Let’s face it, it can be tough to get our butts in gear and take action sometimes.

Some days I’m flying, and I feel like I’m unstoppable … and other days, I feel like I’m swimming upstream and I wonder where “Flow State Marc” from a day earlier has disappeared.

I recently read a great book by Mark Manson, called The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, where he talks about something around motivation that really makes sense:

“Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it”

Most people assume that motivation comes first. They think that you have to be hit with motivation and inspiration, and then you’ll:

– start banging away at the keyboard for that book or blog post
– pick up the pencil to start drawing
– finish that report that’s been on the backburner
– make the call that you’ve been delaying …

The lesson for me, which I started implementing more often this week, was to just get started doing something (sounds like common sense, doesn’t it?) …

And lo and behold, it worked. It only took a few minutes of doing something until I found myself getting into a good flow and more productive.

Take my emails for example – I’m a fan of daily emails. I encourage my clients and other coaches to do it and build a stronger relationship with their lists. But a lot of people get scared of doing them because they don’t think they can keep up with the amount of writing required!

One day last week, I was able to hammer out the bones for 10 emails. Yes, I’ll clean them up before they go out, but they’re 90% written.

However, if I always waited to be 100% motivated to do anything, well you wouldn’t be seeing as much of me.

Try taking more action and see if that stirs up your motivation!