How To Get Amazing Work Done When You’re Tired, Fed Up And Uninspired

Today’s post is a guest post by Jeffrey Tang from The Art Of Great Things. He’s a good friend, awesome writer and his blog rocks my world. Enjoy!

Everyone’s searching for the secret to motivation. The magical key that, when turned, unlocks limitless enthusiasm, passion, perseverance, and excitement for whatever you should be doing at the moment.

I’m not so sure that key exists.

Motivation is fickle. Sometimes you’re “on,” sometimes you’re not, and most of the time there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it.

So what can we do?

First, we start by eliminating the barriers to motivation and action. No more vegging out in front of the TV after work. No more long hours spent on video games. No more taking “rest breaks” as a way to procrastinate.

By eliminating our time-wasting activities, we create giant vacuums of time and energy – openings where we can be motivated, creative, alive.

But it’s not that easy. At first, these vacuums will be filled with nothing more than sitting and thinking and staring. It’s frustrating. But you learn to take comfort in the fact that you’ve moved up one more rung on the ladder, that sitting and thinking, while not exactly productive, is much better than sitting and NOT thinking.

At this point, many people get stuck waiting for inspiration. “Once my muse arrives,” we think, “I’ll know what to do.” And when the muse is absent for weeks, months … years, we sigh, give up, and return to our old routines.

The deciding factor isn’t inspiration. It’s stubbornness. When you’re not inspired, not motivated, when every other thought screams at you to just forget it and go to bed, mule-headed stubbornness is what keeps you going. Stubbornness is what makes you say, “Okay, this sucks, and I don’t really want to work right now, but I’m going to do it anyway.” That’s what gets you over the mountain. It’s not particularly glamorous, but it’s true.

And then comes practice. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect.” I say that’s bullshit. Practice doesn’t make perfect – it makes permanent. I’ll say it one more time:

Practice makes permanent.

What you do, over and over, that becomes a part of you. If you practice, over and over, the stubbornness of creation, then eventually it’s no longer stubbornness. It’s not something you force out of yourself. It flows. I arrives when you need it, and simmers quietly in the background when you don’t.

That’s when it feels like inspiration. That’s when you feel motivated.

And boy does it feel good.