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A reflective essay by Josiah of Whispered Picks
There was a time I believed motivation was everything.
That if I could just feel fired up enough, if the playlist was right and the energy aligned, I could do anything. And for a while, that worked. I’d write with fire in my chest, dream like I had the wind at my back, and set goals as if nothing could stop me.
But the truth about motivation is that it leaves.
It doesn’t say goodbye. It doesn’t warn you before it disappears. One day it’s there, pushing you forward like a trusted friend, and the next you’re alone at your desk, wondering why everything feels heavy.
It took me a while to realize:
What I needed wasn’t more motivation. It was a new mindset.
The Illusion of the Spark
Motivation is seductive.
It’s the voice that whispers, “This is your moment.”
It makes action feel romantic, purpose feel cinematic. In those moments, you imagine your entire life changing in a single sunrise. Your goals feel light, your focus laser-sharp, and the world “finally” seems to make space for your ambition.
But here’s the catch:
Motivation lies.
It tells you that feeling ready is a requirement for starting.
It convinces you that if it’s meant to be, it’ll feel good, easy, aligned, full of flow.
And it disappears the moment things get hard, quiet, or inconvenient.
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.”
James Clear
The truth is, most of us build our lives around emotional weather.
We start when we’re excited. We quit when we’re not.
We make promises in the heat of inspiration and abandon them in the cold of discomfort.
We scroll looking for the next quote, next podcast, next hit of energy.
We call it “research” or “waiting for clarity.”
But most times, it’s avoidance in disguise.
And the hardest part?
We don’t even notice it. Because motivation feels like progress even when nothing’s really moving.
If you live like that chasing spark, avoiding systems you’ll always create in flashes. But you’ll never build a fire big enough to last.
The spark is meant to ignite.
But it’s not meant to sustain.
And the longer you confuse the two, the longer you’ll stay stuck in that loop over and over and over again been there:
Inspired → Start → Fade → Stop → Wait → Repeat
Real growth? Real consistency?
It lives in the unsexy places the places where no one claps, no one sees, and no part of you feels like it. But you do it anyway.
Not because motivation showed up.
But because you did.
The Power of Mindset
There’s a quiet strength in the people who keep going
not because life is working, not because the stars aligned,
but because somewhere deep inside, they made a decision.
A silent contract.
Not loud. Not pretty. Not for show.
Just: “I’m not going to leave myself this time.”
We talk about mindset like it’s a strategy.
But for me, mindset became survival.
It became the one thing I could choose when I had no energy, no motivation, and no idea what I was even chasing anymore.
So what is mindset?
It’s not hype. It’s not hustle.
It’s not a quote on your wall or the playlist you put on when you’re trying to feel something again.
Mindset is a lens.
It’s how you interpret silence. How you respond to slow progress.
It’s your internal response when no one checks on you and you still decide to check in on yourself.
It’s the way you treat your process especially when it’s ugly yes ugly.
It’s how you speak to yourself when nothing is growing yet.
Mindset says:
“Even when it feels pointless, I’m not quitting on me.”
I used to ask myself:
“How do I stay motivated?”
But that question came from fear.
From the part of me that only knew how to move when the feeling was right.
From the part that needed hype to believe I mattered.
But one night, in one of those moments where everything was still but heavy,
I asked something different:
“Who am I becoming every time I show up especially when I don’t want to?”
And bro, that question broke me open.
Because it exposed how much I tied my value to how productive I looked.
How much I craved external proof that I was making it.
How loud the world had gotten inside my own mind.
People chase results.
But they ignore the identity behind the action.
They want the glow but run from the fire.
You don’t become whole by doing more.
You become whole by staying with yourself through all the versions of you that feel lost, uncertain, and slow.
And that…
That’s what mindset is according to me obviously.
It’s not waking up every day feeling powerful.
It’s waking up tired, bitter, numb
and still choosing to speak kindly to your reflection.
To hold yourself steady.
To plant a seed even when the soil looks dry.
“Mindset isn’t what you say when you’re winning.
It’s what you whisper to yourself when everything feels like it’s falling apart.”
Me, mid-breakdown. No captions. No witnesses.
We’ve glorified performance.
But healing doesn’t look like achievement.
Healing looks like honest effort.
Like picking yourself back up without needing a camera on.
Like not letting a rough patch rewrite your story.
So, no you don’t need more motivation.
That’s the old lie. That’s the emotional sugar we keep feeding ourselves.
What you need is a better agreement with your soul.
One that says:
- “Even if I don’t post it, it still counts.”
- “Even if I’m not fast, I’m not failing.”
- “Even if no one sees me growing ……… I am.”
Because that version of you?
The one who’s still standing in the middle of the storm,
the one who’s still trying, still honest, still here…
That version is becoming.
And no algorithm can measure that.
What I Learned in the Waiting
There’s a silence that settles in after the spark dies.
It’s not loud, it’s not dramatic it’s still. Almost sacred.
But for a while, I mistook it for failure.
That silence would come after the rush. After the rush of starting something new….. a new idea, a new project, a new promise I’d whispered to myself late at night when the fire in my chest burned too loud to sleep.
And then it would fade.
Quietly. Unapologetically.
I used to panic when that happened.
I’d scroll through the work of others, hoping their motion would jolt me back into mine.
I’d open tabs I didn’t read, podcasts I didn’t finish, videos that felt like noise.
All because I didn’t know how to sit in the stillness without calling it laziness.
“You’re just not built for this.”
That voice always came, always sharp.
But it wasn’t truth it was my impatience dressed up as logic.
You see, the waiting taught me something motivation never could:
Real growth doesn’t always look like movement.
Sometimes it looks like staying. Sitting. Listening.
Sometimes it’s watching the old stories in your head try to convince you to quit and you… don’t.
I learned that just because the fire isn’t visible doesn’t mean it’s gone.
Some days, the fire moves inward.
It becomes the hard questions you ask yourself.
It becomes the journal pages no one will read.
It becomes the courage to let things feel empty… without trying to fill them.
“Everyone wants to glow. No one wants to burn.”
That line hit me one night, and I wrote it in my notes app like it was scripture.
So what did the waiting give me?
It gave me clarity.
It stripped the noise.
It made me remember why I started, without the filter of public validation.
And maybe that’s the point.
Maybe the pause is not the problem.
Maybe it’s the proving ground where hype dies and truth gets loud.
“Not every day will feel productive. But every day can be purposeful if you’re willing to stay.”
Whispered Picks
Building Without the Buzz
There’s a myth that greatness is born out of passion, fire, and loud moments of triumph. But that’s only half the story. What nobody talks about what almost no one is honest enough to admit is the long, quiet stretch in between. The stretch where you show up every day, but the world is silent. The days when the likes don’t come, the praise is absent, and your heart starts to whisper doubts louder than any cheer.
I’ve been in that place more times than I care to count. Posting, creating, moving forward yet feeling like I was shouting into an empty room. The silence was crushing. It made me question everything: Is this worth it? Am I fooling myself? What if nobody ever sees this?
And it’s in those moments that the real test begins.
Because the spark, the motivation …that first burst of energy is a gift. But it’s fleeting. And the work that lasts? It happens in the dull spaces between sparks. It happens when the excitement is gone, but the decision remains.
Consistency, I learned, is not a flashy trophy. It’s not a viral post or a moment of recognition. It’s a quiet promise you make to yourself, often in solitude and doubt, to keep going anyway.
I remember the nights when I sat with my own frustration, wondering if the grind was futile. No applause. No validation. Just the deep, uneasy feeling of doing something because it mattered to someone, maybe just to me. And that feeling? It’s sacred.
That’s what mindset is, too. Not some grandiose state of perpetual hype. It’s the unspoken agreement you keep with yourself when no one else is watching, when the outside world is indifferent.
So, I stopped chasing the buzz. I stopped measuring success by how loud the world responded. Instead, I began to ask: Who am I becoming in this quiet work? Not the fleeting image of success, but the person who shows up every day, through the silence and the struggle.
If you’re in that quiet space now, wondering if your effort is in vain, know this: You are not behind. You are not forgotten. You are becoming. And becoming slow, steady, honest is the most powerful kind of growth there is.
The Gentle Reminder
If you made it this far, thank you. That means you’re still here still listening to yourself, still wrestling with the questions no one else wants to answer.
Here’s what I want you to know:
You don’t need more motivation.
You don’t need to wait for the perfect moment or the perfect feeling.
You don’t need the world’s applause or anyone’s validation.
What you need is to trust the process even when it’s invisible, even when it’s lonely, even when it hurts.
Because this “this becoming” is the real work.
The work that doesn’t make headlines but changes lives.
Your worth isn’t tied to how fast you move or how loud you shout.
It’s tied to the commitment you make to yourself
to keep showing up, keep learning, keep growing.
One step. One day. One breath.
That’s all it takes.
And in that steady, silent persistence lies your true power.
So if you’re tired, discouraged, or doubting…. pause.
Look inward.
And remember:
You’re not behind.
You’re not lost.
You are becoming.
And that’s everything.
Your story matters.
Drop a comment below let’s talk about where you’re at.
And subscribe to keep growing with me, even when it’s tough.
We’re in this together….. peace.
