How Do I Stay Disciplined To Find the Motivation to Work Each Day?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - All right, thanks Shane.

00:00:07.100 | All right, how are we doing here?

00:00:09.920 | How many total questions we're gonna try to do today?

00:00:12.420 | - We have two more questions,

00:00:15.040 | two or three more questions

00:00:16.080 | depending on what you're feeling.

00:00:17.400 | - All right, well, let's do one more

00:00:20.040 | and then we might check in with our sponsors

00:00:21.560 | and do another.

00:00:22.400 | - Okay, so the next question is from,

00:00:26.360 | it's about lifestyle planning

00:00:29.160 | and there's some struggles to stay disciplined.

00:00:32.080 | So we'll hear what it says.

00:00:35.320 | - Hi Cal, this is Ina and besides being a homemaker,

00:00:40.280 | I learn languages autonomously

00:00:42.200 | and I have my own language school.

00:00:44.400 | My question has to do with rituals and motivation.

00:00:47.440 | I have done life-centric career planning as you recommend

00:00:50.680 | and truly believe that at least

00:00:52.280 | for the current season of my life,

00:00:53.800 | I have chosen adequate goals towards the future I desire.

00:00:57.320 | Nevertheless, I find that some days

00:00:59.360 | I really do struggle to stay disciplined

00:01:01.820 | and to show up in the morning and get to work.

00:01:04.600 | Thinking back on advice you've given on this podcast,

00:01:07.480 | there are at least two ways I can approach this.

00:01:10.120 | One is to automate the process with a specific when,

00:01:13.000 | what, where and how

00:01:14.600 | so that I can let the power of habit take control

00:01:17.160 | and the other is to seek a variety of awe-inspiring places

00:01:20.700 | to keep my brain interested and to jog my memory

00:01:23.480 | about why this work is important in the first place.

00:01:26.920 | Which of these options would you suggest

00:01:28.840 | for someone who still has to periodically

00:01:31.320 | drag herself to her desk?

00:01:33.500 | - That's a good question, Ina.

00:01:35.760 | So I think there's a few things that are relevant here

00:01:38.880 | and you hit on some of them.

00:01:40.560 | So my answer is gonna overlap pretty strongly

00:01:43.520 | with what you were just saying.

00:01:45.160 | Automation is key

00:01:46.560 | and automation can mean multiple different things

00:01:49.060 | in this context.

00:01:49.900 | So as you hinted, automation could just mean

00:01:53.200 | this is when, where and how I do this work.

00:01:55.580 | So I don't even have to think about it,

00:01:56.900 | I get back from the gym

00:01:58.580 | and then we have a desk put aside for bills.

00:02:01.700 | And that is when I do it, right after the gym on Wednesdays

00:02:06.000 | and that's when I do the bills.

00:02:07.680 | And you know what?

00:02:08.520 | I always collect the bills from the mail

00:02:10.120 | and put them in a two process sorter on that desk

00:02:13.440 | so I know where they are.

00:02:14.680 | And you know what?

00:02:15.520 | I have stamps there and the envelopes there

00:02:17.480 | so it's real easy to do.

00:02:19.080 | There is an actual boost you get from organization

00:02:22.280 | where you say I built out a system for this.

00:02:24.640 | It's kind of fun to execute a system

00:02:27.580 | and see everything was here and it works really well

00:02:29.600 | and then you're more likely to actually do the work.

00:02:31.340 | So you have that type of automation.

00:02:33.140 | The other type of automation is literally automating it.

00:02:36.260 | You're not gonna have someone else do this.

00:02:38.540 | Especially when it comes to work, household admin work.

00:02:42.260 | I think Laura Vanderkam has a good book about this,

00:02:46.380 | "162 Hours" and she's a big advocate for this

00:02:49.940 | of to the extent that you can afford it,

00:02:52.620 | this is where you should be putting a lot of your money

00:02:54.620 | is towards automating stuff in the house,

00:02:57.480 | getting household admin off of your plate.

00:03:00.360 | You have someone who does laundry,

00:03:01.760 | someone who does your yard work,

00:03:02.940 | the handyman who comes once a month

00:03:04.400 | and you have this list that grows

00:03:05.560 | and he just takes it and does those things around the house.

00:03:07.640 | And her point, which I think is a good one,

00:03:09.920 | is that is a super high return investment in money.

00:03:12.520 | And what happens instead is people often say,

00:03:15.000 | well, I technically could do these things

00:03:16.680 | so I'd rather spend that money on, you know,

00:03:19.020 | something more fleeting or superficial.

00:03:21.580 | And it's actually what it got a lot more return

00:03:23.240 | in your life just to take those things off your plate.

00:03:26.200 | So literal automation, I think,

00:03:29.080 | is a priority to the extent that you could do it.

00:03:32.240 | The second thing to do here is reduction.

00:03:34.340 | So just taking things off your plate.

00:03:36.140 | Sometimes when you're not able to get started on things

00:03:39.680 | it's because you're overloaded, there's too much,

00:03:41.240 | your mind is exhausted, it knows it's not sustainable.

00:03:44.440 | So I'm not gonna do this, I'm sorry,

00:03:46.240 | I'm not gonna help on that committee.

00:03:48.800 | This is a bridge too far with like my exercise routine,

00:03:51.600 | whatever it is, reduction.

00:03:53.160 | So when your load is reasonable, it's easier to execute

00:03:57.400 | because you're playing with your wiring here.

00:03:59.600 | Your brain is very good at the things important,

00:04:02.000 | let's set a plan, let's execute that plan,

00:04:03.600 | let's feel really good because we got the plan done.

00:04:05.600 | If you overload that part of your brain,

00:04:07.160 | it short circuits and you lose all of that

00:04:09.200 | evolutionarily optimized inducements

00:04:12.040 | to actually do the daily work that's important.

00:04:14.560 | We are wired to do daily stuff that's important

00:04:17.160 | for the survival of us and our families, right?

00:04:19.080 | So let's take advantage of those mechanisms,

00:04:22.840 | but you can't take advantage of those mechanisms

00:04:24.600 | if there's 75 things on your list.

00:04:26.320 | And then clarity would be my final suggestion

00:04:29.120 | and that is something you touched on before.

00:04:32.040 | Here's my vision, lifestyle-centric career planning,

00:04:34.240 | where we wanna be in five years,

00:04:35.660 | where we wanna be in 10 years,

00:04:36.800 | where we wanna be later this year.

00:04:38.920 | This is how everything fits in,

00:04:41.000 | these type of more mundane chores,

00:04:42.640 | we've really automated and structured

00:04:44.220 | and there's these other things I'm doing

00:04:45.480 | that's really fulfilling and we're saving up to do this.

00:04:48.200 | You have this vision that this is all a part of that,

00:04:50.360 | you mentioned that as being important,

00:04:51.680 | you are right that that is important.

00:04:53.680 | You are building towards a vision

00:04:55.280 | that you believe in and think is important.

00:04:57.600 | You're working backwards from that positive goal,

00:04:59.960 | it's very important to keep things moving.

00:05:02.160 | So if you have kids, for example,

00:05:05.080 | there's a couple natural milestones to think about.

00:05:09.700 | There's a sort of young kid period,

00:05:12.360 | which is sort of a survival mode.

00:05:13.960 | There's a steady state period

00:05:15.480 | where you have grammar school aged kids

00:05:17.720 | and what you want life to be like there,

00:05:20.080 | time with them, the role of work, where you live,

00:05:23.120 | really thinking through what that experience is like,

00:05:26.360 | you have a really clear vision for,

00:05:27.640 | okay, when does the last kid leave the house?

00:05:29.840 | These are the changes that are happening then,

00:05:32.520 | I think it's a great time to have

00:05:33.560 | a more substantial change to your lifestyle.

00:05:35.040 | So you have these very clear visions

00:05:37.360 | that you're working backwards from,

00:05:38.840 | that you're working towards with your day-to-day efforts.

00:05:43.560 | And that, again, you're very right to point that out.

00:05:45.400 | So automate, reduce, clarify.

00:05:48.840 | Do those three things,

00:05:50.480 | that's what's needed to keep making progress

00:05:52.680 | in a disciplined fashion on the stuff that's annoying,

00:05:55.560 | but has to get done.

00:05:57.240 | That's how you avoid just being paralyzed

00:06:00.160 | by exhaustion and indecision and lack of motivation.

00:06:04.440 | (upbeat music)

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How Do I Stay Disciplined To Find the Motivation to Work Each Day?

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