What do you want out of life ? What do you not want ? Most of us would like to be more toned, yet can't motivate ourselves to go to the gym. Many of us would like to start a business , but never get around to working out a realistic plan. Without the ability to self motivate we are at the mercy of our whims and emotional states, as well as external circumstances. How can we achieve things in our lives if we feel unmotivated ?
Motivating yourself can be really difficult, even with the smallest of things. Somedays, struggling to motivate yourself just to get out of bed on a cold morning can seem impossible. If such a small task can prove such a struggle then its no wonder that bigger goals can seem completely unrealistic. I can understand why people view goal motivation in those terms but it simply isn't true.
I will let you in on a secret, a goal only motivates you in proportion to the rewards it brings. If I tell you there is a cup of coffee waiting for you when you get up it might. Realistically though, it won't, your used to it and it isnt enough of an incentive to actually care about. The controlling factors in this situation are a mundane and low value reward coupled with a short term view point.
However,if I told you that getting up half an hour earlier could earn you an extra $100 that day or week, I bet that you would be a lot more keen. Or if I said, get up half an hour earlier for a week, after that you can do what you want and then you could get up whatever time you wanted and it would turn your finances around, you would be jumping out of bed. Am I right ?
You see, perception of time is very important. A short term view of the effects of your actions will limit your ability to self motivate. However a long term view of life changes will seem unworkable and you will be put off. If someone told you that you could never eat (insert your favourite food here) again you would instantly dismiss it as unworkable. However, if someone said you will lose ten pounds if you avoid that food for thirty days you would be much more willing to try.
In trying to motivate ourselves we should consider these three key elements:
A sufficient reward that will result from taking the action
A long term view of the consequences of taking / not taking the action required
A short term view of implimenting the changes
If you use these three rules of motivation and apply them to your particular circumstance. Motivation is a very complex topic, but without recognising these factors, I don't feel you will be able to leverage any motivation method to its fullest potential.
However there are other factors that can override the other three primary motivators. A fear of failure or success, sometimes known as perfectionism, means that we are unwilling to tackle a task because the ramifications of not doing it well seem too big. We don't want to even attempt it because it seems too big to tackle, too complex, too hard.
The secondary, limiting factors of task complexity and task importance are harder to get over and frustrate many people. Regarding the size and complexity of a task I can only offer this advice, break the task down to the smallest components possible and then focus only on the first task and give it your all.
The limiting nature of perfectionism or fear of consequences is harder to overcome. For this I can recommend two things. Firstly, start a task slowly, this will allow you to get used to the actual act of tackling the task. Secondly, someone once said, if a things worth doing, its worth doing badly. Often, the consequence of not doing a task are far greater than doing it poorly.
However, in our minds, not doing a task, means that there is still chance we could do it perfectly in the future. Often, we are just deluding ourselves. If you feel worried about how well you will perfom, you should put all thoughts aside and start the task immediately. No matter how long you procrastinate you will not perfom significantly better, at least not enough to make a worthwhile difference. You will gain far more by completing the task at what ever level of quality you can and then looking back and learning lessons for the future.
Try to keep the three keys and the limiting factors in mind the next time you need to motivate yourself.
Written by Steve Peters, the controvesial success blogger: www.stevesgoal.com
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