Where does motivation come from, how can we get more of it, and how can we ensure that we don’t waste it?

Motivation is all about being able to take action. But the question is… what action are we taking? We only want to take more action if that action is aligned with where we want to go.

A belief system is a set of beliefs we have about what is right or wrong, what is true or false, and what things mean to us. It forms all our ethical beliefs about good and bad, it has all our assumptions about what will or won’t happen, and it’s our primary tool for interpreting the world around us.

The world around us is nothing but objective stimuli. We use our belief systems to form opinions about the outside world. The issue is that our brains are so fast at interpreting the world around us that we forget that it’s an interpretation. This is why it’s so easy to freak ourselves out about nothing.

Here’s what’s cool. Every emotion that you feel is filtered through your belief system first. Reacting to a situation requires that you first interpret it, and interpreting the world around you requires referencing your belief system. The only exception to this rule is the fight-or-flight response, which is in your DNA since birth. So with the exceptions of life-threatening situations, everything passes through your belief system. This includes motivations.

Motivation is a desire to take action. That desire, like everything else, is an opinion about what things mean to you. Whether you struggle with procrastination or your a workaholic, both extremes come from your belief system.

The procrastinator tends to have confusing beliefs. Beliefs that often conflict with one another. Beliefs like “I need to create something new, and it has to be perfect.” A belief system like this is always going to result in procrastination or writer’s block. You’re giving yourself an unwinnable task.

The workaholic is on the other extreme. They have a belief system that always tells them to keep going. Their belief system places high value on taking action, but it places low value on resting or activities that affect their personal, rather than professional, life.

So the takeaway here is to stop thinking about motivation as an input. Motivation is the result of your belief system. It’s not something we DO. It’s not an action we take. It’s the result of our beliefs. So instead of trying to force yourself to be motivated, we should think about what beliefs we have that are resulting in the motivation that we do have. If you’re motivated to procrastinate, then there are beliefs driving you in that direction. If you’re a workaholic, you have beliefs that make working the most likely outcome.

As we’ve talked about in past episodes, motivation is task specific. So it’s really helpful to treat each task in front of you as unique. If you’re a workaholic, then you likely have a general belief that you use in each specific situation. For example, you might have the opinion that making money is more important than resting. That general belief will be referenced whenever you’re making a decision about whether to continue working.

What’s really cool is that when a workaholic stops working they do it for the same reason they started. It all comes down to the belief system. Any time I have a huge chunk of time to myself, I get excited to get a lot of work done on projects. But at some point, I always realize that I’m not being as productive as I was earlier in the day. So you could say that the general belief that I need to get work done gives way to the more specific belief that I’m not being productive or that I need a break. So after 10 or 15 minutes of being stuck on the same problem, I usually take my dogs out for a walk. Every specific action I take comes from my belief system.

Our belief system is is how we estimate the results for taking an action. We’ve already talked about the idea of self-efficacy, which is your belief that you can effect the outcome. That’s a part of your belief system.

Here’s why your belief system is so important. To give you an analogy, your motivation is like the gas pedal in your car, but your belief system is the driver. Motivation can’t tell you to turn left or right. Only your belief system can. Whenever you make a decision, you’re brain references your belief system to estimate what will likely occur and how you’d feel about it.

In situations where we don’t need creativity, motivation tends to be more important, such as when you get paid by the hour to work at a factory. To go back to the driving analogy, when you’re on a cross-country trip on the highway, you have a lot of open road in front of you and very few decisions to make. Here, motivation, which is the gas pedal, is more important.

But when you’re driving around, lost in downtown… the gas pedal isn’t going to help much. Speed isn’t the problem, it’s the ability to make the correct decisions. This downtown driving is more akin to creativity.

Here’s where it gets crazy.

Your belief system is actually stronger than your motivation.

Let’s use a hypothetical to show you how this works. Imagine you’re a painter in the same era with Pablo Picasso. You see him paint these weird, abstract paintings that don’t make a lot of sense. You then form a belief that it won’t possibly work or be successful. That belief will determine what you do next.

Now here’s the interesting question. Would it actually matter how motivated you are to become a great painter? Your belief that the idea won’t work determines everything in advance. It overpowers any motivation you might feel. This is still true even if you were maximally motivated to achieve success. There is no level of motivation that could get you to try something that you’re certain won’t work. So the trick here isn’t to boost your motivation, it’s to develop an accurate belief system.

Let me try to put that in more abstract terms. If you form a belief that something couldn’t possibly work… then it no longer matters how motivated you are to achieve success. You will never take that action. Your motivation will always push you in the direction that your belief system says will lead to success. Going back to the driving analogy, if success is to your left, but your belief system says that turning left won’t work, then it doesn’t matter how bad you want to succeed. No level of motivation will ever result in your turning left. The only way to turn left is to question your belief system, which requires questioning your assumptions.

The irony here is that the stronger your motivation, the less likely you’ll be to accept ideas you feel are not going to work. For example, if you’re driving and you’re late to a meeting, you will be less likely to turn left and take a chance than if you had plenty of time. If you had an extra 20 minutes, then trying a different road wouldn’t feel threatening. But if you’re highly motivated to get to the meeting quickly, the risk is too big to take. This is why we need to be cautious as creative people. Motivation is a double-edged sword. There’s a cost and a benefit to it. It’s our job as creators to develop the most accurate belief system possible. Only then can we let our motivation run wild.

As you’re creating today, be sure to test the assumptions that make up your belief system. There are times when we need to use the gas pedal to get work done quickly, but there are far more times where we need to slow down and make good decisions. If you never slow down, then you’re always going to be using the same belief system. You won’t be able to take different actions. You’ll only be able to take the same actions faster.

Think about how you define success in your industry. Where do you want to end up. Then ask yourself what’s more important: putting your head down and taking as much action as possible OR keeping your head up and figuring out exactly which actions need to be done?

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