People struggle with motivation all the time. Motivation actually changes daily and even hourly or can even change in a flash. You get yourself all set to do something and then one little text, email, even a song, smell can totally change your direction. Sometimes for the good, sometimes for the bad.
Have you ever had that happen?
Of course you have. We all have. But what you do with that is the big issue. Generally we can talk ourselves into positive motivation. Negative motivation seems to have its own engine and speeds up as it rolls. Sometimes moving so fast that you become completely derailed from the plan. Guess what? This makes you human.
Sometimes we think we are the only people out there struggling with ‘whatever’. That is totally not true. As much as we would like to think we are unique, we are not as unique as we would like to think. Our situation may be unique, but, we all deal with a lot of the same things.
Something that I have learned when I have studied motivation is that we all have slightly different ways get and stay motivated. There are really only a few different types of things that motivate us, there is always a twist that makes ours unique, but generally, a few types.
One big motivation I have come to realize is that in general, people move away from pain more than they move toward something great.
Think about that, think about yourself, does this apply to you? I be it does. Maybe not all the time, but most times it is true.
Why?
Well, in my opinion, I think it’s because we have all experienced pain. We know what it feels like to lose something or someone. We know what hurt feels like. Both emotionally and physically. We can relate on a personal basis without much imagination needed. But when we look to moving toward something, we really don’t know what it will be like. We know what we are ready to move away from. What we want to avoid, but we really can’t imagine what the good at the end of the tunnel really looks like. We can try to imagine. We can form a hope of what it will be like. We can see what others in that ‘good place’ look like. But, again, it is just our imagination, hopes and dreams of what it will be like for us.
This kind of sucks doesn’t it. Well, yes it does. Sorry!
We lose motivation because we lose the vision of what it will look like when we reach our goal. The road to our goal is not straightforward, so we tend to get lost, a little distracted and then sometimes even move our goal. We are working toward something that can at times feel like a fantasy. We sometimes work so long toward that goal, that we forget what we are really working toward.
So what do we do with this?
- We pull up our sassy pants, and get right back at it. The goal is still there. It hasn’t moved. We still want ‘that’ thing. We just got a little lost.
- Revisit the pain point you are travelling from. Sometimes we need to look at why we started on this journey to get us moving in the right direction.
- Set up a new plan to achieve our goal. If you have strayed away from the path, maybe its because your plan was not realistic.
- Refocus on what it is you really want. Make sure what you are working toward is really what you want.
- Find an accountability partner to keep you moving in the right direction.
- Plan little celebrations as you hit smaller achievable goals. Rewarding yourself along your journey goes a long way to keep you motivated.
Motivation is a really difficult thing to keep positive all the time, so do what you can. Realize that you are worth the work. You can do it. We believe in you!
Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.- Mario Andretti
