Motivation quotes

"Action precedes motivation."

I don't know the source of the quote, and a quick google doesn't say.

I find that most tasks are easy to continue doing, but difficult to begin: such tasks have relatively high activation costs. For me, many such tasks (programming, research, cooking) are enjoyable while I'm doing them, but I haven't learned to actively desire them when I'm not doing them. Even relatively dull tasks (cleaning the kitchen, buying groceries, shopping) aren't particularly unpleasant, and are easy to continue once I've started. My greatest difficulty in getting work done, then, is to convince myself to start.

On the other hand, when you're trying to summon motivation, you don't have to psyche yourself up to do an entire hours-long task; you just have to convince yourself to do that task for a minute or two. Once you're actually engaged in the task, continuing is easy.

Thus, action precedes motivation. You cannot expect to feel motivated to start doing what you want to do or ought to do. You'll just have to start your session with your own grit, applying your own agency. Once you've done that, motivation will follow.

Action precedes motivation is thus my litany for the moments when I know I should be doing something - that action is more fun and more profitable than inaction - but action seems hard. It helps!

A motivational quote is something you use to rally your society of mind around your goals. Used properly, it helps you accomplish your goals, but doesn't interfere with your evaluation of goals.

"Pain is the sensation of weakness leaving the body" is something you tell a part of yourself who wants to protect you from the pain of healthy physical exertion. If you're exercising and you feel bad pain, you should of course stop what you're doing.

Of course, a motivational quote that works for one person might not work for another.

"To follow the path:
look to the master,
follow the master,
walk with the master,
see through the master,
become the master." - ESR, How To Become A Hacker

I've always found this to be motivating, and I printed it out and hung it up in my office years ago. Seems rational to me.

(Note: This is not an endorsment of ESR's views. Also, while he referred to it as a "modern Zen poem", when I looked it up years ago, I was unable to find any other source for it - so for all I know, he made it up out of whole cloth.)

I assume Courage Wolf isn't want you're looking for?

I really like Jonathan Coulton's A Talk With George. It's perhaps mostly arational, but I don't see anything irrational or dangerous about it.

Just think of the reason you're doing whatever you're trying to do, and visualize various details about why it's good and important.