Is Motivation Truly Enough? Let’s Figure Out How to Develop Consistency Instead

One thing’s certain: We live in a world where the hustle culture is king. And it’s not surprising – more and more people face long lists of tasks and challenges on a daily basis and have to find a way that helps them deliver up to their highest standards. Many of you will be quick to suggest that motivation and finding the right purpose are what is going to help you stay on the right track. But what about consistency?

By all means, being motivated is incredibly important – after all, it’s the initial spark that helps us get going and pave our way toward the much-desired goal. But what happens when this spark starts to fade away? Or when our day-to-day becomes so stressful and overwhelming that motivation is the first thing to leave us? We certainly need another approach that would quickly come to the rescue once this occurs. 

Commitment and consistency promise to get us places way more than simple motivation – if you’re just about to ask why and wonder, then today’s article is for you. I’ll be discussing why, in my opinion, motivation is oftentimes simply not enough and how staying consistent can actually be the ultimate turning point.

Why Is Motivation Important But Simply Not Sufficient When It Comes to Long-Term Goals

Of course, motivation is crucial – after all, it’s the spark that ignites our engine and helps us make the first step.

The first step, essentially, is discovering what our desire or passion is – once we set the desired goal, it’s usually motivation that helps us keep on moving forward and plan ahead. Feeling motivated is truly an amazing feeling – all of a sudden, you start feeling powerful and capable of achieving anything. At the end of the day, that’s exactly the spirit you need upon initiating a new project, a hobby, or virtually any particular action that will lead you to the desired result.

But here’s the thing with motivation – while it’s an incredibly powerful trigger, it could also be incredibly short-lived.

Let’s take a look at a simple example, shall we? 

Imagine your goal is ending up with a strong, good-looking body that you find yourself comfortable in. What do you need to do in order to achieve this goal? For starters, going to the gym sounds like a plan! The moment you imagine yourself with a desired physique and plan ahead for the next three months of training, motivation hits. Suddenly you can’t wait for the next day when you’d make the first step toward achieving your goal.

At first, going to the gym is an exceptional experience – you get up early, walk to the sports center, do exercises for a full hour and then indulge in a delicious protein milkshake that would charge up your entire body. You are so fulfilled that it seems there’s nothing that would make you quit – finally, you’ve embarked on a journey that will get you places. Till the next week when motivation begins to crumble upon facing numerous small obstacles.

See, you might find it hard to get up in the morning and do your exercise. Or perhaps you could catch a cold and need some time off. The thing with the initial motivation is that it’s fragile – in our day-to-day, we often face unexpected issues and problems that have the potential to derail our spark. So, together with motivation, we certainly need something else if we want to make sure our long-term goal and our efforts continue to be a priority, regardless of life’s surprising turn of events.

So we reach the topic of commitment and consistency.

Motivation+Commitment and Consistency Shape Up a True Power Plan

So if motivation is the initial desire to set a certain goal and proceed with its realization, then commitment is the promise we give to ourselves that we’ll stay consistent and on the right track.

While motivation is the fuel leading to quick planning and coming up with great go-to strategies, consistency is more of a slow and steady approach. At the end of the day, however, it’s this approach that is going to take us places.

Consistency and the willingness to commit to it help us show up every day, even for a minute. Yes, we won’t be facing huge results in no time but we’ll train both our minds and our bodies that even the smallest of efforts pay off in the long-term. If mere motivation is what it takes to take us going, it’s consistency that helps us keep on going, no matter what.

A Quick Overview on Nurturing Consistency

• Right at the start, you might need help in turning a certain action into a habit – that’s the easiest way for you to build consistency in the long term. Turning a behavior or a particular action into an integral part of who you are would certainly help you stay on board and keep on going, regardless of the obstacles that may arise.
• A good idea to get consistency going is by splitting the big goal into several smaller goals. This way you’ll not get overwhelmed by the road ahead; instead, you’ll reach out and work toward executing a certain smaller goal that will get you closer to the big one.
• Try reminding yourself daily why you are doing this in the first place – having the results in mind is perhaps the biggest motivational trigger; while we’ve already established that desire alone may not be sufficient, it’s still an important aspect of being consistent and not stopping your journey.
• Observe the success so far – the biggest reward is to actually witness the success and how far you’ve gone so far. It’s true that the goal is what matters, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t enjoy the road as well. As a matter of fact, we can learn a lot about ourselves and our strengths exactly through the process of achieving a certain goal.

All those tips would certainly help you establish consistency in your day-to-day life. Give them a go and observe how things go – I bet sooner rather than later you’d be closer to achieving your goals more than ever!