why 'getting motivated' is not a thing

Pretty good motivation to get out of bed early!

Most people think you need to ‘get motivated’ to start a new habit.

And sure, if the idea of ‘getting motivated’ gets you in action, then that's great.

But what most people don’t realise is - there’s no such thing.

You can’t ‘get motivated’.

Because for every action you’re doing, there’s always a motivation behind it.

Whether you’re sitting on the couch eating snacks, or going for a run, you’re motivated.

Why I bring this up is…

I had a coaching call with a woman recently who knew exactly what she wanted to do to be more active. She wanted to increase her daily steps to 9000 and do her home strengthening exercises 3 times a week.

When I asked her what brought her to our program, she told me she’d retired two years ago and now finally had the time to prioritise her health and wellbeing. She’d worked in an office job for 50 years and was now keen to spend more time outside being active. Being in her late 60s, she’d noticed her physical health was declining and she was keen to improve her strength so she could keep up with the grandkids.

The trouble was – she’d never been an active person, not even as a kid.

So her default was to sit. She loved reading and could often sit and read all day without leaving her apartment.

On our call she kept telling me – 'I just need to get motivated'.

But here’s the catch.

When she’s sitting on the couch reading her book – she’s motivated to do it.

It’s just that it’s not the kind of motivation that’s going to help her achieve her goals.

Because according to behaviour change theory, there are two types of motivation that drive your behaviour (Michie et al 2011).

The first type is automatic motivation. These are the automatic processes that drive your habits, impulses and emotional responses. And because they’re unconscious, you’re not aware of them. Just like when you drive home and have no idea how you’ve gotten there.

Automatic motivation is the brain’s preferred mode because it’s highly efficient. This motivation is always working away in the background driving you to do the things you’ve always done because you’ve always done them.

And if you’re happy with all your current habits then that’s fine.

But if you want to change any of your daily behaviours – like step more, sit less, scroll less – then you want to call on the other kind of motivation.

Which is your reflective motivation. This is when you use conscious processes like planning, reflecting and evaluating, to actively choose a new behaviour that’s in line with your goals or values.

And in the right conditions, your reflective motivation can override your automatic motivation.

That’s how you change your behaviour.

But the problem is, reflective motivation takes a fair amount of cognitive effort.

Which means that while behaviour change is possible in the short term, having to rely on reflective motivation for all your behaviours will give you brain drain in the long term.

The system always wants to return to its default.

That’s why behaviour change from 30-day challenges lasts 30 days. (Or 32 if you’re lucky.)

So if you want long-term behaviour change, you need your new behaviours to become automatic.

One woman described this beautifully as wanting her morning walk to be ‘like brushing her teeth’.

So what you want to do is create a new autopilot. Embed your new behaviour into your daily life so it becomes automatic.

And the way you do that is by goal setting, planning your week and playing to your strengths.

As for our retired friend, she came up with some great strategies to suit her personality and lifestyle.

Then right at the end of the call she told me-

‘I feel quite motivated now. Actually, I’m a bit excited’.

And I’m excited for her.

Because I know what she really means is – my reflective motivation has kicked into gear and I’m confident I can override my old automatic motivation and create my new autopilot.

So the next time you catch yourself red-handed in one of your habits that you want to shift (if you have any), just remind yourself...

I’m motivated to do this.

But is it the behaviour I really want?