What Is the Arc of Influence?

Have you ever spent time with someone and after you go your separate ways, you feel a little bit more motivated?  Perhaps your spirit is a little higher and you have the desire to make a change in your life.  People who are highly disciplined or have achieved things we aspire to have an arc of influence.  This arc of influence gives us a strong desire to be like this person and make changes in our lives to accomplish it.  The downside is that the arc of influence has diminishing returns, just like watching a motivational video, the effect is only temporary and before we know it, we are back to our old ways. 

Tom Bilyeu in his podcast Impact Theory, tells listeners that on average, he has an arc of influence on people that begins to decline after 2 hours.  When attending his live events or even just listening to his podcast, they become motivated to make a change, but after around 2 hours the motivation begins to fade, and for most, after 2 days the motivation is completely gone and it’s as if they had never listened to him speak.  That’s why many people now believe that discipline is much more important than motivation to accomplish their goals and while I am a big advocate of discipline, I believe motivation still has its place and can be beneficial.

Using Motivation to Build a Habit

Motivation works as a great middleman when we do not have the discipline to turn something into a habit but do have the desire to improve at something.  Motivation will get you off the couch and started and I strategically would motivate myself again when I felt the arc of influence fading.  An example of this practice would be watching a motivational video on YouTube, the rest of the day we are being good.  Instead of waiting for it to wear off, we listen to a podcast that inspires us the following morning.  The key to using motivation as a tool is to be aware of when the motivation is fading and have the tools available to motivate yourself again. 

Choosing the Motivational Content

I usually have a collection of songs, videos, podcasts, articles, or quotes that are always ready when I need a boost in motivation, you can’t use the same piece of content every time because it will get boring and not give you any more motivation.  Instead, I like to keep it fresh and rotate the content around.   Once you are aware of when you need motivation and have the toolkit to deliver that motivation quickly, you are ready to move on to the final step. 

Convert the Motivation to Discipline

The action that we have used our motivational toolkit on needs to eventually become a habit.  Usually, it takes me 1-2 weeks of using the motivation method to notice that I am doing the thing I needed motivation for without the motivation.  That’s when you know you have acquired real discipline for this action, and it no longer requires you to be motivated to do it.  You’ll notice you get up to work out because it’s something you do now, not because you are motivated to do it.  You eat clean because it’s part of your lifestyle now, not because you’re motivated.  The key for this tool to work is that the action needs to eventually become a habit.  Once the habit is there, we can use our motivational toolkit on something new.  Everyone is different and you need to curate your timing and content around your own life and figure out what works best for you.

Call to Action

This upcoming week try to find a playlist of content that resonates with you deeply, try finding content in a variety of different mediums so they can be accessible, regardless of the situation.  Once you have created this list, find how long of an arc of influence it has on you, and when it begins to decline.  Once you are ready, pick a realistic action that you want to become a habit and try the motivational toolkit on it until you no longer require motivation to do it consistently.  I would love to hear if this method works for you and what changes you needed to make to adjust it to your lifestyle.