When you ask people the best way to achieve a goal, most will probably say through hard work and self-discipline. When things get tough, you white-knuckle your way through the adversity and come out the other end having achieved your goal.
However, as anyone who has embarked on a big project has experienced, once the buzz of the idea wears off, self-discipline can be hard to muster. Bestselling author Daniel Pink, whose books focus on human behavior, recently struggled to stay focused while writing his latest book, The Power of Regret. In the process, he realized that there’s something more important than discipline: purpose.
Why purpose is more important than discipline
“I’ve written seven books. One of them is about motivation. On the last one, I couldn’t get through a paragraph,” he admitted in a LinkedIn post. “I’d sit down, open the file — and twenty minutes later I’d be watching sports highlights. My first instinct was to blame the phone: delete the apps, block the sites, buy a timer. The usual suspects. Then I found the actual problem. I didn’t know why I was writing this book. I had a contract and a deadline. I didn’t have a purpose.”
Pink hit the nail on the head when he wrote: “Distraction loves a job with no why. When the work means nothing, your brain goes hunting for something that does — or at least something that pays out faster.”
After coming up with a purpose statement for his new book, “The purpose of this book is to reclaim regret as an indispensable emotion,” and taping it to his office wall, his writing began to flow again because his project was infused with purpose.
He ended the post by saying that before you start a big project, you should ask yourself two questions: “Why does this matter, and who benefits?” Write them down and keep them top of mind so you can stay on task.
Pink’s observation is backed by neuroscience
Pink’s observation isn’t just a one-off; neuroscience supports it. One study, entitled “Some Goals Just Feel Easier,” found that when people pursue goals aligned with their values, they make better progress because the goals feel easier than misaligned ones. Another study found that people with high levels of self-control often succeed not because they resist temptation, but because they create habits that make the right choices easier.
Pink’s post and research suggest that to create something truly great, intrinsic motivation (that comes from inside yourself) is better than extrinsic motivation, or the type that comes from outside sources. If you’re having a hard time focusing on your goal, it’s a good sign that you don’t feel a true sense of purpose or have yet to discover one.
Ultimately, Pink was right: the most important thing in pursuing a goal is having a true purpose. That’s more important now than ever in a world so full of distractions that it’s a miracle anything gets done.
When you’re ready to start your next big project, asking yourself why is even more important than asking yourself how.
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