scott stonehouse

You probably have a few monkeys you deal with on a daily basis. Some of them are other people’s problems that try to jump on your back and want you to care for and feed them. Reminding yourself, “That’s not my monkey” is incredibly helpful.

But I am not talking about those monkeys. I am talking about one of your own monkeys. The Motivation Monkey.*

The Motivation Monkey is not a bad monkey. Not at all. In fact, the Motivation Monkey can be very helpful. The problem is that we expect the Motivation Monkey to do more than it should, more often than it should.

That is a bad idea.

The Motivation Monkey can provide us the boost of energy or emotion to do the thing we want to do. It can be helpful for a one-time action. The problem is that the Motivation Monkey is not reliable. It doesn’t always show up when we want it to. And even when it shows up, it doesn’t always show up strong and ready to work.

Because the Motivation Monkey isn’t reliable, we don’t want to depend on it for regular habits or tasks.

When it comes to getting things done, working toward our goals, or creating good habits, it is better to control other parts of the behavior equation. Rather than depending on the Motivation Monkey, we can focus on adjusting the ability required for the task.

For example, we could make something we want to do much easier to do. Ridiculously easy. In that case, we won’t need to call for the Motivation Monkey. We’ll just do it.

We could also make something we don’t want to do much harder to do. If we make it hard enough, the Motivation Monkey won’t show up even if we call for it. We will often decide it isn’t even worth the effort.

Again, the Motivation Monkey isn’t a bad monkey. It can be helpful. It can even been fun. As long as you Manage the Motivation Monkey properly.

[* I saw the phrase “Motivation Monkey” in BJ Fogg’s book Tiny Habits, which is a must read.]