Are you wasting your time on this?
Would you like to be more motivated?
Every week I receive emails from people telling me they want more motivation. They talk about it like it’s something you can go to the shop and buy: “2 kg of motivation please”.
Now, I don’t know about you but I’ve not seen motivation on the shelves of any shop!
Some people may argue that you can buy motivational stories, films and attend seminars? It’s true these kinds of things can help you get motivated, they may inspire you, and they may even in the right circumstances help you get really motivated!
This is because human beings are social animals; we love stories and we ‘feed’ off each others energy; so being around motivated people is infectious. I bet you have met people who’ve read a book, or who have come back from a training course full of excitement and motivation. You may even have done it yourself.
What happened?
Chances are that a few weeks later, they (you) were back in their old ways!
There is nothing special about being motivated; it is simply an emotional state. I can use my NLP anchoring skills to help people get really motivated and this can be useful in some special circumstances.
But there is a problem with seeking motivation for its own sake.
The problem with seeking motivation for it’s own sake, or because of how you think it will make you feel, is that getting all motivated without having a clear goal to be motivated to achieve is like throwing petrol on a fire – it can be pretty explosive but all too soon it burnt itself out.
Don’t let this happen to you!
Motivation Requires Motive!!!
It is a great feeling being totally motivated working towards something that you really want and I’d encourage you to work towards that.
But next time you hear yourself saying something like, I just want to be motivated, I don’t know how to get motivated etc.
Stop Chasing Rainbows.
Motivation Requires Motive!!
Ask yourself: What do I want to motivated for, what do I want to achieve?
It may sound obvious to you but motivation is a natural side effect of wanting to move away from something you don’t want, or towards something you do want. While this may be a simple distinction and many will laugh and say it’s common sense - remember common sense is far from common practise.
Getting clear on your outcome is a much more useful first step to begining to get you clear and focussed in your search for motivation.
I’ll discuss the next steps over the next few weeks; in the meantime why not let me know what YOU think about this article and finding motivation by adding your comments below.
Anth
March 25th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Motivation sounds like it may be a root cause of Procrastination. I am sure that it is hard to stop procrastination without conquering motivational issues. I missed out on what looked like a good book that you had on procrastination a short time ago because I procrastinated.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Yes I think you are right You need to know what you want and when you know that Your degree of motivation will be driven by how much you desire your need.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I totally agree with your sentiments. (they do read a little bit of frustration on your part, however)
Our team is failing, BIG time to be motivated, and you just (a small just) have given me a new slant on “Why are they in our business anyway?
Please keep your thoughts coming
regards
Mike Drayton
March 26th, 2008 at 12:45 am
I agree.
Motivational music for instance is great if you are just feeling down and need a pick me up. But, that assumes you have a direction and just need a kick start.
Thanks for your input.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:19 am
I agree, it is true I have struggled myself for motivation and when I feel I already find it and start preparing my projects, in short time I’ll need a strong impulse again to keep me on track, because a lot of interferences and routines demand most of my time .
March 26th, 2008 at 2:10 am
I can have good intentions to do something and be motivated to do a project, but then I have to stop because life gets in the way. I have children and love them very much, so they come first and I have to work around them.
March 26th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Yes, Motivation is an emotion. So, if we feel motivated we WILL exercise, eat well etc etc etc. but if we don’t feel motivated we will fall from our challenges. We need to move away from that and learn to JUST DO IT !!! This can only be achieved by seeing the big picture, writing down a plan and following it, prioritise our time and giving ourselves a BIG pat on the back when we make small advances towards our goal.
March 26th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Motivation requires motive is spot on. Another thing I came across recently when working with a client was that in terms of setting and reaching goals, if you attach pain and misery to reaching that goal (i.e. I can’t do this now, I can’t do that), there is no motivation for reaching that goal. However, if you think about the great things that reaching this goal will achieve, the motivation will be so much higher and easier to maintain. Good article thanks!
March 26th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Wendy
Great observation. I have been focused on the pain and misery I will cause and have to endure in reaching my goal and thus keep putting it off.
Thank you for your comments.
March 26th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Brilliant ,simple and therefore applicable,do you have stuff like this on stress management
March 26th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
motivation requires motive…….I could not have worded it better myself. I am in the process of trying to change my current circumstances, those words gave me the encouragement to press on.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Spot on Wendy, when I’m with my coach and we’re setting goals, she always makes a point of asking on a scale how satisfied/happy/joyful/proud achieving it will make me feel and if it’s only coming in at a 5/6 we work a bit more on it to make it as shiny and glittering as possible to keep me motivated towards it. I find picture reminders of the outcome around me also help. Cheers all.
March 27th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Jeni,
True children come first and check out Valerie’s post here for the voice of experience on this.
http://empiricalcoaching.com/blog/?p=13#comments
Who’s to say you can’t be a great mom and still work on your own projects too?
Gabbie
March 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Lack of motivation? Try the Bach Flower Remedy Hornbeam, for procrastination.
March 29th, 2008 at 8:31 am
It sounds straight forward, yet many people don’t know what they want and may never have known what they want.
In some cases people may have just given up an life.
In others quite succesful people may be following a path in life that was not their selection.
Many of us need help with this. Let’s address this problem and the remainder may then fall into place.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I think I finally found it ! Never could get this “law of attraction” stuff,but then I read about the ” I AM STATEMENT” . Instead of saying to myself ” I have my (whatever) finished - no motivation there ! , I am putting it into action by saying , believing (without believing it can happen, why would I even spend time thinking about it!) - and this I am really saying ” I AM transfering money in $1000.00 increments ,from my chequing account to my “debt reconciliation loan”.
Something inside seems to come alive when I say this, and I seem to get motivated to do my lessons on the computer ( Web Page Design course) which I am “believing” will help me move toward my I AM STATEMENT.
Will someone else also try this? And let us know how you make out!
March 29th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Suddenly I feel so alive for the first time in many years about this article of motivation requires motive I now realise that I actually need to identify my motive to be motivated on and working on positively
spot on!
March 30th, 2008 at 2:45 am
Pls i will like to read or have an insight into the article of ” I AM THE STATEMENT” to actually see how I can benefit from it.
Thanx.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:55 am
Nikky
I AM statements are designed to sendout your desires or “do wants” to your subconscious mind as if they already exist. The stronger the language, the faster your sub-conscious mind will kick in and act out the desire. starting with “I am” instead
of “I have”, you can include action words or emotion words that make the statement stronger As an example:
“I have a new custom Harley Davidson motorcycle” is enhanced by saying:
“I am enjoying the freedom I feel on my new custom Harley Davidson motorcycle
Let’s do one more:
“I have a new dream home on the hill” is enhanced by saying:
“We are building memories in our new dream home on the hill.”
I AM Statements can also be WE ARE Statements.
Many of our desires are shared by those we have relationships with; our spouse, our business partners, our children, our friends and associates. It is only obvious that WE ARE statements will be, and should be, used in many cases. In addition, a recent study indicated that a couple that pursues the same desires and goals together are 6 times more likely
to manifest those desires into their life.
If you currently have an I AM list, an affirmation list, or a list of goals, restate them starting with “I am” or “We are”. You want to use as many action or emotion words as you can in your statement. Strengthen up the language that you use. Make your statements easy to remember so you can commit them to memory and replay them in your mind continuously.
Put your I AM statements on 3 x 5 index cards and carry them everywhere you go. It will make all the difference in the world.
Bruce Jenner won a gold medal in the 1976 Summer Olympics and was titled as the world’s greatest athlete. Several years ago he was asked to speak to a group of Olympic hopefuls. He stood in front of the group and asked them how many of them had goals?
Everyone raised their hands. He then asked them how many of them had written their goals down. Again, everyone raised their hands. His final question was this: How many of you have your written goals with you right now? Only 1 athlete raised his hand. His name was Dan O’Brien who went on to win the Gold medal in the same event that Bruce Jenner had won so many years ago.
This story explains the power of having your I AM statements with you at all times.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Hey Valerie, this is great stuff. Thanks for sharing in such helpful detail
Best
Thea
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
I totally agree Motivation requires a motive. We all have different things that motivate us at different times in our lives, right now doing the best for my family is my motive.
April 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I want, and need to confess that the above post regarding ” I AM “Statements are NOT my words. I just “Cut and Pasted” from a training I am involved with on the Web for my new venture. It was so empowering for me that I wanted to share it with my friends on this blog .
Thank you Anth for this opportunity.