Summary: What is motivation may be one of your unanswered questions. How to get motivation? How to keep motivated? What to do if you have lost motivation? I am not talking about losing your mind, I am talking about when you have lost motivation. The Official definition of the word motivation by our friend Google is - A reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way. Motivation is also the desire or willingness to do something; enthusiasm. If you were to really break it down and trace the roots of the word motivation. You would find it comes from the Latin word motivus, a form of movere which means to move. The bottom line it is anything that moves people to perform. Some of the motivating factors you will find are fear, money, recognition, peer pressure and self-esteem. The list is endless. In essence, motivation is really boiled down to a motive to take action. The question is are you motivated? The difference between motivation and UN-motivation is all around movement. No, not bowel movement... maybe, I digress :) Are you moving towards your goal or target or are you moving away? I was reading this book, the No BS Guide To Time Management by Dan S Kennedy. I really needed this book to give me the edge towards achieving my targets. The No BS Guide mentioned successful people set goals and super successful people measure their goals daily. This definitely adds another dimension to the question, what is motivation? I have always heard one should have measurable goals. How else are you to know you achieved it if its not measurable? The kicker is measuring your goals daily... wow, that's definitely a game changer. The purpose of measuring daily is it keeps you focused and lets you know if you need to be more motivated towards your goals or target. You will see clearly if you need to take more action or a different type of action. This is a key component for successful athletes. They know their numbers. What's your number? How can you make your goal or target measurable? By measuring your goals daily you will see if you are making progress towards your goals or if your are moving away from your goal. Some of you and I know who you are because I was once there too might be saying... Alecia, I sort of like lost my motivation. Well this is your lucky day because I am here to help you peel back the layers and look at what is motivation? Motivation is just like a muscle, you have to practice it everyday. Sometimes you just have to do something when you don't feel like it and after awhile when you get into it your motivation will kick in. Here is a cool trick. If there is a task you need to get done and you are not feeling motivated. Commit to fully focusing on that task for 10 mins. You wait longer in lines at the bank and supermarkets. You can focus for 10 mins. At the end of the 10 mins ask yourself if you can do another 10 mins. This is procrastinators paradise :) working in 10 min segments. You will find either you kick started your motivation or you are really not feeling it. There are many things you can use to motivate yourself. When you think about what is motivation, you think of it in relation to achieving a goal or target. What you use as your motive to take action can be big or small. Sometimes you have external motivating factors to help you take action in completing an unpleasant task. Some people use less than positive factors to motivate them like fear. That is another ball game and if that strategy works for you, then more power to you. Your Partner In Motivation Love Peace and Bliss Alecia P.S. Let me know your thoughts on what is motivation below in the comments.
