You Don’t Keep Motivation — You Ned to Replace It
- Tom Shankapotomous
- 18 hours ago
- 3 min read
Readiness Over Time
Most writing about motivation assumes a short horizon.
It assumes that if you can find the right reason—strong enough, meaningful enough, painful enough—you can carry it forward indefinitely. That motivation can be protected, renewed, or intensified as needed.
Anyone who has trained, practiced, or worked seriously across years knows this isn’t how it plays out.
Motivation fluctuates. Reasons fade. Stories change. What determines whether someone continues is not how compelling their why was at the beginning, but whether something else takes over when that why no longer does the work.
This three-part Readiness series is about that transition.
It’s written from the perspective of long-horizon practice—running, training, and work measured in decades rather than seasons. It’s not an argument against motivation. It’s an argument about where motivation works, where it fails, and what has to replace it if you intend to last.
Different readers arrive here at different moments. Rather than flatten those differences, the series treats them directly.
Part I: Why Motivation Works — At First
If you’re just starting, motivation matters.
Early on, motivation functions as orientation. It helps you choose a direction, commit to an identity, and begin before any real structure exists. Enjoyment, meaning, curiosity, and even crisis can all be legitimate entry points.
This piece explains:
why motivation is useful early
why origin stories feel powerful
and why none of that is a problem—yet
It also introduces the core constraint motivation cannot escape: it does not scale across time.
Part II: The Negotiation Phase
Most people don’t stop at the beginning. They stop here.
This is the phase where consistency exists but motivation is unreliable. Negotiation creeps in. Interpretation replaces execution. Normal difficulty starts to feel meaningful.
This piece focuses on:
why motivation decays even when commitment hasn’t
how meaning inflation creates unnecessary friction
and how structure, not belief, restores momentum
If you’ve ever wondered why training suddenly feels harder to sustain despite knowing what you’re doing, this is likely where you are.
Part III: Endurance Without a Story
Eventually, the origin story dissolves.
At this stage, the practice no longer needs justification. Motivation is intermittent or irrelevant. What remains are systems, minimums, and a quiet form of agency that doesn’t rely on feeling ready.
This piece explores:
endurance measured in returns, not peaks
structure as memory and insulation
why enjoyment outlasts suffering
and what it means to continue without proving anything
This is not about grit. It’s about continuity.
A Note on Readiness
Readiness is not how motivated you feel.
It’s whether the next action is specified—whether something is in place that carries you forward when motivation fluctuates or disappears.
If that’s a question you’re wrestling with, start where you are. The series is designed to meet you there.
References in this Series
Bandura, A. (1997). Self‑efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman.
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1998). On the self‑regulation of behavior. Cambridge University Press.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54–67.
Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch‑Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363–406.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Vallerand, R. J., et al. (2003). Les passions de l’âme: On obsessive and harmonious passion.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(4), 756–767.
Merleau‑Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. Routledge.
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