What’s your goal or desire? Do you want to start a new business? Want to learn a new craft? Ready to lose a few pounds? Interested in asking for a raise at work? That’s a thought. And that’s all it is. You need to kickstart your motivation a bit further to actually start the new business, learn that craft, start a diet or proceed with creating a proposal that helps you get that raise. Then you have to retain your motivation to persevere and succeed and or even to just simply complete your goal or project.
And by the way, finishing what you started is success in itself no matter the results of the actual goal or project. If you start a business and don’t make a profit; enter a marathon and come in 16th place instead of first; create a work of art—that even your dog wouldn’t buy; make a proposal for a raise at work to which your boss says no; and stick with a diet for three months only to lose 10 pounds instead of the 25 you were striving for, you still are successful because you finished a project you started. So many people don’t finish what they start. Even worse, so many people don’t start! Why?
Perhaps they lack motivation or it quickly dwindles once into the project. It’s a lot easier to just sit on the couch and think about your goals and desires than to actually do something toward meeting them. Sometimes the only thing that motivates us to get off the couch and shut the television is the fact that we can’t reach that cookie or other snack in the fridge from our resting place. So striving for an even bigger goal than your next meal seems daunting and unreachable to us at times. It takes stronger motivation and perseverance.
Motivation appears to come from within yourself. But that doesn’t mean you can’t kick-start your motivation from an external source. Successful people do this all the time ongoing. And that doesn’t mean an external source can’t affect your motivation (Keep reading to see what I mean.). Here are two things you can do to get and stay motivated.
GET FREE INSPIRATION
You can find motivation for free just by doing something as simple as turning on the television and listening to someone who has succeeded (and I don’t mean infomercials). Sure, that goes against my advice of getting off the couch but this is watching television with a purpose, not just staring at the tube like a zombie.
Take musicians and singers. I can turn on one of those television stations that play the musical videos and that then interview singers in between songs and come away very motivated to work toward my own goals. Why?
Because first I’m fascinated by the talent of some of these musicians. And if you listen to their interviews they are telling you how they achieved success.
They practice their songs and sometimes stage routines over and over and then one more time. They get on buses and airplanes and travel regularly and sleep in strange places. Then they get on stage, regardless of any stage phobias, and belt out songs almost nonstop for two hours often under hot stage lights and other physical conditions. And they don’t miss a beat. And what they can’t do or don’t have time to do, they farm out. They’re smart business professionals who max out their natural talent. They are ingrained with a passion for what they do and those that have become successful do it well in what is apparently a competitive business arena.
These musicians and singers reached their success with more than just talent. Many didn’t wait to be discovered. That would have been “luck.” Instead, they used traits like determination, passion, persistence and a thick skin to get noticed and consistently so. They made their destiny. And they know that to keep it they must keep evolving, learning and giving their best to their craft and profession.
They teach you (and me) that natural talent and thinking about your goals or desires is good but not enough. You have to get off the couch and make your dreams happen, not just dream about them. This takes work and that work sometimes involves doing things you want to do along with doing things you don’t want to do. But it’s all about doing something that’s going to get you something, an end product essentially, that you desire or put you some place you want to be. No matter what it is you want, you can go after your goal just like these people you’re watching did. And by just taking that step, you’re dramatically increasing your chances that you’ll get what you want.
Also, if successful musicians don’t’ inspire you, find someone else that does. You might be inspired by listening to successful politicians give speeches. Or if art is meaningful to you visit a gallery and think about the work that went into making the art and how it got from someone’s private studio to in front of a public audience or how it started as a blank piece of paper and evolved into a masterpiece. Read books from the library about well-known corporate leaders you admire and learn about where they started and what they think they did to get where they are now.
BLOCK NEGATIVE PEOPLE FROM DRAINING YOUR MOTIVATION
It sometimes seems that people secretly want you to fail. I’m not sure why. But we’re all familiar with the “I told you so” cliché. I told you that business was a bad idea. I told you that you didn’t have what it takes to do that. I told you to hire someone for the job who really could do it. I told you that you couldn’t compete with the big guys. Or when are you going to stop working on that silly idea and work on something more practical. Get a real job. Snicker, snicker.
I’ve got two pieces of advice for you: A) If these people are close friends or relatives, ignore them. Your success will eventually speak for itself and they’ll change their tune (and if not, who cares); or B) if these people are acquaintances, drop them or deflate them mid-sentence by politely disagreeing and changing the subject or walking away.
Surrounding yourself with people who have nothing to offer you but bad karma is a waste of your time and life. It’s demoralizing. (And don’t even try to think about changing these people–that’s an uphill battle for which you don’t have the time if you’re trying to concentrate on yourself and your ideas.) Surround yourself with people that either dream your dreams or surround yourself with people that believe in you no matter what you choose to dream. Stay far away from negative energy. Negativity doesn’t ground you in reality, it just grounds you and puts you back on that couch watching the tube without any forward motion in your life.
[...] Porter presents Free Motivation to Reach Your Goals posted at KarenPorterOnline.com, saying, “Motivation appears to come from within yourself. [...]