😼 How to stay motivated continuously

I recently talked with a friend studying at the medical school at New York University, and we were discussing how to stay motivated for as long as we want.

First, being motivated may have little changes on your packed daily schedule, as it is filled with chores, work, and some free time. However, this state significantly affects your mental health or state of mind as it brings you new perspectives on things. In other words, you may continue doing the same thing you were doing, but now you see things differently and see things you did not see. This is my definition of being motivated and having a mental change. There is no clear correlation between motivation and efficiency, and being motivated should not be interchangeably seen as being productive. On the other hand, being motivated and creative should always go hand in hand.

With such a definition in mind, the mental state of being motivated seems complicated to achieve or maintain. Clearly, if we know the precursors of motivation, we should crack the formula, and now we can summon motivation as we please. Throughout our discussion, we find out the possible candidates of the precursor of motivation: having a clear short-term and mid-term goal and a strong sense of why makes the best combo to get yourself into a state of inspiration.

If there is no destination, it is drifting, not sailing. Motivation is ultimately based on how clear the destination is and why getting to the destination matters at all. Knowing what is coming up in the 3-month and 12-month window will keep your focus on the present and whether you are heading anywhere or merely drifting. If no significant events are to be unfolded in the coming three months, you may need to see things differently and find small wins to celebrate. Regardless of what you are currently doing, be it working, studying, or building something, the sense of progress should always be in place. If you are working, maybe you are working on the upcoming examinations for professional certificates. If you are studying, maybe your program has midterms, finals, and other curricula that you must prepare and work on beforehand. If you are building a product, you ship components of the project now and then. In essence, regardless of your tasks, you as an individual are advancing, becoming better, and transforming your time into your craft. This is why you will need to review your current state of life if you see nothing exciting to anticipate in the coming three months. On a longer timeline, this also applies to the 12-month window.

Even though we have timepoints to cross in the future, why should we do what we do? This leads to the second part of the mix, a sense of why. If you are building a project and the reason behind it is unclear, you are doing it for the sake of doing it. This is detrimental because no significant work results from purposeless dedication. In simple words, you are wasting your time. The sense of why you are doing what you are doing is vital that it does not just lift your motivation; it also pumps you the creative juice you need. You may hear people saying they enjoy their work so much that it does not feel like working. This is motivation and creativity both firing up. The reasons? A clear, self-fulfilling sense of why.

Another friend of mine is also an interesting individual because even though he is working in the finance department of a corporation, he is heavily engaged in politics and building his secondary career. His life of having a full-time job and then having interviews with local newspapers is an inspiring story. I will share it in another essay.