Have you ever hit a slump? Do you ever feel unmotivated and uninspired? Or have you given up on dreams because you’re too busy, tired or distracted to make things happen? I often get the question of how do I stay focused and motivated, over the long haul. Let’s face it, I’m at that age where folks expect me to be slowing down. I should be thinking about retirement, they say…not setting a world record.
First, let me state unequivocally that when we give up, at any age and for any reason, it can be hard to get our mojo back. And yes, depending on the task at hand, it may get even harder with age. What’s seems to be particularly hard for most people is sustaining things for the long-haul…what I call durability.
It’s easy to do a cleanse for a week, get to the gym for 30 days or get that work project completed by month’s end. Short-term goals have a light at the end of the tunnel that can help us stay focused and on-task. But most people struggle with durability. They fall off the wagon and can’t maintain their effort for months, years or decades. In other words, they don’t have the stamina, grit, perseverance or know-how to sustain their motivation and focus for the long-term.
Having been both a triathlete and business owner for more than a quarter of a century, I understand durability. I’ve seen so many folks come and go…and I’m still standing, so I get it. I was recently asked, “What are the secrets to having longevity in a world where it’s so easy to get burnt out, distracted, or pushed aside?”
Regardless of your endeavors or ambitions, there are some things you can do to create durability. Here are four things you can practice and master for maintaining your motivation for the long-term.
EMBRACE GRIT & A GROWTH MINDSET. Grit is the combination of passion and perseverance. One without the other isn’t enough. In her extensive research on the subject, Angela Duckworth has discovered that a person’s grit is far more important than talent, or other factors, as a predictor of success. Grit is your ability to stick with something, even when the going gets tough. Perhaps, it would be more appropriate to say, “especially” when the going gets tough.
But where does grit come from? Grit is fueled by a growth mindset or what I refer to as an achievement-mentality. It’s your ability and desire to always be seeking ways to improve and be better. It’s the hunger not to be satisfied with the status quo, but to recognize and believe that you have more that you can bring to the table.
We can always learn. And that quest to be a life-time learner will serve you well and help you maintain a growth mindset. College basketball coach, John Wooden, said it well when he stated, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
Most folks stop too soon. They fall into a complacency trap. They get comfortable with what they already know. They get comfortable with the status quo and they stop pushing. And consequently, they stop growing. When people ask me about my Sixty@60 world record journey (to complete 60 ironman triathlons in 2018, the year I turned 60), they often say, “You’re crazy.” Perhaps…but I don’t want to get complacent. I don’t want to sit back and stop living and growing. Sure, I can “live” without this craziness, but I’m not as fully engaged. It’s so easy to go through the motions and not be living fully with all the gifts you can tap into.
BE BOLD. Related to living fully is being bold. That means that you don’t shy away from a challenge and that you continue to set big, bold goals for yourself. I can’t tell you how important that has been to me when I started conceiving my Sixty@60 quest. I could have punctuated turning 60 by taking a trip, celebrating with friends or a host of other options. But I came “alive” when I took on a tremendous goal that would push me to new places.
Of course, being bold is all relative. It could be running a 5K, achieving a big sales goal or working hard to get that new job. And what’s bold to you now, may not be bold to you in the future, because as you achieve more, you become more. When I turned 50, my big, bold goal was to complete one ironman. Since then, I’ve done dozens and expanded to do ultra-distances as well, with double and quadruple iron distance races under my belt. It’s just one area of my life where I’ve made progress that shifted my concept of “what’s bold for me.”
A bold goal has many benefits. It forces you to abandon your comfort zone. The bolder the goal, the more you will have to re-engineer and stretch yourself. So, by default, it will require you to tap into both your grit and your growth mindset. On the back end, achieving a bold goal fundamentally changes you. It makes you more confident, resilient and empowered. It shifts how you view yourself and that has a lasting impact on what you’re capable of achieving.
Derived from a Latin proverb, the quote, “Fortune favours the bold” is as true today as it was in centuries past. A bold goal or dream will inspire and excite you. And it may scare the crap out of you as well. Again, this is where so many folks retreat. They’re afraid and they’re not sure they have what it takes, so they stay in their safe zones, not taking the risk. My advice…take the f’ing risk!
Sure, there may be lots of obstacles along the path. But here’s a nugget to remember…obstacles are the bridge. In other words, to live fully you will face many obstacles. And to continue on your path, you must cross the bridge or bridges along the way. That is how you make progress. That is how you grow. That is how you shine your light. If you are avoiding the hard stuff, the uncomfortable stuff, the bold stuff…you are stuck or complacent and you will shortchange what you can do and the people you can impact and serve.
MIX IT UP. It’s easy to fall into a rut. And often when we do, we lose our motivation. So how do you keep your mojo alive? Bold goals are part of the answer. But mixing it up is important too. It’s hard to sustain your enthusiasm for the long-term, in any aspect of your life, if each day is a carbon-copy of the one before.
I recently saw an interview with Madonna, who recently turned 60. Without a doubt, she is one of the most successful female artists of all time. How has she weathered four decades in the celebrity limelight and still remained relevant? I would argue that she’s a master at mixing it up. She has constantly pushed the envelope and reinvented herself along the way in her career. There’s a striking difference between Madonna, the Material Girl, and Madonna as Evita. And that’s just one of dozens of examples I could point to in order to illustrate her ongoing evolution.
The questions to ask yourself include: Am I just going through the motions? Or am I looking for ways to improve and get better? And what am I going to need to do differently to take things to the next level?
BE DISCIPLINED. Even when we are excited and passionate, our enthusiasm and motivation can wane. It’s only natural that we may experience some peaks and valleys along the way to a long-term goal. Sometimes we have to do the hard work or the mundane work, even when we don’t feel like it. That’s when discipline comes into the equation. We have to cultivate the habits and mindset to be disciplined.
A simple test that I incorporate whenever I have a big goal to pursue is I write out my goal (in SMARTY format) and I rank my anticipated discipline to achieve it on a scale from 1-10. I actually will break that down further and ask myself how disciplined I will be for the next 30 days. There are a couple of reasons why I do this. First, it’s a test. Am I willing to do what it takes to make this goal a reality knowing full well that there will be many obstacles I will encounter along the way? If my resolve isn’t completely there (in other words, if my ranking is anything less than a 10); then I know that I need to re-examine what I’m doing and why I want to do it. Second, I put a 30-day timeline on it. The logic here is that if I can’t muster enough discipline in the next 30 days when I should be most excited about it; then what makes me think I will be disciplined when the going gets tough?
Most things in life that are worth achieving require discipline. Can you imagine completing a marathon if you weren’t disciplined? The discipline comes into play when you are following your training plan, day after day, week after week, to make sure that you are preparing your body and mind for the test that comes on race day. Completing the marathon is possible because of the discipline that went into hundreds of decisions and actions for months and months prior to the actual event.
And those decisions and actions are rarely flawless. In other words, you will struggle. But you push through. Sometimes you may fall short or have a temporary setback. Perhaps in the moment, you question what you are doing and contemplate throwing in the towel. Doing bold things, while exciting, can come with many obstacles and crushing disappointments. You manage those with your grit, but also with your discipline. Discipline carries you through when your motivation wavers. It keeps you in the game, because it taps into your ability to keep moving forward. The point is that your motivation will not always be there, so you must learn to be disciplined.
