Before we get rolling on a bit of a rant about ‘motivation’ I want to send a huge shout out to two Team RevCon athletes who compete for the Western Mustangs – they had some great victories over the weekend.
Margaret Purdy took home GOLD for the Western Figure Skating team and Robin Bone added 17cm to her indoor PB at the prestigious Armoury Track Invitational in New York City to take GOLD in the Pole Vault.
These two know where motivation comes from.
How do you find your motivation?
Motivation is not like a set of car keys that you have somehow misplaced. It is more like money – you either have it or you don’t.
Instead of thinking of it in terms of motivation, let’s think of it in terms of priorities.
We all have lots of things competing for our attention and action. We focus on the ones that are a priority (whether you think you do or not).
For example: I don’t EVER want to get out of bed at 4:30am.
Every single day I want to stay in my warm bed for another hour or so of sleep. But I do it…not because of will power, but because I understand that it is what I must do if I want to achieve my goals and live my dreams.
Creating two successful businesses while still having time and energy to spend with Paul is my priority and this is a way that I can do that, so I do it. No brainer.
I know what you are thinking…
Okay, maybe I don’t know exactly what you are thinking, but I know that it probably starts with a ‘Ya but…’
Ya but… I have to go to school all day and then I have hockey
Ya but… I have to travel for work sometimes
Ya but… I have had this knee pain for the past 3 months
Sound familiar?
The Million Dollar Test
Think of a goal you have, one of those “I would love to…”
I would love to make AAA next year.
I would love to run a 10K.
I would love to be a fit as I was when I was in University.
Now…what is the first action step you can take to make that a reality – maybe it is calling RevCon and coming in for your try-out session, so we can lead you step-by-step to achieving that goal, maybe it is going for a 3km run three times per week or making your own lunch to take to work or school.
Whatever it is, keep it simple – this is just the first step.
Next step. Do IT.
You will either do it or you won’t. If you don’t do it, that just means you have other priorities right now. This is when people get a little haughty and say ‘yeah, well I have a big exam coming up and I have to look after my sick Grama, etc’. And that is totally cool – there are times when we just have other priorities that need our immediate attention. A sick loved one or little children at home – these are legitimate priorities.
Although we have successful clients who have dealt with both of those while still achieving their goals.
Here is the Million Dollar Test…
If I told you that I would give you $1,000,000 at the end of four weeks if you consistently did your ‘first step action’ without fail, would you do it? I’m not going to give you $1 mill – but would you do it for the money?
Damn right you would, because that would make it a priority. See how that works.
So you don’t have a problem with your motivation, you have a problem with your priorities.
You like the idea of your goal, but you are not prepared to taking the right action a priority.
It’s as simple as that.
Cheers,
M
