We sit down to work. We're well-caffeinated. It's time to dive into things. There's a ton to do. Important stuff. Meaningful stuff. Projects that matter. Projects we WANT to finish. Projects that are maybe even due sooner than we feel comfortable with.
And then… nothing.
The ideas aren’t flowing and the motivation isn’t there. Our brains are not cooperating. The screen stares back at us. (Why is it that everything seems so clear and full of promise while we're in the shower, and then so fuzzy when we're actually at the computer? What cruel trick of evolution has led to this?)Our brains feel foggy. Maybe we'll just quickly check to see if any new email has shown up in the last 2.5 minutes since we last checked. Maybe we'll just quickly check the news sites. Maybe somebody recently liked the post we shared two days ago. We'll just quickly check.
We are "not feeling it."
And it's a lose-lose proposition. We don't feel like doing what we should, so we don't. But NOT doing what we know we should makes us feel even worse. It's a soulcrusher infestation all around.
In some imaginary future, we are closing our laptop at the end of the day — feeling that rare but amazing satisfaction of being done and feeling proud of ourselves for making it happen.
So... how do we get from "not feeling it" to "heck yeah, we did it"?
Creating a trigger
"Triggers" or "prompts" are a key part of forming habits. The habit is prompted (or triggered) by something else happening just before it.
The secret is to turn that "not-feeling-it" feeling into a trigger to re-commit to starting the important thing we should be doing.
In our minds, the more we feel like not doing it, the more we commit to going ahead and starting it anyway.
Note that I said "starting it." Because starting is the hardest part — and also the most important part. We can't accomplish anything, ever, without starting. Every time we're "not-feeling-it" — mentally make a note. "Ah, look. I'm not feeling it." Whenever we note that, we remember what it triggers — time to start. And I'm a big fan of starting with five minutes. We're not feeling it, but we agree to spend FIVE MINUTES starting to work on it before give up and do anything else. Most of the time, that five minutes easily extends to ten. Most of the time, we're making some good progress after ten minutes, and we want to keep going from there. In other words, we're feeling it a bit more.
The magic of making "not feeling it" our trigger is that it always happens EXACTLY when we most need it. Every time we're about to slip, and we hear our inner voice saying, "ugh, I really don't feel like doing this" — THAT is the trigger to get started doing it.Try putting a sticky note on your monitor, if it helps: "Not feeling it = trigger for 5 minutes"
It's weird, but it works.
Brian Johnson, the Founder and CEO of Heroic and author of Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential, calls this "emotional stamina." He frequently says, "The WORSE we feel, the MORE COMMITTED we need to be to doing the work." That right there separates the happy from the miserable — and the successful from the wannabes.
This trigger creates just enough of a spark of energy and motivation to get started. Then momentum takes over. Soon, we feel better and more energized because we're doing the things we should be.