Why you're unmotivated and how to get motivated?📚🧑🏻‍💻

Do you sometimes be like, "Oh man, I don't have any motivation. I really need to motivate myself to do blah blah task?" I used to think I needed motivation to do something as well, but I was wrong. Motivation is overhyped, and I'm going to explain you why.

Hi guys, it's me, Jody. Today, I'm going to be explaining to you why motivation is overhyped and what you can do instead. So, you might think, "Who the hell are you to give me advice about motivation?" Firstly, let me introduce my achievements. It's kind of like weird to say because it really sounds like I'm bragging about them, but not really. I'm trying to make you believe me because these tips really changed my life, and I'm sure they will help your life as well.

Firstly, from middle school in my sixth, seventh, and eighth grade, I was an honor student. In Turkey, if you enter a scholarship exam, if you get a certain ranking in that exam, you get a scholarship. I got a 75% scholarship from my private school, so I was a third of the honors students, I would say. After that, I got into one of the best high schools in Turkey, which I think my high school sucks, but anyways, let's talk about that in another video. Then, I got into med school. I'm currently taking a break from med school, but you know, it's kind of cool to say that you're a med student.

Also, I'm a polyglot. I know four languages: Japanese, Turkish, English, and German, and I'm pretty fluent in all of them. Yes, knowing four languages is also being a polyglot; just search it on Cambridge Dictionary. I've lost 11 kilos, around like 25 pounds, I guess. I'm also kind of a YouTuber. This mindset really changed my life, and I'm sure that it will change yours as well.

When I was in high school, after getting into one of the best high schools in Turkey, I was so relaxed, and I was like, "Screw everything! I did my best; now it's time to chill." I chilled for a couple of years, and my grades were falling. I really had tough times with motivation and concentration in high school, but I really, really changed that in the later years of high school. I met this book, "Motivation Myth" by Jeff Hayden, and it really changed my mindset towards motivation, my goals, my discipline, my willpower—basically everything.

So, let's get started. Let's start with the definition of motivation. Most people define motivation as an active energy that you need in order to start doing something. For example, in order to read a book, you need motivation to do it, right? So, when you follow that definition, if you don't have motivation, you can't do the thing. You need an activating energy to do that kind of stuff, right? But it's not right. You don't need motivation to do something. All you need is dedication.

And also, motivation is not a spark. Have you ever experienced this? After hearing a motivational speech or watching a motivational sort of movie, you're just super inspired, you're super motivated, and you rock the thing that you have to do. But after maybe a day, maybe a couple of days later, you start to lose your motivation. That is because it is short-term motivation. It's like a kind of drug; you get quickly motivated, but you lose it pretty fast.

Also, other people can only motivate us for a short period of time. The more you use that short period of time drug or dopamine, the more addicted to it you get, and you need more and more and more. But in order to have a healthy relationship with motivation, the thing that you need is long-term motivation. What is that long-term motivation? It comes after you start the thing. You start to think, you continue to think, you accomplish your goal, and after you accomplish your goal, your motivation comes in. That's the long-term motivation.

Motivation isn't a result of hearing a speech or watching a movie or something. Motivation is something that you work for. You feel motivated because you took action. You don't need motivation to take action. Motivation isn't a precondition. You don't need it in order to start. You start, you do the thing, and then it will come. Once you start, it's easy to keep going.

But then, why is starting so hard? You decided to work out; the first time you go to the gym, it is really refreshing. But after a couple of times, you start to feel unmotivated about it, even though you love working out and you love that accomplishment feeling. You feel sluggish, and you make excuses not to go to the gym. It can be everything that you enjoy. We even procrastinate from the things that we love. You've probably put off a task, and then you suddenly start working on it. After working on it for a period of time, you realize that it wasn't actually that daunting as you thought.

"I don't know why I kept putting this off." You really don't understand that because you love the feeling of satisfaction, but you don't know why you are procrastinating from the thing. That is because we have a mindset of "I have to. I have to go to the gym. I have to read. I have to do this." Just changing your mindset from "I have to" to "I want to" really changes the game. You might think, "Just changing my mindset is really gonna change my life or something?" And it is gonna really change, trust me. It really changes. Starting is hard because motivation doesn't really help with it at all.

So, how to start when you are zero percent motivated? As I said, I changed my mindset from "I have to" to "I want to." Also, there is another thing that you can do, and that is the key. The key is to enjoy the process. Don't rush; try to improve yourself. Our goal is not to be perfect; our goal is to improve ourselves and reach our goals, right? So, try to improve yourself every day, just one percent.

When I set some sort of a goal, I really tend to rush, and I really want to achieve that goal really quickly. But all I had back in the day in my mind was to achieve the goal. The important thing is enjoying the process because once you enjoy the process, you don't need motivation to do that thing. The only thing that feeds your motivation is success. When you become successful from your plans, from your habits, it motivates you to go further because you know that your habits and the things that you've done made you successful. So, it really motivates you, and that's the long-term motivation.

Okay, so now why are you not achieving your goals? A lack of motivation or self-discipline or willpower actually means that you have a solution. When you accept your imperfections, I have a bunch of weaknesses that I know, and I'm working on. So, detect your weaknesses, know them, and try to improve them. Don't hide from your weaknesses; you will always be weak. Know your weaknesses, improve them, and you will get stronger and stronger. When you see yourself getting stronger and stronger, it will motivate you to continue and do the thing.

Willpower is definitely not the key. I get a lot of comments, questions, and DMs about my willpower and my determination. I don't think that I have special discipline or special willpower because if I had that, I would achieve every single goal that I've set for myself. I failed at a lot of things, and I succeeded at very few things. I procrastinate a lot. What can we do in order to change that? Rather than relying on willpower or discipline, try to build routines that work for you.

For example, I have a morning routine, a nighttime routine, a shower time routine, an exercise routine, a study routine, a book-reading routine, or whatever. I developed routines so that the tasks don't require willpower for me. I experimented and tried a lot of routines and finally found the routines that work for me personally. Because when you make a routine, you don't need to decide if you're gonna do it or not. You just make it a routine, so you're gonna do it without even thinking about it.

If you give yourself a lot of choices to pick from, you will always choose the easiest for yourself, which is wasting your time on social media. Maybe, I don't know, maybe who knows? We humans are so smart that we can always make excuses for ourselves not to take that action. When you create a routine, embrace that routine and see the results from that. You stop negotiating with yourself because you know that those routines will make things easier for you, and those things will bring you closer to your dreams and your goals.

You stop making choices that don't support your goal. Your biggest limit is you. We all have limits, that's for sure. Some of them are mental, some of them are physical, and some of them are things that we cannot change. But I'm not talking about those. Most of the limits that we have are actually the things that we said to ourselves. For example, you say, "Today is not the day. I'm not smart enough. I'm not like a blah blah person. I'm not enough. I can't do this. I'm just not able to do this." The list goes on.

Although there are some limitations, you probably think the lifestyle you currently have is the most convenient one. You have data from the past, and you know what's gonna happen, and you know how you react when things happen, right? It is kind of like driving through the old road. You know that the new road is gonna take less time, but you still ride the old road. Why? Because you know the old road, and if something possibly happens, you know what to do and what can be done.

But trying a new road is always hard because you don't know what will happen, and you don't know what can possibly happen. So, even though the old road takes more time than the new road, you still choose the old road. Also, the new road, the new lifestyle, does not necessarily guarantee you a happier life. So, rather than trying new things and risking yourself, it is easier to stay where you are and complain about it, making excuses why you can't do that thing.

"I don't wanna do this anymore! I don't wanna do this anymore!" If we continue to make excuses for ourselves, we would never be able to change. So, the important thing is having the courage to change and taking responsibility for it and not relying on motivation. In my opinion, and in this order's opinion, as I said at the beginning of the video, I don't rely on motivation.

But sometimes, I feel super unmotivated, and I literally don't have any energy to do something. On those days, I use short-term motivation. The thing that I do is I watch videos or read books from people that I admire and look up to. But I don't do that too much because if I were to watch 10 videos or read for like five hours, that's just a pure procrastination; that's not me getting a little dose of motivation.

So, don't fool yourself. We're super good at procrastination; I'm super good at that too. I make really logical reasons not to study or not to edit or not to film, but at the end of the day, we're gonna be the ones who are gonna suffer from that. So, let's be honest with ourselves at least.

When it comes to building a routine, it's a whole different story, which needs a whole dedicated video about it. I can do a video out of it if you guys want, but I think this was enough for today. I hope you guys liked this video. I hope this video added a new perspective, a new value, or something that will apply to your life. I hope so.

Yeah, don't rely on motivation. I think this mindset will change your life. I hope you liked this video. Bye for now. Bye-bye.

So, let's start with the definition. Okay, I talk too much. Other people can... Yeah, most people kind of like, "Huh? Motivation isn't active?" Cut that part, cut that part, cut that part. But I think this was... Ah, the lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. You know, the new road will meet. [Music]