Since I started living more rationally, my way of staying motivated has also changed. Now I prefer cycling my motivation to stimulating it. Let’s introduce that concept.
How to live more energetically
Sometimes, we want to live energetically. Passionate moments are exciting and fun.
However, our motivation often decreases. That creates a struggle to maintain high energy.
Although stimulating motivation can help temporarily, it rarely lasts. We often seek inspiration, meaning in activity, opportunity, appreciation from others, and social evaluation, yet motivation inevitably fades.
That is why we want another perspective to manage our energy.
Considering motivation as cyclical can be more helpful than trying to stimulate it. Today, I will explain the logic. This perspective may provide more balanced, healthy energy in your life.
The concept of a high-energy orbit
Consider your motivation cyclical rather than something you have to simply accelerate. In other words, shift your motivation rather than switch it on.
We have multiple, contradictory desires. Balancing them efficiently provides energy. Although it may look contradictory, accepting the negative side doesn’t deny the positive activity.
We can understand motivation as shown in the following image:
The further it goes outward, the higher the energy we have. There is a high-energy-state orbit. It is like an orbiting satellite.
A high-energy state
The ideal state is being on the high-energy-state orbit. In this state, we can do various things in a balanced way, as shown in the following image:
Since we know we can shift to the other side after a while, we can focus on the present and enjoy it.
We don’t need to force additional efforts. It is as if we are being pulled by gravity. We gradually shift our focus without sticking to a single best state.
Achieving it enables us to live energetically without patience.
The low-energy state
On the other hand, when we try to be only active, we gradually lose motivation, as shown in the following image.
Our conflicting desires pull us toward the opposite side, like gravity. That limits our energy.
That is the state where we are not rewarded, no matter how hard we try.
How to stay motivated
This model shows us how to stay motivated: we can shift our motivation rather than stimulate it.
We gradually grow our activity level. We don’t have to rush from the beginning. We don’t have to be passionate at first.
If you start a positive activity a little, fill the negative side equally. It means you consume the reward produced by the positive action. However, that fuels the next positive progression.
Spending profits will not be wasted. Positive activity is always to satisfy negative desires if we see our activities from a broader perspective.
For example, we want to become wealthy to have a peaceful life. In this case, becoming rich is a positive activity that increases social interactions, while living peacefully means reducing them. They can be opposites.
It means we enjoy multiple aspects of life instead of aiming for a single state.
We also have to reconsider the concept of a goal. It can be a single one, but it should not be a single state. In my opinion, we can let go of the idea of having a goal in life. Rather, having cycles in life may make it easier to live energetically.
Conclusion
That is why considering motivation as cyclical can be more helpful than trying to stimulate it.
We have multiple, contradictory desires.
Balancing them efficiently, like an orbiting satellite, provides energy.
This perspective may provide more balanced, healthy energy in your life.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope to see you in the next one.
