>, that type of motivation, whatever you call it, does not precede prior success in that activity; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, will go away i

>, that type of motivation, whatever you call it, does not precede prior success in that activity; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, will go away in the face of hardships and struggles; that type of motivation, whatever you call it, is not necessary to perform the task at hand. I didn't downvote but I wanted to comment that your explanation doesn't work for a lot of "unmotivated" people. It just moves the difficulty/mystery to a different set of words in an attempt to describe it. E.g. "How do I get that intitial urge?/trigger?/spark?/agitation? ... to start the activity that creates post-activity motivation?" Which of course, the answer always ultimately ends up with a variation of ... "You Just Need To Start". Ah yes, "just start". And thus, we circle back to the same Mt Everest of difficulty for a lot of unmotivated people. They're still stuck and can't get started. I think the issue is that there are well-meaning people who honestly think they're "not motivated" and then "just force themselves to get started on acting anyway". Now, being in the groove of acting can then become the self-reinforcing "motivation". They then think this personal experience of cause-&-effect of acting-precedes-motivation in their mind can be transferred to other people. But it does not work on a lot of unmotivated people. So, those who are still struggling look for any mental hacks that might work better than "just get started instead of waiting for motivation".