The need to write has taken over on its own. What’s going on?!
Let’s Talk Motivation
Let’s talk about motivation. Most of us (I’m looking in the mirror here) typically do things when we feel like doing them.
I tend to eat when I feel hungry. I watch a movie when I feel like watching something. I buy something, when I feel I want it. This keeps my life somewhat fresh – because I’m naturally drawn, I suspect like so many people, to novelty. But there’s a downside to feeling constantly fresh.
You rarely accomplish the big stuff.
Typically big gains in any area (work, sports, learning, etc) takes hard work now with delayed long term future rewards, which feel soooo far away. And as humans, we’re wired to think in terms of short term rewards (e.g. caveman Mathew might think: me hungry; Me eat cookie – in my case a gluten free cookie, but you get the idea).
But if you’re going to accomplish something more substantial, generally you’ll need to put in some long term hard work (studying for exams, saving money to buy a house, building experience in a career so you can one day take on a senior position, etc). So you won’t do a whole lot of the really and truly rewarding things if you only do the hard work when you feel like it.
In fact, hard work is almost by definition that thing you don’t feel like doing. When we say something is “hard work” usually what we mean is there is a substantial amount of energy required to do it. We’d rather be doing something else – like eat a cookie (I’m sure you’re starting to see the theme).
When I started writing 200 words a day, the first days were easy. I wanted to write because it was novel (pun intended?). It felt like I was doing something fun. By the 10th day, that novelty had worn off. In fact, there were several days, after getting in bed my wife would ask me if I had done my writing for the day. I hadn’t.
I’d sigh, get out of bed and spend the next 10 minutes hammering on the keyboard in my office until I could check my box.
But the hard part wasn’t the writing. I liked writing. The hard part was overcoming the short term reward circuit in my brain that wanted me to do only those things I felt like doing at that moment (like eat a cookie – sorry, I had to).
I ended January having written 100% of the days. By February 1, I noticed something completely new. I kept (and wanted to keep) going. I didn’t need to; I had fulfilled my writing experiment. But by this point I had developed a writing habit. The motivation to continue was stronger than the motivation to stop. I knew that I would feel bad if I stopped and now the motivation to continue was internalized.
Does it make writing easy? No. But there’s now a flame of internal motivation that can push me through tough days.
This is How to Make Hard Stuff Easier
1. Start with a small habit
2. Integrate it into your daily life
3. Push through the tough days
By making sure you always do it and by integrating it into your life you build motivational grit.
There is an add-on benefit. As you develop this motivation grit, you’ll naturally take on more hard stuff. By the end of January, I was already thinking about what else I’d like to add to the routine. I’ve added two more (which I’ll save for another time). By introducing these new Success Spirals little by little, I’ve tricked my motivation into thinking I’m just doing one small thing today when, in fact, I’m building towards massive long term rewards.
Speaking of rewards, I’m going to grab a cookie.
Stay happy, friends.
