In the long run, success or healing is LESS about what you do when you are motivated and MORE about what you do when you are not. Anyone on the planet can become an absolute workhorse when they are impassioned. However, the people that succeed are the ones that habitually show up on the days they do not want to.

A motivational state is an emotional response to a perceived need. As human beings, our needs are complex and variable, constantly waning and waxing. To sustain consistently a high state of motivation over an extended period of time is not practical if even possible.

Motivation is important but if you have to wait for it every single time you need to get something done, eventually, your life purpose is eventually going to run into a case of too little too late.

There are simply too many psychological factors that can cause even the highest levels of motivations to wane.

Therefore motivation, although, is an inconsistent fuel sources that cannot be relied upon. Regardless of whether our motivation tank is full or not, father-time ticks callously away.

So instead of waiting for an intense burst of emotion to inspire you to show up, learn to just show up regardless. Diamonds are not created by spontaneous bursts of excessively powerful energy; diamonds are created by consistence pressure throughout time.

If you know your life’s purpose, you need to keep up a good “pressure” day in and day out. We are what we repeatedly do. Good habits and discipline beats invigoration with procrastination. It is not our job to force ourselves to be passionate. Passion comes to us and ebbs and flows. It is our job to provide our passion a strong vessel to sail within.

What if you do not know your life’s purpose yet? That is okay. There is no shame in being lost, being depressed, or passion-less. However, you cannot afford to stand idle. Even if you are passion-less, you need to actively work on yourself -physically, mentally, and spiritually everyday because one day you won’t be.

Metaphysically speaking, the universe bestows its will upon those who are ready and able to carry out the mission.

When the destiny train finally arrives, you owe it to yourself to be able to and to be willing to catch your ride. Do not live your life in regret because you were too unhealthy, too unprepared, too ignorant, or too afraid to make it onboard.

If you haven’t found your passion yet, you don’t need to fret. You don’t need to compare yourself to people your age that have it all figured out already. However, you do need to give it your best effort to maintain a life of discipline and continued growth.

When you stay prepared, you don’t have to get prepared when you do finally figure out your calling. Or rather, you don’t have to throw away all your health, social time, and fun to play catch-up. Don’t make your story into a comeback story if you don’t have to. Everybody loves Rocky Balboa’s ability to take punishment and comeback for the big win. Everybody loves Will Smith’s character in the ‘Pursuit of Happyness’ movie.

What most people fail to look at is how these characters view themselves. If you listen to Rocky’s interactions with his son and Adonis Creed, he tries to turn them away from fighting, knowing the damage it did to him. Rocky took all that punishment because he had to. Comeback stories and uphill battles often come with gruesome sacrifice. Those sacrifices are REAL. No matter how much Hollywood and those Instagram Motivational Memes glorify it.

Make life easy on yourself and do the preparation before you even know your mission. Get curious about learning new skills sets and building good foundations before its go time.

The week before a major sporting event is not the best time to try to master a new technique from scratch. The day before the big exam isn’t the best time to take that Udemy course that retrains your brain to process information faster because the only way you are cramming through all this is if you develop photogenic memory. The hour before the interview is not soul-searching time. If you haven’t done jack, it’s cram time.

My father and I clash egos a lot and we see eye to eye on virtually nothing. I will admit that the one thing he does better than me that I am still struggling to learn is his methodical discipline and his zero tolerance for procrastination and skipping out on exercise, good nutrition, and rest to do work.

Growing up in the oppressive Chinese communist regime, the only way out for my father and his classmates was to be one of the best students possible so that they may leave the country and study in the west. The competition was fanatical. My father was the number 4 best student in his province and his secret was that he NEVER studied the day before the test.

The day before major exams and project due dates was his time to relax, watch a movie, and treat himself to a good meal. He walked into the exam room the most relaxed and confident person in a room where everyone else was flipping through text books frantically trying to memorize last minute details. It was time for him to kick back and put on a show.

As he got older, it was sad for him to see his friends destroy their health over the years to accomplish less than what he had getting all the proper rest. Discipline beat motivation.

I want to conclude by saying a few words to my readers whom are suffering through chronic depression. Depression saps motivation and the will to go out and do anything. I was there. It is a battle of inches not miles. At first, you make goals limiting the damage you do yourself. Next, you make goals to recover. Then, goals to get your life in order. Finally, goals to rise.

When you are depressed it is even more important to develop healthy habits and routines because discipline is the only thing you can really rely on since motivation is largely absent. Don’t wait for a sign from the universe, start moving right away.