Nah, that’s not a typo on the title, I made that word up, basically combining No and Motivation. That’s what we will be touching upon on this go ’round. But before we get into it, I’m going to throw out a quote I recently heard from Gary Vaynerchuk (check out his videos on YouTube, seriously, homie is the truth!), the quote goes, “People love the feeling of being motivated, they don’t like doing the work to do something about the feeling.” (Link)

Pause…

Yeah, shots fired. I’m one of those people who will watch video after video, read book after book on motivation. All I ever got out of them was a temporary high from hearing “you can do it!” but then it would wear off and I would be right where I started. Why? because I didn’t do jack shit about it. Motivational videos, books, quotes are just temporary, surface level fixes for deeper issues. It’s so easy to tell yourself that you are capable of greatness and it is also easy to tell others that they too can achieve their dreams. And that is why motivation has become a commodity. Every where you look, there is some so-called guru/life coach (they are everywhere on Instagram) telling you that you are capable and worthy and that it is out there for the taking. You can tell a room full of people that, and depending on how bright your smile is, how on point your charm is and how inspiring your back story is, they will buy into the hype. They will begin to believe that they can achieve (isn’t that a quote on a poster somewhere?).

While that’s all fine and dandy, very few people actually go the distance. Why? because shit is hard. We’re lead to believe that if you work hard enough and believe, you will make it, but that isn’t always the case. The feeling of motivation almost becomes a drug. That’s why you have people spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars (they probably don’t have) to attend seminars and lectures hoping to hear those magical words. That eye opening epiphany that is going to finally enable them see the code of the Matrix (insert Neo “whoa!”).

But nope dot com. Doesn’t always work that way. After reading a shit ton of books and watching a hours upon hours of YouTube videos, I’ve come to the stark realization that everyone is basically saying the same thing, just packaged differently. And that none of it matters if you don’t put action behind it. And there’s the rub my friends. Taking those steps is the non glamorous part. It’s the days of pounding the pavement with incremental progress. Getting told no day after day. Continuing to have a vision and working towards it. Walking away from the people closest to you if they aren’t being supportive. Sacrificing so many things that it kinda makes you sick to your stomach. Yeah, it’s ugly, very ugly and even lonely at times. The main takeaway I’ve gotten from all of my “research” is that action is everything, nothing grows in the comfort zone and that you have the fall in love with the process (screw that end goal, you may never get there, victory comes from the mere act of trying).

I know I’m starting to sound a bit preachy, and some of you may already know this. But I think this is just more of a reminder to myself. Since I am slowly getting to the point where I am taking more action as opposed to just constantly consuming motivational content. Letting go of the easy to do things that have kept me where I’m at and grabbing on to the more difficult things that will challenge me, scare the shit out of me, help me grow and keep me from having a bunch of “what ifs” at the end of the road.

The beautiful struggle continues…this time I’m slightly more enlightened and ready to do this shit.