You Need 5% Motivation and 95% Routine and Direction For Success

What if everybody waited for motivation to complete their work? You'd see half-finished buildings, unedited manuscripts, and patients on the operating table since the doctor didn't feel like operating at the moment.

You require motivation only to convince yourself at the start. After that, it's your direction and routine that determines your success.

What's motivation? It's a feeling.

How motivated do you feel? Well, that depends on the rewards.

Can anything change your level of motivation then? Yes, it's my perception of possible benefits.

I dare say we are both blessed and cursed: blessed because we get the routine of going to school as kids and cursed because we ignore the significance of what the teachers try to instill in us -- the discipline to form healthy habits.

I am trying to complete my first novel. I have outlined the story, developed the characters, created chronologies, and written the first three chapters. But my book is as unfinished as ever. I am beginning to understand why the motivation to write is not enough. I need a routine, say, three hours for writing the novel. However, adding the details to make my story feel alive can be tedious and unsatisfying as I already know the whole story.

My freedom to do what I want is delaying the actual writing. If I had been a salaried writer, I would have completed the novel in two or three months. Why? Because I would have to meet the deadlines and follow the discipline of a hired writer - to get my salary.

Respectfully, I do not fully agree with Darius Foroux when he says you don't need motivation. Without 5% motivation, you'd fail to acquire habits, practices, and routines to succeed in life.

His system, in short, is to toughen your brain, exercise your body, set priorities to be with family, do your work, and carry a to-do list in your pocket.

Stephen King says, "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work." Replace inspiration with motivation - since one leads to the other. In an inspired state, you wish to act - or you feel motivated.

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Start your day with inspiration and motivation

Tell yourself a story before you sleep. In this story, you overcome tough challenges, enjoy whatever you do, and achieve astounding success.

Then, get a good night's sleep - eight hours minimum.

When you wake up, you don't have to listen to motivational videos on YouTube. For years, I was motivated by this simple sentence: "If you are not striving to be better, you are bound to get worse."

I also felt motivated by this line: "Not failure but aiming low is a crime."

For you, it can be your favorite quote, or song, or video. Reading, listening, or watching David Goggins can also do the trick. He is a real doer.

But inspiration vanishes if you are not physically one hundred percent fit. If you feel unwell, your body hijacks your brain to focus on health first. It means you have to exercise in the morning. Twenty minutes is all it takes. Exercise also releases happy hormones.

Once you start feeling happy - inspired and motivated - it is time to go for your routine.

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Developing a routine

Routines seem inherently dull. Therefore, we start with a subconscious level of hatred towards building them.

First, understand that your routine is enjoyable since it is going to help you succeed in life.

Second, write down your routine. If you don't like it, throw it out. Now write another one. Keep doing it until you succeed in writing one that you love.

Third, whatever routine you write down, give yourself plenty of small breaks after every hour or so. It increases productivity.

Recall the third question above: Can anything change your level of motivation then? Yes, it's my perception of possible benefits.

It is hard to follow a routine initially - as your perception of possible benefits is still fluctuating, not fixed. Give yourself a week before you expect to follow the routine fully. During this week, you constantly need to motivate yourself to look at the benefits.

Your perception of possible benefits can change quickly.

Once I explained the process of success to a fifteen-year-old. The boy listened to everything I said. But at the end of the hour, he asked a question: "But what if I did everything you say and even then I do not succeed?" From his point of view, it was a valid question. From my place, it was a willingness to fail without trying.

People around you can ask questions that have no answers. A routine is the only thing that can help you show up regularly.

Brené Brown says, "The willingness to show up changes us, it makes us a little braver each time." Woody Allen said, "Eighty percent of success is showing up."

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Checking your direction

Changing directions is not a bad thing. But it should not be after every hour.

Thoughts hit you like the wind. They change in direction and intensity like the wind. Imagine a weathercock fitted in your head to measure the strength and direction of your thought wind.

Initially, this weathercock will spin like crazy. But imagine you are getting control of the direction and intensity of your thought wind. Eliminate all thoughts that take you in the direction opposite to your destination. Do it one at a time until your weathercock points towards your success.

It means your thoughts are all now aligned with your goal.

You'll have to check your direction every day. You can stray as people can change your thoughts. They can tell you it's futile to try - the market is already loyal to big players.

Imagine your place has cameras to record every move you make. Imagine that a million viewers, all your clones, are watching you. What your clones see in the film is how you direct your life. What you do in the movie says a lot about where you are headed. If you wake up late, don't exercise, eat fast food, binge-watch TV series, and do little work -- you are directed toward failure.

If thoughts of change become too strong, this line by Jimmy Dean can help you visualize the solution: "I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

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Final thoughts

As a child, I watched an animated show with a monster that ate people alive. Its name was Oblivion. Now I know most people want to live in oblivion. If you don't direct your life, like James Cameron directs his movies, the monster will devour you.

Your dreams are pure energy, and they are only yours. Only you can decide your goals, routines, and direction -- the warmth of reaching your dreams will energize you for the rest of your life.

You love your dreams. But you also have to love your work and your daily routine. I leave you with the words of Maya Angelou: "Success is, liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."