Yep, Mood Follows Action (here’s why + 8 tips)
Ah, illusive motivation and creative inspiration – always showing up when trying to fall asleep or showering. That will never go away, but we do have more control than we think. Because the verdict is in, and yes, mood follows action.
Of course, mood doesn’t always follow action – sometimes we’re just inspired and mood controls our actions. But this is an unreliable strategy for getting things done and reaching goals.
So, this post will explore why mood follows action so often and some effective tips to better control our mood, motivation and inspiration for getting more things done.
So let’s skip the small talk – let’s dive right in.
Why Mood Follows Action
I think we’ve all experienced this phenomenon.
You know how it goes. You’re not necessarily “feeling it”, but you gotta start anyways. Then, after starting, motivation just shows up and you end up crushing it. But why?
Taking action takes away the fear and discomfort of the unknown. Taking action hyper focuses your attention away from the future (or past) and places you in the present.
Action creates results, which creates incredible feelings and mood.
Sometimes, inspiration and mood come first – for sure – but it’s unreliable. So instead of waiting for the “right moment”, try just taking action and start controlling your inspiration and mood better.
Creating Mood and Motivation (8 tips)
Realizing and acknowledging that mood follows action (commonly) is the first step. Now let’s control it.
Below are some of my favorite tips and things that work for me – so give them a fair shot and I’m confident you’ll find they work.
Of course, if you’ve got any other tricks you use, let me know in the comment – I’d love to hear them!
1. Use the Activation Energy Principle for Motivation
The activation principle is simple in theory – but surprisingly difficult in practice.
Essentially, it’s the amount of energy required to start something and take the first step. It comes from physics and chemistry to describe the minimum amount of energy needed to energize or activate molecules.
So in our case, we’re the molecules needing to be energized.
So the benefit of this principle is this (in my view): Focusing on the minimum energy required to just start is easier, less intimidating and feasible – meaning we’re more likely to try.
If our theory holds up, mood will take over shortly after starting and we push through, continuing to work and gain momentum. Of course, not every day will be a W, but this is an effective truth in most cases.
It’s the starting that we get hung up on.
2. Develop A Growth Mindset
Having the right mindset is incredibly important for starting and staying the course.
And a growth mindset is the key that many entrepreneurs, musicians and artists and successful leaders use.
A growth mindset is one that views failures and setbacks as opportunities and paths forward and believes that any skill or talent can be learned or bettered.
My weaknesses excite me. I’m constantly motivated to take action – that initial first step – simply because of the weaknesses that I'm working to improve.
Because 1.) I know that any weakness can be improved upon, and 2.) I know that on the other side of improving those weaknesses is me getting closer to my goals and vision.
I’m always motivated by this. So I’d recommend starting a list of all your strengths and all your weaknesses.
I also add an inbetween list of things I’m actively working on.
I periodically update this list and review it. And I’m usually surprised at how many weak points I’ve improved over the past few months even.
TIP: I label all of my weaknesses as “Exciting Weaknesses – Skills to Look Forward To”. It’s subtle and supports my growth mindset and belief framework.
3. Use Timeboxing
Timeboxing is just a fancy word for scheduling, really – but with more intention and focus on active practice for reaching our goals and doing the work necessary.
Timeboxing is a technique where you designate a specific amount of time for a specific task or activity (and nothing else).
It helps to eliminate distraction and keeps focus and organizes our life and tasks.
You may block out one longer period of time or split things up into short intervals of focus – whatever works best for you.
For me, I like to schedule at least three hours every night for focused music practice (split between production, songwriting, singing practice and learning new skills).
Another trick is to turn off your social media and any internet or related distractions – it’s focus time.
Planning ahead using the timeboxing technique really helps prepare us mentally and strengthens the whole action-first-mood-later perspective and approach to things.
4. Create A Workflow
This next tip builds off of timeboxing nicely. My music production workflow is a core part of my timeboxing routine.
A workflow is basically what it sounds like. It’s a system or process for organizing your tasks and work.
A good workflow should also recognize bottlenecks or weaknesses, and have an action plan or workaround for when those things inevitably pop up.
For example, in the beginning of my music production journey, I would tend to focus too much on sound selection and design early on in the songwriting process.
I could easily spend an hour sifting through virtual instruments and plugins trying to get some “perfect” sound, which would probably change later as the song took shape and evolved.
So I wrote this down as one of my bottlenecks and practiced recognizing it as soon as it came up. I would then acknowledge it and simply move on to the more important tasks that actually made me a better producer and got me closer to my goals.
Of course, sound design is important – but if my goal or task for the day is to arrange a song and get the core structure finished, then my dillydallying would only hold me back.
As I’ve gotten better at music production, my ability to juggle arranging, sound design and other songwriting elements all at once has improved.
But when I was still a beginner, having a workflow strategy was incredibly helpful for improving and meeting goals.
5. Know Your Goals (And Break Them Down)
Knowing your goals will add structure and foundation to your mindset, workflow and timeboxing routine.
But we all have goals – and they’re often the same: make more money, achieve better health and wellness or happiness and develop meaningful relationships.
These are amazing goals and I have them too. But why do some people meet these goals while others don’t? Well, there are many reasons – but let’s focus on just one potential reason today.
That reason is this: being strategic.
Breaking down macro goals into micro goals, and then further breaking down your micro goals into nano goals (or tasks) to complete is incredibly powerful.
If you’re looking for a way to capitalize on this whole mood-follows-action rule, then breaking things down into bite-sized and manageable tasks is one of the best tricks in the book.
It’s motivating and way less stressful to focus on completed nano tasks and micro goals than being overwhelmed by the big dream you may have, which is more realistically years away.
Striving to become just 1% better motivates you to take action. Working on something for just 5 minutes is so doable.
But these daily actions add up to a serious punch (thanks to the math behind compound interest).
So write down your large goals – go big – then reverse engineer things into micro moments and nano steps to reach checkpoints.
Then do what you need to do, 1% at a time.
6. Define Your Values, Your Why and Your Purpose
Similar to goals (and helpful for more clearly defining them) is your values, your driving purpose and your why.
These things can be like guardrails to your journey. They can act as your own personal litmus test of where to focus your attention and what things to do first.
So get introspective and consider your personal values and purpose. Write them down. Dial in on your why and your reasons for doing the things you want to do.
For me, I want to inspire more creatives and adventure-seekers to shift their mindsets and embrace setbacks more. To be more inspired and motivated to look silly and do awesome things that scare us.
Remembering my values and my why motivates action, and strengthens my mood to continue taking action.
Here are some helpful resources to hone in on your values, why and purpose:
5 Steps to Defining Your Why (my post)
Jay Shetty (podcast, YouTube, books)
Tom Bilyeu (does a lot of interviews and motivational videos – great for reframing your mindset and finding meaning or purpose to your actions)
7. Identify Sources of Inspiration and Burnout
I’ve experienced my fair share of burnout as a musician. But identifying the sources of those feelings has helped tremendously.
We all reach that point of burning out and feeling like stopping, giving up or desperately looking for inspiration. It’s normal – even if you love your work.
But pushing past those feelings and continuing to chip away at your goals and tasks is powerful.
Of course, I’m all for taking some much needed rest and relaxing. But one other strategy to address burnout (and take more action) is to pinpoint the causes.
So next time you’re feeling like you’ve run yourself into the ground, or it feels like you’re pulling teeth to get something done, ask yourself why.
What parts of your work are causing you to feel burned out and uninspired? Alternatively, what things create motivation and inspiration for you?
Simply avoiding the things that cause burnout and doing more of the things you love is the easiest solution – but not always practical (I mean, I can’t just not do some of my tasks).
So here are some strategies to power through, take action and better control your mood:
Focus on the macro and how those tasks relate to your values, purpose or goals
If you can, delegate or automate the unfulfilling tasks
Focus on just doing the task for 5 minutes (you’ll likely end up working for longer)
Talk it out with something – vent
8. Build Out Your Inner and Outer Circle
I’m a huge supporter for controlling your surrounding and inner circle as a way to control your actions, motivation and mood.
And it makes sense.
Jim Rohn talks about how we become the average of the 5 closest people in our lives.
So start networking and building out your network to surround yourself with more people who are closer to where you want to be or share similar goals and mindsets. It’s a powerful thing.
Similarly, we can build out what I like to call our outer circle. The inner circle includes people we know and regularly spend time with.
Our outer circle is make up of people that we don’t necessarily know personally – and have likely never even met.
But we can learn from them and study their mindset, strategies and routines.
For example, I love to watch and listen to people like Gary Vee, Jay Shetty, Kendrick Lamar and a long list of other big names.
I don’t know these people – but I’ve downloaded their ways of thinking and approach to life.
It’s changed my mindset and motivation. For me, taking action is much easier.
I ask myself: what would this person I look up to do in this situation?
Similarly, you can ask yourself: what would the future ideal version of myself do in this situation?
We’re constantly influenced by the people around us and the people we watch and listen to – so choose wisely.
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