Motiv-Hate or Motivate
5 secrets for unlimited motivation
In life we need energy to live, exist and do things with our life and with others. However, sometimes we can lose our lives by convincing ourselves not to. Like this:
• I just can’t be bothered
• It’s too much effort, I’m tired
• It’s not worth it, who cares?
• Sure, one of these days…
• Yes, I know I should, but…
Sounds familiar? If it is you, and you tell yourself or others, you are missing one of the key ingredients in the recipe of life, MOTIVATION:
MOTIVATION; the psychological characteristic that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action
So we can define motivation, but does that help? It’s usually not enough! What is this thing called ‘motivation’? Where do you find it? How can we motivate ourselves?
The first secret to share here is Secret No.1 ‘motivation is not a thing’, it is not a noun. You’ll never stumble upon motivation someone left in the bathroom, or find a piece in the fridge! Has anyone ever bought a kilo of motivation in the store? I do not think so!
If that’s the case, then what is motivation, how can we stay motivated, and most importantly, how can we motivate ourselves? Would you like unlimited motivation, does this interest you? If so, keep reading because that is the design of this article.
Motivation is a set of strategies or thought processes that we execute by ourselves… Did you realize what you just read? ‘… That we run ourselves! What does this mean? It means that we are responsible for how motivated or not we are! It means that there is no point in looking for someone else to motivate us; in fact it is impossible for another person to motivate us, only we can decide what motivates us or not. So motivation secret number 2 is ‘we are responsible for the amount of motivation we have’. Can you start to feel the power you have over yourself when you take responsibility for yourself?
What drives us to feel motivated? What drives motivation? Also, how does motivation drive us toward what we want, need, or believe? What is this fuel? The answer leads us to secret No. 3, ’emotions are the fuel of motivation’ and, ultimately, they are what drives us! Let’s take a look at how emotions ‘prompt’ us to action, the best place to start may be with the word ’emotion’.
E-motion, by taking a closer look at this word we can see its structure.
‘E-energy in motion’; Our emotions are our energy. In general, we can classify emotions into three distinctive categories:
• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
Since we can define our emotions into these three simple types, what does that say about our energy as well? Well, we can make the same distinctions for our types of energy; positive, neutral and negative energy. This brings us to Secret No.4 ‘People are motivated and can motivate themselves using these 3 different types of energy’ you can too!
The effect of positive emotion often gives us the energy to move towards what we want or need, in some way we feel attracted or attracted (motivated). As we experience neutral emotions we can ‘take it or leave it’ and with negative emotions we experience discomfort, a form of pain and (we are motivated) try to get or get away from the cause of such. We can represent this with a diagram:
The axis of motivation
Whether we move away from pain and consequences or move closer to good feelings or results in our life, both create energy that we set in motion to do something. This is the motivation. Now what this gives us is a strategy for developing unlimited motivation for anything we want to do or have in life.
In general, humans have a preference for the end of the motivational axis that they motivate or by which they are motivated. We can ask ourselves some questions to identify our own preference to motivate ourselves. Ask yourself the following questions and see if you are motivated toward what you want or away from what you don’t want:
I get out of bed in the morning;
1. Because I have to (away from)
2. Because I want to start the day (towards)
I take my medicine regularly;
1. Because I want to be well and live life as fully as I can (towards)
2. Because if I don’t I’ll get sick or possibly die (far from)
When asked, I will go out and socialize with others;
1. Because I like to meet and be with other people (towards)
2. Because it’s rude not too much and I don’t want to upset anyone (far from)
I keep my house tidy;
1. Because I like it that way (towards)
2. Because they complain about me if I don’t, or someone unexpected may come (walking away from)
I understand that regular exercise is healthy for you;
1. And I exercise because I want to get the health benefits (towards)
2. And I exercise because if I don’t my health can worsen (far from)
I do things;
1. Because I can
2. Because I have to
How many ‘towards’ or ‘far from’ did you identify with? Most people will find themselves using motivation at only one end of the axis, either primarily inward or primarily outward.
Now that you have this understanding of how YOU are typically motivated, we can move on to Secret No.5.
This secret is the one that brings all the other secrets together and will show you how to get unlimited amounts of motivation for the rest of your life! Secret No.5 says ‘Combine both energies, to and from afar, at the same time and you will create personal motivation that will propel you into action’! By becoming aware of the other energy available to you, at the other end of the motivation axis, you can increase emotional motivation to get you to take action, feel motivated, and ultimately in control of yourself!
Either now or later, take 5 minutes to walk through the unlimited motivation pattern below. These x simple questions can be applied to anything you need more motivation for, anytime, anywhere. After you’ve used this pattern a few times, you’ll be motivating yourself and possibly others like an expert!
Unlimited amounts of pattern motivation
1. Identify something in your life that you want to have or are more motivated by (This can be anything, go out more, go to the gym or do housework, anything…)
2. Once you’ve identified something, write it down so you don’t forget what you’re working on.
3. Look at your current motivational style associated with this activity, is it outward or outward motivated? If you walk away read and ask yourself part A, if you walk away read and ask yourself part B
Part A, you are moving away from the pain or consequences, but you can bear it for a while. First notice how real the discomfort is, what else might be a problem or even more painful if you don’t take action on it.
To add even more energy to your motivation, notice what’s good or pleasurable you’ll get once you’ve taken the action or started the activity. Realize how good it feels and how good you will feel when you have completed this activity… So while you are experiencing all of this about that activity, notice how much energy you have to take the step of doing it… Go do it! then!
Part B is moving towards the activity, but is not attracted enough to take any action. First look at what it is that attracts or draws you to it in the first place, that’s right, now that you think about it, ask yourself what is important to me about this…
What does the importance of this mean to you, how do you feel about it now, knowing this? Just imagine what it would mean if you never did this, you would never realize this meaning and its importance. It could be the start of putting off other important and meaningful things in life, you don’t want that to be true, do you? Stay with this awareness, notice the increased pleasure and possible pain if you don’t act on it as soon as you can… Right now, notice HOW MUCH energy and motivation you know you have for this… Go ahead then!
Congratulate yourself for doing or starting the activity, see how well it can motivate you to do the actions that are important to you. Notice the sense of independence and pride you have in yourself as you read this and begin to take the first steps towards becoming an expert at developing your own motivation, imagine the possibilities you now have for your life… now.
