Clear the Path

It’s a quiet Saturday morning. I’m sitting in my favorite recliner next to three bookcases full of books, and the sun is slowly filling the room. I haven’t showered, and I am wearing what I like to call “loungewear,” also known as a comfortable pair of sweatpants and a well-worn sweatshirt. I have a hot cup of tea beside me, and Noah Kahan is playing over my sound system.

I have a smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

Three weeks ago, I had a call with the Ad Agency I work with. We had been running ads for a new online course I am offering, and they were not converting at the rate we had hoped.

We talked through our options, and then Connie laid out a plan. While I agreed with everything she said, this would be a major project. I now had a big task with a tight deadline. I opened my calendar and told her I had the last week in September blocked off to work on projects. I agreed to commit the entire week to this endeavor.

After our call, I realized three concerns were weighing on me. First, I would be using a specific platform, and I wasn’t sure I knew the technology well enough to complete the project. Second, I wanted to do this at a high level, and I wasn’t sure if I had the mental bandwidth to complete an A+ project. And lastly, was it even possible to do this in one week?

The reason for my smile and the tears is that I discovered the answer to all those questions was yes, and I am taking a few moments to sit in my joy.

I accomplished something that I wasn’t sure was possible, but let me be clear, it’s not because I felt motivated. In fact, motivation was nowhere to be found.

Leaders often ask me how to find the motivation to tackle a big project. My answer is always the same, “You are seeking the wrong thing. Motivation isn’t what you need.”

Life has taught me that motivation comes after discipline. To accomplish something big, you must begin with discipline.

I am not talking about powering through with a blood, sweat, and tears approach as you hold on for dear life, stumbling across the finish line while sacrificing your soul. My perspective is quite the opposite.

Discipline is clearing out the resistance and creating a smooth path. This allows you to go as far and as fast as you desire. In light of that, I approached this week-long project with discipline. I spent the weekend cleaning my house, doing laundry, buying groceries, and meal-prepping. I didn’t want any adult responsibilities to be a barrier to my success. I also added exercise and brain breaks to my calendar for the week. I wasn’t going to let my body become another form of resistance.  

These decisions were all a part of the discipline I needed to set myself up for success.

When Monday morning rolled around, I got out of bed, and believe me when I say I did not feel motivated. Motivation had called in sick.  

Instead, I started with a blank slate and a mind full of doubts. I spent the morning making countless calls to tech support to learn how to do things I had never done before. The afternoon was filled with four things: write, edit, delete, and repeat.

However, by the end of the day, I felt a slight glimmer of hope. I was making a little progress. Let me clarify, progress is how far you are from the starting line, not how close you are to the finish line. I couldn’t even see the finish line, but I certainly had moved away from the starting line.

And do you know what I felt when I woke up on Tuesday? A faint hint of motivation. With each passing day, my motivation grew because motivation comes from experiencing some success. We set ourselves up for success when we are disciplined to clear the path of resistance.

This moment I am having right now, the smile, tears, and unspeakable joy, started with discipline.

My hope for you is that you can clear the path of resistance, do the hard work in spite of your doubts, notice how far you have come from the starting line, and recognize that you are making room for motivation to make an appearance.

Motivation comes after discipline.

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