"You don't need motivation, you need movement."
~ 2 minutes to read
Every now and then my IG Reels aglorithm shows me something that snaps me outta that doomscrolling funk and makes me go woah.
This reel by @hattie_willoughby7 was one of them.
Transcript of Reel
Please don't say I didn't warn you, because if you're not ready to be held accountable, scroll right now, because at the age of 54 I'm too grown not to be telling you what you need to hear.
You're wasting years when consistency would have changed your entire life by now. You want soft life results with survival habits. It's not that you don't know what to do, it's that you still don't believe that you deserve what comes next. You do.
You don't need motivation, you need movement. Your blessing has been at the door, but you won't get up to unlock it. You want next level peace, but you won't break up with chaos.
Your future self is starving, while you feed your excuses three meals a day. You don't need a push, you need to finally stop pulling yourself backwards. See, we get it all wrong: discipline isn't punishment, it's how you love your future self. It's time to get it together, hope that helps.
My thoughts
There were two things that really felt like a gut punch to me:
- It's not that you don't know what to do, it's that you still don't believe that you deserve what comes next. You do.
- You don't need motivation, you need movement.
These are two things that I almost constantly feel unsure about. I frequently lean on the question "what should I do?" as a crutch and excuse to not do anything. But the truth is, I do know what I need to do. I know the directions I want to go in, and that it will take a lot of work, and I think she's right. I think there's a part of me that believes I don't deserve whatever goodness will come with doing that work.
And oh the question of fuhreaking motifuckinvation. I don't know if this was the first time I heard the sentiment "you don't need motivation, you need movement", but for whatever reason, hearing it this time was a shock to my system, a moment of "Oh, of course, that is the solution! I need to stop trying to cultivate the elusive feeling of motivation, and just fucking move." For a while, my phone background was a quote from Henri Matisse: "Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working." Apparently I didn't learn that lesson lol.
So my takeaways from this reel:
- replace "idk what to do" with "I deserve the goodness that will come when I pursue my vision and put in the work"
- replace "how can I motivate myself to do X?" with "what's the smallest movement I can take in that direction?"
- "you need movement" also inspired me to get a tattoo of a really really cute dancing figure. My appointment is in July with an artist I've been following for a while and I'm very excited.
- Written: 23 Jun, 2025
- Published: 26 Jun, 2025
- Last updated: 2Â months, 1Â week ago
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