Motivation begets motivation

The older I get the more I find that motivation is the limiting factor to starting just about anything. There seems to be a minimum amount of motivational momentum or fuel required to learn something new. Paradoxically, the only method I’ve found to generate motivation is through motivation. I don’t think I’m unique in this either. Looking around it seems the older and more comfortable humans get the less motivation we have to challenge ourselves either physically or mentally. The rest of this post is simply a prattling on my discoveries regarding motivation.

Motivation is a paradox, a chicken and egg problem of sorts. In order to motivate myself to learn something new, I first need to learn something new to motivate myself. As an anecdote, when I moved to Canada, I wanted to learn all the winter activities I was never exposed to in childhood. For years my good intentions and constant exposure to cold were not enough motivation to get started. Finally, in 2019 I got sick of inaction, bought ice skates and hit up public skating rinks. A year of ice skating generated, among other things, enough motivation to learn to play hockey. Ice related activities then generated enough motivation to learn to ski.

Motivational units are flexible and not reserved for any particular thing. In other words, as I learn new things and generate motivation, I can repurpose that motivation toward nearly any other activity. In essence, motivation begets motivation, creating a flywheel. Expanding on the ice skating example, learning to ice skate led to me finally learning the piano. I’ve been hauling this family piano around for nearly a decade over multiple moves and good intentions were never enough to start playing. Learning all of these winter sports has generated enough motivation for me to teach myself to play.

Excuses rob me of motivational units and lead to non-starts. Prior to learning to skate, I had many excuses to avoid getting started in winter sports. In fact, during our yearly winter Whistler trips I still excused myself from winter activities. Excuses seem highly efficient in draining my motivation tank. If I’m to stop learning new things, excuses will be the proverbial door I walk through back to the couch.