When it comes to consuming motivational content (books, videos, podcasts, movies, etc.), as with anything, it’s important to strike the optimal balance.
If you consume too little motivational content, you might not be motivated enough to get much done. But if you consume too much motivational content, you might not get anything done because you’ve been spending all your time getting motivated.
The solution is to budget your consumption. You should spend only as much time consuming motivational content as needed to stay motivated, and the rest of your time should be spent actually getting something done. For me that translates to a couple of hours per week listening to my favorite podcast, or reading an inspiring biography or whatever it may be.
The problem is that just feeling motivated by itself feels good. Just by feeling motivated, you feel like you’re in a better position than if you weren’t. That’s true in a way, but it’s not really true unless you actually use that motivation to do something beneficial.
Feeling motivated shouldn’t be the end, even though it feels good. Eventually you’ll become frustrated that you had all this motivation and didn’t really do anything with it. Motivation is a means to an end, that is getting something done that is actually beneficial to your life.
Stay motivated, but more importantly, be productive.