Ideas and motivation do not just happen you need to AIM

The Concept of A.I.M was born out of necessity while I was writing (well more to the point attempting to write) my book first novel. It took many years to research and develop the book, but I've just come to understand that a considerable amount of time was actually spent doing nothing. Many months would go by without me even lifting a pen, tapping a key on the word processor, or turning a page. In between times I would feel highly motivated and would get stuck into the research and bang out a few more pages then do nothing for months.

I was three years older when I finished the introduction than when I began writing my first novel. Then it had dawned on me why I had not finished the book I had started to write so long ago. I knew I was not lazy and worked hard and enthusiastically when motivated. The mistake I had made was waiting for the motivation to happen.

 

The Motivation Cycle

 

I thought “Well if I only work on this thing while I feel like it will take forever”. I was stunned and demoralized and that nearly ended book writing for me. Without the stimulating ‘high’ of motivation, the task was just to enormous. Give up! Give up! Pestered the little voice in my head. We instinctively prioritize ease and enjoyment, delaying or ignoring challenges. I was torn between wanting to complete the book I had persevered with for so long and quitting to do something easy.

 

I suppose my motivation cycle like most others would go from high to low. A burst of frantic activity in high production inevitably results in complete physical, mental, and creative exhaustion. This recovery was long and demotivating. My lack of motivation caused the problem. Stoking up the motivation to write and continue pushing your brain to work after a hard day's graft ‘at the day job’ is very difficult.

 

Just doing the time filling, wasteful things like watching TV takes its place all too easy.

 

The real question

 

Several months passed by… my conscious continued to be troubled about not continuing with the book and then…

 

A Eureka moment came at 4 o’clock one morning when I awoke with a moment of clarity that often follows a good night sleep when the mind does that marvelous peculiarity of unravelling and sorting the problems and discourse of the day.

 

“The real problem was not how to get motivated more. It was what to do when I was not motivated”.

 

Feeling depleted after a long day, I struggled to find the motivation to work a bit longer. The Answer was simple “DON’T ”. Don’t wait for the motivation, just take some action every day if you feel like it or not. The action to take is ‘do the next task’ and don’t try to eat elephants whole! Split the project into smaller more manageable and less daunting chunks.

 

The habit of taking action

 

In practice I found to my delight reduced periods of energy sapping high motivation and the inevitable un-motivated down time that followed. It was replaced with a steady state where you are achieving on a regular basis, motivated or not.

 

It necessitates willpower and effort from the outset. If you persevere and keep doing it, it will embed in your subconscious and become habitual. You will be able to carry out the task with hardly a conscious thought.

 

My plan was to finish work, have tea, and then begin the next task. Doing it concurrently of day everyday trains your mind and body to anticipate what is going to happen next and become habit forming. Once I had acquired this habit of taking Action the new pages to the book started to accumulate along with new Ideas and inspiration. Seeing the book starting to take shape after so long then motivated me to do more and help reinforce the habit of taking action.

 

“If you want to achieve something just do the next task. Ideas and motivation do not just happen you need to AIM for them”.