What do you do when you lack inspiration? What do you do when you lack motivation?

I’ll tell you what I’ll do.

If I’m not inspired, I work anyway. If I’m not motivated, I quickly resolve the problem because I need to work.

A lot of people think inspiration and motivation are in the same class. They’re not. Inspiration is a luxury. Motivation is a necessity.

Understanding Inspiration

Inspiration is a stimulus that sparks your creativity and amplifies the desire to do things.

When you’re inspired, your work drives you instead of you pushing yourself into the work. You have ideas and creative energy that appear without effort. Your flow is more fluid, the work is more exciting and your perception of your hustle and your abilities is more radiant.

You may know some of the things that inspire you. And when you feel your enthusiasm fading, you may expose yourself to those things and witness positive effects. But no one can really control inspiration.

Although it may last longer for you than for me, or you may get inspired more often than me, none of us can seize it forever. Inspiration is not something you can rely on to run a business or earn a living because it’s not permanent. It’s temporary. But that’s okay because it’s not necessary.

A laptop is essential to a writer. Canvas is essential to a painter. Inspiration is an asset, but it’s not essential to anyone. Without it, you can still get a hell of a lot of work done—if you want to.

If you choose not to work because you’re not inspired, you’re choosing not to work because doing so involves less pleasure and more labor. Unless you’re dealing with a hobby, that’s not a good reason.

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.”

Pearl S. Buck

Understanding Motivation

Motivation refers to the drive to do something.

When you have motivation, you may be driven by feel-good drivers, like passion, pleasure, ambition and even inspiration. But people are also driven by more somber and cynical things, such as fear of poverty, search for safety and greed.

Many people realize there are negative motives, but many still only associate motivation with positive feelings. Often people will say they aren’t motivated to do something but they do it anyway. That can’t be. Your level of motivation can increase and decrease, but if you completely lack motivation, a thing will not get done.

What’s often happening in those instances is those people are experiencing a different type of motivation. It’s not the real-good, feel-good kind. It the kind where they’re driven by the pursuit of certain result or to avoid a certain outcome.

For example, a person may dread getting out of bed and going to work but does it anyway because he’s driven by a desire to pay the mortgage and avoid getting fired.

Motivation is vital to your vision and to your success. Without it, you have no will to act.

That’s why if you truly lack motivation for your hustle, and it’s what feeds you, you’re facing serious trouble. Take immediate action to get your mind right or nothing will get done.