As the year winds down, so does our motivation.
There’s the quiet exhale, another year in the books. But beneath it runs that uneasy low hum of pressure: unfinished projects, deferred decisions, goals that never got their moment. We tell ourselves we will handle it next year, as if that is a good distance away rather than just a few weeks. And now our attention drifts toward 2026.
This is when we tell ourselves another familiar story: I’ll get motivated in the new year. After the holidays. After things slow down. Oh, and by the way, things never slow down!
Here’s the truth I keep coming back to: motivation doesn’t arrive on its own. We have to source it. I heard that phrase recently, ‘source your motivation’, and it’s stayed with me. Not because it was clever, but because it was confrontational. It quietly removed a very convenient excuse. If motivation must be sourced, then waiting for it is just procrastination in disguise.
We treat motivation like weather, something that happens to us. Some days it’s there, some days it’s not, and when it’s absent, we assume there’s nothing to do but wait. But motivation isn’t weather. It’s a muscle. It strengthens with use and withers without it.
What I’ve learned is that motivation is rarely the starting line. Action is. The smallest action possible. Momentum follows movement, not the other way around.
This matters as we think about 2026, because the calendar flip creates false hope. We believe January will magically deliver clarity, discipline, and energy. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t, we assume the problem is us. Maybe the problem isn’t us. Maybe it’s that we’re outsourcing motivation to a future version of ourselves instead of sourcing it right now.
Sourcing motivation doesn’t mean grinding harder or forcing enthusiasm. It means deciding quietly, intentionally, what matters enough to act on, even when you don’t feel like it. It means tying effort to values, not mood. Purpose, not pressure.
As this year closes, maybe the question isn’t “What do I want to accomplish in 2026?” Maybe it’s “What am I willing to start before I feel ready?”
Because the people who get things done aren’t necessarily the most motivated, they are the most willing to get things done. They’re the ones who stopped waiting for permission.
“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
As we head into 2026, where might you be waiting to feel motivated instead of choosing to begin? If this resonates, I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts.
Have a motivated weekend.
-Vijay