Motivation
What is it that keeps you motivated?
Are You Still Motivated? HOW?
I was recently asked “How do you stay motivated?”. I do
speak about motivation, but usually not on a personal level.
So, forgive me, but I will be talking about me, myself, and I
for the next few moments.
The fact is, I am not always motivated. Motivation is not
something that just happens. If you are human at all, you
know that you do not always want to be productive.
The 3 “Selfs”
You like to sit and watch a movie, take a vacation,
take a nap – maybe take another nap. That’s okay.
I enjoy those things, but there is more. The “More” part
is self-responsibility, self-reliance, and self-respect.
I would feel worse taking that nap when I knew
that I had things to do that are going to
keep my family fed (self-reliance).
I know that there are a lot of people who rely on the information
that I give them to help keep THEM motivated,
and that I need to keep up with reliable content (self-reponsibility).
Self-respect is something that I would lose quickly
if I fell into the trap of allowing myself to get lazy.
Self-Responsibility
Let’s begin with Self-Responsibility. Being responsible for
the things that you do, and taking that responsibility
seriously, is a major milestone in becoming successful – at anything!
How do you know if you are a responsible person?
Do you always begin work on time? This means that
even if you are working at home, you begin your
day at approximately the same time each day.
Do you manage distraction effectively? If you can’t control
the things that take you away from your work, then
you are not managing your time very well. You may
mean well, but to others you may be tagged as irresponsible.
Self-Reliance
Self-reliance is important because it shows others that you
are confident in your abilities. If you have confidence in yourself,
then others will be drawn to you, and will be more willing to give
you their time, and their business.
Self-Respect
Self-respect keeps you in touch with yourself, and helps
tie together your other two “Selfs”.
When you have self-respect, you have personal guidelines that
help others like and respect you.
Self-respect holds things like honesty, integrity, and trust at the
forefront of personal and business dealings. Your self-respect keeps
you in touch with what is important to you.
As with anything else, some of these things are learned
through trial and error. Even though we are often taught
these things growing up, listening, understanding, and
believing is often a difficult concept for youthful desires.
I was a hard study. I often thought that I was working hard,
but would fall short of my goals. It wasn’t until I learned
to control myself (mind, body, and soul) that I finally
was able to overcome most (unfortunately not all) of the
obstacles that were standing in my way of success.
I did become successful by working harder, and becoming
stronger. I later realized that I had gained a close
relationship with my 3 “R’s” which made my successes possible.
By mind-body-soul, I do not mean that you must be able to
drop into some state of sub-conscious enlightenment at the
drop of a hat, but that you recognize what directions you
need to be taking – and when.
You need to be able to control your body so that you can
get up and get to work, instead of continually hitting
that “Snooze” button on your alarm. When I get tired, but
I still have work that must be finished, I finish it.
The soul part has nothing to do with being religious, not
that religion will not be helpful at times, but it is
keeping in touch with your “Self”. Something that I have
been talking about for a number of paragraphs!
Self-worth – does it equal extra cash in your pocket?
Self-worth, and how you see yourself
can mean the difference between having extra money at the
end of the month, or needing an extra job.
Having self-worth, and being able to look more kindly on yourself,
has at least 2 major effects on how you do things.
1st Things 1st
– You are more likely to project self-confidence
in the things that you do. Others notice these things very quickly
and may turn away just as quickly.
What does this mean for your bottom line? If you lose
even one person who might have bought from you,
then you are losing valuable revenue that you can’t recoup.
Self-confidence is important in the world of business,
and in life. You can learn self-confidence just as you
can learn to play the piano. Just like the piano, you
must practice generating self-confidence and self-worth.
The more self-worth that you have, the more you are
willing to do the things that will generate a higher
lifestyle for yourself, and therefore, find more money
in your pocket.
How Do I Get, Or Re-gain, Self-confidence?
I really do wish that I could tell you about that
over-the-counter “Magic Pill” that they just came out with
because, it would make things so much easier, but unfortunately,
that pill has not yet been invented, at least to my knowledge.
Just an FYI about what I am going to say to you. Since you are
dealing with habits that have been your “Friends” (or otherwise)
for a gazillion years, it will take a little time and practice
for you to regain self-esteem and self-confidence.
1. Quit calling yourself names
If you have low self-esteem, then you are very prone to
take the blame for anything and everything. Therefore, you
go around telling yourself that “I’m stupid”,
“I am such a bonehead”, and other even less
flattering adjectives.
Here is a major “Marquee Moment” for you. . .
everyone is a “Bonehead” once in a while. And yes, we all
will call ourselves unkind things from time to time.
While you hopefully find that success follows you around,
you may be that person who can’t seem to catch
a break.
The difference between success and failure is that success
does not dwell on misfortune, but consumes opportunity.
2. Don’t Overthink!
Plan and be careful in what you do, but DO!
There are so many of my clients who tell me that they
are still “Trying to put things together”. or, that
they “Just can’t quite get it right” (whatever “Right” is).
The fact is, for example, if you are writing a post for your
blog, then you want to make certain that your spelling and
grammar are correct.
One reason that I am doing this now is that I saw a
very minor grammatical mistake on my PUBLISHED blog post.
YEP! I screw up too.
3. Ask Questions And Talk To Friends
First of all, if you need information, simply ask someone
rather than kicking yourself for not knowing the answers.
Also, I am inviting you to sign up with me here, so that I can
answer your questions when they come up.
Above all, if you are doubting yourself, talk to a friend.
If they are a friend, then they will at least be able to see
things objectively. Obviously, that is something that you
can’t do yourself.
Bob
How Do I Get Motivated When I’m Not?
How do I get motivated when you aren’t?
How do I get motivated is an often asked question.
It is important that you know what motivates
you to do the things that you do?
When you first begin a project, let’s say you are building
a blog, and you are ready to move the world, what exactly
drove you to get started?
You are ready to create a blog to do a multitude
of things (including changing the world as we know it),
and building that business that brings with it
the ability to be your own boss!.
But then what happens to your motivation?
It dwindles, the fire goes out and you are
left with only a few pieces of charcoal.
Now What?
Then you find out that just setting up a blog site
is not quite going to cut it. There is actually work involved,
maybe some of it is a bit difficult to figure out.
For instance, “How do I get people to come to my blog?”
you keep asking yourself. What am I supposed to write about,
I know stuff, but who will want to read what I write?”
Garbage is going through your head, and gives you doubts.
What happens next? Maybe you get depressed, and so, your
motivation fades, and maybe you begin to have doubts.
Maybe, and this really sucks when it happens,
you end up with ALL of that crap going on inside of
your head at once.
How can I get motivated?
Experts tell us that motivation comes in two forms.
The first is that motivation that comes from within you.
You want to work hard to win a gold medal at the Olympics.
You need to save up 30 grand to buy that new car.
These are motivations that come from within.
The second type of motivation then, is that which
comes from something external. An external example
could be working to feed your family. Maybe you feel
compassion, or an obligation to those suffering, and
so you are motivated to give to a charity.
My feelings are, because I work with many clients,
and having an advanced degree in psychology,
that is that any motivation becomes personalized.
In essence, everything that we do is “Selfish”. Of course,
I have no research handy to back this up, and you
should just consider it my opinion.
I will save my reasoning for another time.
For now, let me say that it doesn’t make any
difference what motivates you or why. The important
thing is that you are motivated, and you manage
to get things done.
When you start to ask yourself “How do
I get motivated”, you will want to remember,
and focus on what is important to you, your goals,
and how much time you think that you can waste.
Remember, time is precious, and so is reaching a goal.
Everyone is motivated by something.
Do you know what your motivations are?
Bob
Doing my best so that you can do yours.
Your Motivations – Your Move!
What makes you do things?
What is it that gets you going?
When you have something to do, even if it
is not something that you particularly
enjoy, what makes you either do it right now,
or put it off until later?
Getting Started and Staying Motivated To Improve Productivity
Getting started and to stay motivated can be tough, but losing motivation can really be a productivity “Killer”.
Everyone finds themselves in the situation where they
either just don’t feel like doing things, or they are unable
to put their thoughts together which makes getting started
a bit difficult.
When getting started is a struggle, staying motivated to
continue moving forward can also be a struggle that can
be a real problem for your productivity.
Here are a couple of things that you can do to maintain
your thoughts, stay motivated, and keep your productivity.
First,be sure that you are organized.
Get together the things that you know you will need
before getting started for the day. Â This will be one less
thing to worry about when you begin.
Everyone has SOME method of organizing,
it is just that some methods outperform others.
Whatever your method is, you can update it.
Find ways to consolidate some of the things
that you do to make them more efficient.
Things that you haven’t used for 10 years can
probably be discarded – unless they hold some emotional,
or financial, value.
The problem that you may have is that you consider
everything to have value.
Second, If you find yourself with a mental block,
take out a pad of paper and a pencil (not the computer
keyboard), and just start writing down ideas related to
your project.  At some point something WILL “Click” for you.
Third, If you just don’t seem to be motivated, then break up
your work into short 15-30 minute chunks of time. Â Then take
a 10 minute break. You will likely find that at some point you
will be able to work better, and longer once you actually get started.
Doing my best,
so that you can do yours.
Bob