Motivation vs habit? Which is better? While motivation will get you going, habit will keep you going for much longer. Motivation can always fade away when you’re having a bad day or if things don’t work out. If your actions are linked to your daily motivation levels, you’ll find some days are more difficult than others. One day you’re up, and another day you’re down. But once you have developed a strong habit, it will be difficult to stop, even on your worst days. Strong habits stick with you for months and years.
Have you ever noticed yourself going through a “fad” such as giving up drinking alcohol, or going to the gym? Initially, you are full of enthusiasm and you might stick to your promise for a few months. But after that something gives and you drop off. The reason is that you haven’t build a strong enough habit around your long term intention. Motivation gets you only so far, habits will carry you further.
Motivation Vs Habit – Micro Habits
If motivation will only last so long, you need to develop micro habits when you are motivated so you can stick to them when you’re not! Micro habits are so small that they circumvent your laziness and kick you into action. Here’s a few micro habits examples:
- A single push up
- Eat an orange for breakfast
- Write a blog post
- Cut out milk in tea
- Read a page of a book daily
- Listen to 5 minutes of an audiobook
A micro habit is so small that even on your worst days you can achieve them. But in all likelihood, once you have “assumed the position” and got started with it, you’ll find yourself doing more than the minimum. As time goes by, it will feel wrong not to do your micro habits.
Motivation Vs Habit – Compounding Over Time
Over time micro habits have a compounding effect which is greater than a short burst of a few months of hyper activity. That gym membership which only lasted 3 months is no match for a micro habit which lasts years – even if the habits are less tangible in the short term! So instead of trying to rearrange your life and get super motivated in short bursts, use micro habits instead. They’ll more easily fit into your life without a dramatic change, and have longer term effects because they are easier to maintain.
With motivation, you might very well have a fit of inspiration and get inspired to go “all out” to get in shape, learn a new skill or change your life in some other way. But this spirt of enthusiasm seldom will last if you haven’t put a structure in place to help you maintain it. What micro habits do is allow you to put a structure in place to keep the wheels of your intention turning when you have lost the initial spirit of that motivation.
The Plateau Of Latent Potential
In James Clear’s book Atomic Habits you can see the above picture. It shows the “plateau of latent potential”. The graph shows the expectations of many given outcomes in terms of what you expect to happen (see the straight line). For example, going to the gym for a short time you might expect dramatic results. When you look in the mirror after a couple of weeks and nothing much has changed, you may doubt your progress and this can easily hamper your enthusiasm.
Your expectations don’t match up to the results you’ve been working towards. Rather than motivate you on to work harder, this can have the opposite effect and you give up! If only you had maintained the necessary motivation for long enough you would see results where the two lines intersect (what actually happens and what you think should happen).
This is a truism whether you are working out in a gym, building an internet business or any other longer term endeavour. To break through you need consistent action over the longer term. Atomic, or micro habits can help you achieve this.
Summary
While motivation is good, it doesn’t last. For some things which need a long time to accomplish, motivation won’t work! You also need a long term strategy you can maintain even when you are lacking the necessary motivation to keep going. This is where micro habits come in. With a micro, mini or atomic habit, you set yourself up for success by overcoming the prior momentum you have in your life already with tiny, easily achievable steps.
If motivation is only temporary, you need a system to back up your motivation when you’re running low on enthusiasm. That system is mini habits!
You might also be interested in Cybernetic Transposition which is a tool developed for achieving seemingly impossible goals using meta stories and mantras. See Stuart Lichtman Cybernetic Transposition.
