Ship in Six

Lesson #5: How do you stay motivated…?

You've got 4 weeks left in this challenge (including this one!).

If you've been waiting and waiting for motivation to light a fire under your tail, well… this lesson is for you, my friend. Cuz That Thing ain't gonna ship itself.

We all know what "motivation" feels like…

But what is it, exactly?

Well, it's trite to talk dictionary definitions, but in this case it's really interesting: Motivation comes from motivus, a Latin word that means literally "to move."

Bam! We talk about motivation because it's something that sets us in motion.

But… "motivated" isn't a state of being, it's a feeling.

As any poet, lover, or parent knows, you can't capture a feeling and hold it in a jar forever. No matter how motivated you are to do so. Feelings are fleeting. They slip through your fingers when you try to hold on. They're unpredictable.

Feelings are the weather in your mind: Sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it's cloudy, and sometimes it rains. And sometimes that means something, and other times it means nothing.

Sometimes you feel motivated and then you do things. Sometimes you feel motivated and do nothing. But most of the time you don't feel particularly motivated… and you still do things:

You don't only feed your pets or kids when you feel like it.

You don't only show up for your loved ones when you feel like it. You don't only do your current job (whatever it is) when you feel like it.

Do you?

Then why would you set up your brand new baby project to live or die based on what side of the bed you woke up that morning, or how much starch you ate at lunch, or what kinds of emails are in your inbox?

Don't buy my explanation? Well, try this sentence on for size: "Oh, it's raining. Guess I'm not gonna feed my cats today." Ludicrous, right? Well, it's no different than "I don't feel motivated. Guess I'm not going to feed my business today."

If you love your cats, or your business, you'll do what you have to do to ensure their survival, regardless of how you feel in the moment.

Your duty to yourself is to treat your work seriously — whether it's a passion project or a business project.

Waiting for "motivation" to move your butt is just a clever way to avoid taking responsibility. Full stop.

Popular techniques that fail miserably

So, now, with that out of the way, let's talk techniques. What do assha—pardon me, thought leaders usually say about staying motivated?

Some combination of…

  • Read inspiring things.
  • Talk with with people who inspire you.
  • Post reminders somewhere you can see them, like inspirational photos.
  • Two words: Vision Board. (*barf*)

Now you can probably see the issue with this list, right?

These steps are all trying to manage a feeling — an internal state — and nothing about action whatsoever.

And you don't need them.

You know perfectly well how to achieve without motivation or grit

Here's how I know:

  1. Your kids or pets don't starve when you're having a bad day.
  2. You've got some source of income now — you haven't been fired for just, you know, not showing up.
  3. You have friends and family who know they can count on you.

If you can manage these things, you already know how to work on your fledgling business… even when it's not making any money.

So you can keep working even when it does.

If you can manage those things, you can keep going when your project seems like it's getting nowhere fast and the finish line seems so far away. (Because that's always how it seems… until it's done.)

How do you keep going? You keep going.

It's that simple: How do you keep doing something? You keep doing it. You show up. You do it.

So… what works for you, in the total absence of motivation? You know best. Chances are very good it involves structure — you feed your kids or pets several times a day, and you go to work every day, or whatever works for you.

(I talk about the planning, techniques, structure and habits that can help in my book, of course.)

Here's what we did before our business was making money

We kept it pretty simple, really:

We worked every Friday (and many Saturdays) on Freckle until it shipped, and then more often. We designed our v1 to be shippable. We made choices that made our lives easier (we shopped the shelves, we picked our difficulty levels — 2 chapters in JFS).

But mostly we showed up and worked.

Every Friday. Like clockwork.

It's that hard.

It's that easy.

Amy

Did you get this lesson from a friend?

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