Dissecting James Clear (on Motivation)
Dissecting James Clear (on Motivation)
Muse #148 - it is easier to nitpick or extend concepts
I love the writings of James Clear and subscribe to read his weekly posts. This week’s post triggered a lot of evaluation of his writings and I thought I will use his material to dissect and hopefully improve upon.
His first quote from this week…
“Motivation often comes after starting, not before.
Action produces momentum.” - James Clear
Let’s dissect this a little bit. Oxford dictionary defines motivation as:
How does motivation come after starting? I would say motivation if it is really behavior is only established once the behavior is in place. This “motivation” is indeed retrospective coherence, only known after finishing. One might start and not finish something at all. Otherwise, motivation dies an untimely death.
So I would update this quote to:
“Motivation often comes after finishing something, not before.
And sustains with action that continues to finish something producing momentum”
Take these daily posts as an example. As I continue to finish, there is motivation not to give up on the writing and finishing. In retrospect, I look to be highly motivated to keep doing these… but I still lack the motivation to write each day, but sustained from the momentum of the motivation derived from whatever I have already created (finished) so far.
Seems like reading into his words critically, but it is all about one’s owns perspectives of what these words are together, isn’t it?
Source:
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