Motivation Gets You Started, Habit Keeps You Going-Jim Rohn

Motivation gets you started: I love the essence of motivation – it pushes us forward, and gets us to do things. But over time, this motivation fades and we look inward to find the source of energy to keep going. We must keep moving forward – that’s the only truth. This will ask us to work hard, create better habits and find a way to do the boring stuff so that we reach our goals. This is where your habits come into play.

Motivation is what gets you started, Habit Keeps you going!

What keeps you going in life? We have all heard of motivation in such large lengths and at a certain stage of our lives, I even thought that it was the only thing that mattered in my life. But habit keeps you going! The difference between motivation and inspiration is that motivation needs something external to help us start. Instead, focus on inspiration – it helps you create habits that last long.

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Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going – Jim Rohn

And the truth was that I would get this surge and feel that every little thing in this world was possible. I would feel that every impossible thing was possible and it was just a difference in words – you know, the famous IMPOSSIBLE = I AM POSSIBLE. Probably it is one of the most cliched uses ever.

Motivation is what gets you started

Motivation alone is not going to get us too far. All it does is maybe get us started on something. But for that to actually give us results – it requires another of the most cliched requirements – HARD WORK!

Gosh, doesn’t life seem to be so full of cliches of late? And here is one more before we go much further

“Motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going – Jim Rohn”

Well, these are again the overused cliches right – Man first makes his habits and then it is is habits which make a man – Right?

And we all have a lot of habits, some which drive us towards what we really want and some which actually drive us away. The habits which kinda make us and the habits which really break us down, waste our time completely and make life a living torrid mistake!

Well! Those are our habits right? And we know most of them.

But here is our question – How conscious are we when we decide these habits? 

As it turns out most times, it so happens that most of these habits form around ourselves based on the environment we are born in, our education, peer group, our discussions and of course the books we have read. So many technicalities behind a habit right?


Habit is what keeps you going

And to think what if we are a little conscious when we make those habits. And as we know a habit is nothing but a simple repetition of an activity over time and I think we are all smart enough to realize what things we do on a regular basis and to see if they are beneficial to us.

We first make our habits then our habits make us - John Dryden Quote, Quote of the day
We first make our habits then our habits make us – John Dryden Quote, Quote of the day

And to tell the truth a consistent action is the only way we are going to get ahead in life right? A consistent action towards our large goal in life, a consistent action which defines where we are headed and where we want to get in life.

For example if our goal is to get that magnificent body for ourselves, then nothing better than our eating habits, our waking habits and also our habits about going to the gym on a regular basis. Nothing is ever going to trump that.

And that might just be the gym example because we are seeing that image as we discuss today. But aren’t all of our achievements so far the outcomes of a few of our habits. Like securing a rank in the university owing to our regular study routine or winning the cricket trophy cos you toiled everyday to get up at 6 and go for the coaching.

If it wasn’t for the habits, then where would we actually be? Isn’t it the habits which took us this far.

I mean motivation was a great start, but the truthful outcome was always these habits, wasn’t it?


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Vinay Nagaraju

Product Director with 10+ years in leadership roles - team building, product strategy, coaching and mentoring are a part of my everyday responsibilities. I write about motivational words that inspire us and shape our thinking and help us go beyond these thoughts to find what our minds are telling us and evolve.

This Post Has 12 Comments

  1. Om

    Very true. Whenever negativity creeps in, habit helps. Habit of being motivated could be best possible thing in the world !

    1. Vinay Nagaraju

      Thank you for your thoughts Om. It is such a constant battle though isn’t it? Sometimes, it is all about training ourselves to ignore the negatives so that we have enough energy to pursue the dreams that are dear to us. Everything demands energy, passion and commitment. If these are wasted on our doubts, we have very little to give to our actual dreams and the path to make it all work

  2. Somali K Chakrabarti

    True Vinay. We need to figure out how to transform the motivation into a habit.

    1. Vinay Nagaraju

      Indeed Somali, I agree. Not the easiest thing to do, but it can do wonders if we are able to make that happen! :)

  3. Maitreni Mishra

    This is such a thoughtful quote Vinay :) Thanks for sharing!

  4. Kishor Kumar

    Another nice share, Vinay. Keep it up.
    Btw, I sent an indimail few days back, did you happen to see it?
    And, also, the floating share on left side is overflowing on the content and creating a kind of distraction. Just want to make a suggestion that you may either want to reduce the bar’s size or the width of the content for a better user experience.

    1. Vinay Nagaraju

      Hi Kishor. I am afraid I did not get any mail on Indimail.

      I am quite surprised about the font. Did you mean it is appearing too big on the mobile phone or tablet view or is it appearing big on the PC too? I am checking in my laptop and it appears quite good. Infact it is outside of the viewing window as it appears on my screen..

  5. Manjulika Pramod

    Quite a positive post… I feel motivated to do the things that I have been running away from.

    1. Vinay Nagaraju

      Thank you Manjulika :).. Happy to know that ! We have always been great fans of these quotes and glad to talk about this as our quote of the day!

  6. Maniparna Sengupta Majumder

    Nothing could be truer than the quote…. but, it takes time to grow up a habit and till then, it is motivation that keeps us moving…. :-)

    1. Vinay Nagaraju

      Thank you Maniparna :). I agree, it is never the easiest thing to convert a short term motivation to a long term one. But the gist of the quote is simply brilliant and it kinda made us feel that there is more than just a quote and motivation. It is simply about owning that quote to our life and no wonder this makes to our list of quote of the day :)

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