What If You Don't Need Motivation First?

Out of curiosity, have you ever known exactly what you needed to do and still couldn't seem to get yourself to do it?

You know you need more conversations. You know you need to reconnect with your database. You know there are people you could meet, relationships you could build, and opportunities you could create. You may even have a list of ideas.

Yet somehow, you're not doing them. So you tell yourself you're not motivated.

Recently, I had a conversation with a past coaching client who was feeling exactly that way. They had stepped away from coaching a few months earlier because they were stretched thin. They knew it wasn't necessarily the best decision for the long term, but it was a decision they felt they needed to make at the time.

Something prompted me to reach out, and I'm glad I did.

They were struggling. There was business in the pipeline, but people weren't making decisions. There was uncertainty about the market, interest rates, rising costs, and everything else happening around them. After enough uncertainty, it's understandable to begin wondering what you're supposed to do differently.

The market is real. The challenges are real. Markets have also always changed.

The question is how we respond when they do.

What Have You Done Differently?

As we talked about their pipeline, I asked a question:

What have you done differently to create a different result?

They knew. In fact, they started listing ideas. There was a local Chamber of Commerce they'd been thinking about joining. They love gardening and had considered joining a garden club. They had several ideas for reconnecting with their database in ways that could create more conversations.

The interesting thing was that they weren't lacking ideas or knowledge. They knew what they could do.

So what was getting in the way?

They didn't feel motivated.

I hear some version of this from experienced professionals more often than you might think: "I know what I need to do. I need to get motivated."

But what if motivation isn't actually what you're waiting for? What if you don't need motivation first?

Maybe We've Had the Order Backwards

We often think the sequence works like this: first we become motivated, then we take action, and eventually we make progress.

But research suggests there may be another way to think about it.

Harvard researcher Teresa Amabile and psychologist Steven Kramer analyzed nearly 12,000 daily work diaries while studying what they called the Progress Principle. Their research found that making progress in meaningful work, including small wins, was one of the most powerful influences on people's motivation and engagement at work.

Think about what that could mean when you're feeling stuck.

Maybe you don't need to feel motivated enough to change everything. Maybe you need to take one meaningful action that allows you to see yourself moving forward again.

Action creates progress. Progress begins to create momentum.

And momentum feels very different from sitting still waiting to feel ready.

Decide Before You Feel Like It

One of the foundational principles of Exactly What to Say® is:

The worst time to think about what you're saying is in the moment you're saying it.

There's an application of that principle I've found equally valuable when it comes to taking action:

The worst time to decide whether you're going to take action is when you don't feel like taking action.

That's why a minimum standard can be so powerful. Not someone else's standard. Yours.

Choose a small daily non-negotiable that you are willing to commit to regardless of how motivated you feel. Maybe it's one meaningful conversation, one personal note, reaching out to someone in your database, attending the meeting, joining the organization, or walking into the room you've been thinking about entering.

The specific activity matters less than making sure it connects to the result you want to create.

Then decide ahead of time that this is the minimum promise you're going to keep to yourself. Don't wait until tomorrow morning and see how you feel before deciding whether today is a day you'll follow through.

And if you do more, wonderful. The minimum isn't the maximum. It's the standard you have decided not to renegotiate with yourself every day.

One Decision Can Change What Happens Next

By the end of our conversation, nothing about the outside world had changed. Interest rates hadn't changed. The market hadn't changed. Their pipeline hadn't suddenly filled with people ready to move.

But something was different.

They made a decision.

Tomorrow, they're joining the garden club. Not because a garden club is some secret real estate lead-generation strategy, but because they love gardening. They'll be around people with a shared interest, building relationships and creating opportunities for conversations naturally.

It's one thing they had been thinking about doing. Now they've decided to do it.

As our conversation continued, their voice sounded stronger. There was some laughter and a little more lightness as we talked about their family.

Did one decision cause all of that? We can't know that.

But I do know that the person I was talking with at the end of the conversation sounded different from the person who answered the phone.

And that matters.

You Don't Have to Solve Everything Today

When business is difficult, it's easy to look at the entire problem. You need more closings, a healthier pipeline, more conversations, more income, more certainty. Looking at all of it at once can make the distance between where you are and where you want to be feel enormous.

What if you made it smaller?

What is one thing you can do today? Then what is one thing you can do tomorrow? And what small daily standard are you willing to decide, ahead of time, that you'll meet?

The goal isn't to ignore what's happening around you. It's to remember that even when you cannot control the market, the economy, interest rates, or another person's willingness to make a decision, there are still choices that belong to you.

You can ask another question, create another conversation, reconnect with someone, walk into a new room, or take one focused action. Then you can take another.

Progress begins. Momentum follows. And sometimes, somewhere along the way, the motivation you were waiting for begins to show up too.

There is hope. There is always hope.

You don't have to solve everything today. But you can decide what happens next.

So perhaps the question isn't, "How do I get motivated?"

Maybe the question worth sitting with today is:

What is one decision you can make now that would help you begin moving forward again?

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Chris Ruszkiewicz is an Exactly What to Say® Certified Guide, the founder of CMR Coaching & Consulting, a founding owner of a Keller Williams Realty office, and an Executive Business Coach with 32 years of experience in sales, negotiation, and leadership.