Knowing your “Why” is essential. And we should start with motivation.
What is motivation? Why is it so important to be motivated before we even think to do just about anything? Can we buy that universal solution in a store? What hides behind motivation? What drives it? And what do you do when your motivation is about to dry out?
Understanding Motivation
Behind any action and behaviour, there’s always a reason. The reason that moves us is what we call a motive. Thus, motivation is a derivative of the word motive. Motivation itself is about commitment to do something. It’s when you have a desire to achieve and you feel confident in your abilities to do just about anything! Motivation is a fuel that gives you energy and desire to be continuously interested in chasing your goals.
Often times motivation comes from knowing how satisfied you will be when you finish an important project. That satisfaction and your own approval in the future are playing a big role in building up your motivation. When you celebrate your victories it pushes you to achieve even more by taking new actions.
Motivation nudges us to take action. From a book reading to expand knowledge, to a walk down to the kitchen to get a glass of water and quench your thirst.
One Thing You Need to Learn About Motivation Right Now
Find a goal. What is it that you wish to achieve? What does it mean and how can it improve your life? Once you figure it out, your motivation will start to build up as you have your plan aligned and all is set for action.
Motivation is an essential thing that we need to practice on daily basis.
What is your goal and what do you need to achieve it?
What changes do you need to make in your life and stay motivated to do even more?
Motivation forces us to do everything that is necessary to get to that place and that state of mind that we long for. We work daily to stay motivated and reinforce this strive to go for more and to go further.
The more we succeed in what we do, the more reinforced and confident we feel about taking another action.
After watching Tony Robbins explaining motivation in the video below, I now see it as a cycle: motivation >> action>> outcome >> confidence>> new motivation…
So to succeed, we need the motivation that will lead us towards taking actions. The outcome of those actions will lead towards stronger confidence and new motivation to take further actions. This cycle is vital to understand and learn because it will take you to a better life and long lasting success. As Tony Robbins says, successful people become even more successful and we see it every day. The opposite is also true. If you lose your motivation, it will lead to a lack of action, which will bring undesirable outcomes and loss of confidence. This is why demotivated people end up in an even worse state of mind.
How do we kickstart that motivation without having any confidence in a positive outcome? Well, the exercise here is simple yet powerful. Let’s talk about visualisations.
Visualising success is one of the strongest tools to boost your motivation. By visualising the desired outcome you fool subconscious into thinking that you already got what you wanted. It lets you experience the actual moment of success and how it feels like. That vision reinforces your motivation to take action. And once you feel your motivation building up, don’t delay taking action. Always remember the motivation cycle and keep reinforcing it with visualisations and actions.
We made a series of decisions that led us to this day. You can trace back the steps and understand where you’ve gone right and wrong and what outcomes made you feel more confident. Have you ever thought about your motivation behind every single thing you do? Now that we understand why we need motivation and how to feed it, let’s look at how it works and 2 different types of motivation.
How Motivation Works
“There are two things that motivate people to success: inspiration and desperation” – Tony Robbins
What drives you: inspiration or desperation?
I came across an inspiring fact about Edwin Land. The world knows him as a brilliant inventor of instant photography and the co-founder of Polaroid Corporation. He had a little daughter he loved. And she was curious, impatient and always wanted to see a picture of herself straight away after it was taken. And she relentlessly asked her dad, Edwin Land, why it took ages to develop photos into pictures?
He wanted to do whatever he could to make his little girl happy. So he asked the same question a million times. And then he came up with a revolutionary solution at the time! This was exactly the spark that inspired Land to put the whole development process right into the camera.
Another story leads us to Bill Gates who saw the future of computing when he stumbled across an ad for a personal computer kit in Popular Mechanics Magazine. He then picked a phone and called his mum. He told her that she might not hear from him for up to six months because he got inspired to write a computer program. And somehow he knew that IBM was going to buy it. And this program is today known worldwide as MS-DOS.
Desperation nudges motivation and turns people’s lives around.
It doesn’t matter who we are: athletes, celebrities, scientists or entrepreneurs. The negativity of desperation or the positivity of inspiration pushes us to take action making an impact on our lives.
When do we need to GET MOTIVATED? Simple. I need it when I don’t feel like doing something but I want it to be done. It’s when we dream about the results and think how hard it is to get all excited about the process itself.
Imagine, you have to complete a report by noon, but the subject of the report is boring and uninspiring. Thus, you don’t feel the slightest desire to do it, you just want it done already. We want the results, not our involvement in the process. That’s the case when we need to get our motivation strategy to take action ready!
Types Of Motivation.
Find Your Motivation Direction.
Why some of us have such a hard time motivating ourselves?
Not that long ago I thought that motivation is a secret formula that was only available to people we might define as successful. But I’ve learned instead that motivation is a mental strategy we can learn to use anytime.
There are 2 types of motivation.
1. Away From Pain Motivation
Imagine this.
Monday morning and the alarm just went off. And then you mumble to yourself something like: What? Is it morning already? Oh, no… and then you hit the snooze button. Then the alarm goes off again and again and your inner voice keeps telling you that you will be late. This means that you have to skip breakfast. Next thing you see is the image of your boss in your mind making an embarrassing comment “Late again?” So you get up, and you move AWAY FROM that mental image of the consequences of sleeping in. Then you open your browser and check your bank account. It’s low. Makes you feel uneasy. You pick up your mail and see the bills piling up. You get fed up with the situation and decide to try and research alternative routes to extra income. Again, you got disturbed by your current situation and you decided to move AWAY FROM it by taking action.
This is how away from pain motivation works. You get motivated because you want to move away from a situation. You get desperate, you are now against the wall and you have to take action to change things around.
2. Towards Pleasure Motivation
In contrast, now imagine something different.
As soon as your alarm goes off on Monday morning, you start thinking about a nice breakfast that you will have in a few moments. Then you think that if you get up fast, you will have time to read some news. Then you have time to get ready for work and your boss might compliment you again on how punctual you are. You think about all the projects and you get excited about finishing them soon. So you get up full of hopes and inspiration for the day ahead of you. You MOVE TOWARDS something you perceive as pleasant and something that you want.
The more you use towards pleasure motivation the closer you are to achieving your goals.
In conclusion
Motivation always has its direction. We move away from stress, pain and misery; Or we move towards relaxation, comfort, wealth and things that we want in life. Both directions used on daily basis and are useful in different situations.
Start using the above techniques to bring yourself closer to your dreams! Whether you want to get out of a tricky situation or you have a goal to move towards to – take action today!
originally published: 6 Feb 2014