We´re all searching for inspiration so that we get somehow motivated and then we take action pushed by that motivation. It´s a loop that we´re permanently looking for. But unfortunately, sometimes we can´t just find inspiration or motivation. We don’t know how to start or move on. And if the task is boring per-se, then we invent whatever our mind is capable of creating, in order to avoid performing. Our attitude turns from bad to worse.
But while reading Mark Manson´s “The subtle art of not giving a fu*k” I was really inspired by a story he told from his years at school. A math teacher used to say that if you didn´t know where to start with an exercise, (you all probably went through this kind of being stuck in life), he suggested that the best was to start doing something. Even if you had no idea about what you needed to do or if it would take you to the right answer. The sole act of doing, taking action, makes us get out of a circle of numbness, triggers a change in your attitude and hopefully creates some inspiration while doing it.
You might start going one way and suddenly your brain gets inspired and you´re back into the motivation circle and taking the right action. But the trigger comes out of your action. And that’s you basically doing something.
I really loved the example and think it has a lot of connections with the entrepreneurial world. How many hours are we stuck sometimes searching for the right answer, the right solution to a problem? And we wait frozen by the fear we have to fuck it up.
When we do something, we´re getting closer to find some kind of solution, to find the inspiration needed to motivate us to take the best action. And this probably works for life in general. It´s just about forgetting the irrational fear to change or innovate. And just start doing. After all, that fear is nonsense and real growth comes from taking action, being accountable and moving on with a winning attitude.
I´d like to finish with this quote that I loved:
“Action isn´t just the effect of motivation. It´s the cause of it” Mark Manson.