Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #161| Why Motivation Doesn’t Work - and How to Really Achieve Peak Productivity Without Overwhelm
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: Even if it seems like it, you don't need more motivation.
- 0:08Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:15Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.
- 0:35Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend, thanks for joining.
- 0:36Michelle Gauthier: Today we're going to talk about motivation and why motivation actually isn't the key to productivity.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: I'm going to teach you about a science-based concept that helps us get started on tasks even better than this airy-fairy concept of motivation, and then I'm going to talk to you about three ways to reduce the resistance to getting started without feeling overwhelmed.
- 0:58Michelle Gauthier: So the first thing that I want to talk about here is the idea of once I feel motivated, I'll get started on that.
- 1:06Michelle Gauthier: But motivation isn't the thing to rely on for productivity, and it's because motivation is flaky.
- 1:13Michelle Gauthier: Sometimes we feel motivated and sometimes we don't, and if you just let what you get done be dependent on that like I wasn't in the mood or I just didn't feel motivated so I didn't do it it's going to be very hit or miss whether you accomplish the stuff that you want to accomplish.
- 1:29Michelle Gauthier: So I want to introduce you to this concept called activation energy, which is actually a chemistry concept, and I learned about this in this book that I highly recommend it's really great called Atomic Habits by James Clear.
- 1:42Michelle Gauthier: The concept of activation energy is how much energy you need to get started on a task, and the example that he uses is the idea of if you have a match in your hand and you want to start a fire, so get a flame on that match.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: The activation energy is the act of striking the match against the side of the matchbook.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: What's that called Flint or something that you strike the match against and then it starts the fire and then, once the fire is burning, it keeps going.
- 2:14Michelle Gauthier: You only have to have that activation energy one time.
- 2:17Michelle Gauthier: So let's make the assumption that in order to do anything, we have to have that activation energy, and instead of trying to boost your motivation, your job have to have that activation energy and instead of trying to boost your motivation, your job is to lower the activation energy required to get started.
- 2:31Michelle Gauthier: So let's think about a couple tasks that you might do that would require high activation energy Anything you've never done before.
- 2:39Michelle Gauthier: So let's say that you want to learn how to do 20 push-ups and today you know how to do zero push-ups.
- 2:45Michelle Gauthier: It's going to take a lot of activation energy.
- 2:47Michelle Gauthier: If your idea is okay, I've got to get to 20, so I'm just going to practice doing 20 every single day.
- 2:53Michelle Gauthier: Versus, if you think of your job as lowering activation energy, you could lower your activation energy by having the first step of.
- 3:03Michelle Gauthier: You know what I'm going to do.
- 3:04Michelle Gauthier: I'm going to watch a video about how to learn to do a push-up and then the next day I'm going to try to do one and I'm going to do one push-up a day for 30 days.
- 3:14Michelle Gauthier: That is so much lower activation energy, which means let's picture yourself doing one push-up, and if you're doing one push-up and it's the 28th day, you can probably do more than one and you're probably going to do it.
- 3:28Michelle Gauthier: So the concept is, if you lower the activation energy once you get started on something, you're much more likely to keep going on that.
- 3:35Michelle Gauthier: The same can be true for a project at work.
- 3:38Michelle Gauthier: Or let's just say, like I have a dream to write a book, the activation energy required for me to get started on that feels overwhelming.
- 3:47Michelle Gauthier: Where do I even start?
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: What do I even do, maybe to lower the activation energy?
- 3:51Michelle Gauthier: What I want to do is set up a coffee with my friend who's already written a book and just talk to her about it, instead of saying, oh yeah, I'm just going to sit down with a blank piece of paper and start typing out my book.
- 4:03Michelle Gauthier: So think about the places in your life where you're feeling unmotivated and try to lessen the resistance by lowering that activation energy.
- 4:11Michelle Gauthier: So, in summary, even if it seems like it, you don't need more motivation.
- 4:17Michelle Gauthier: You just need to lower the activation energy in order to get started, and that's how you get things done without feeling overwhelmed.
- 4:36Michelle Gauthier: Speaking of overwhelmed, if you want to understand more about why you're feeling overwhelmed, take my free quiz the link is in the show notes and you will get personalized insights to explain exactly why you're feeling overwhelmed and what to do about it.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: Have a great week.
- 5:07Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 5:09Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
- 5:13Michelle Gauthier: com.
- 5:15Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.