By Joseph Scott & Jay Hedley of The Coaching Room
In life we need energy to live, to exist and to do things (with our life and with others). Yet sometimes we can miss life by simply talking ourselves out of it. Just like this:
• I just can’t be bothered…
• It’s just too much effort, I’m tired…
• It’s not worth it, who cares?
• Sure, one of these days…
• Yes, I know that I should, but…
Sound familiar?
If this sounds like you, and you are saying this to yourself and or to others, you are lacking one of the key ingredients in the recipe of life; motivation:
MOTIVATION; a psychological process that arouses the individual into action, toward a desired outcome or goal; the reason for the action.
So, we can define motivation but does that help? Usually not enough! What is this thing called ‘motivation’? Where do you find it? How can we take responsibility for our own motivation?
The 1st Principle is ‘motivation is not a thing, it’s a process’, it is not a real noun. You will never trip over a hunk of motivation that someone has left in the bathroom, nor will you find a chunk of it in the fridge! Has anyone ever bought a kilo of motivation from the shop? I think not!
If that is the case, then what is motivation, how can we be motivated and more importantly how can we motivate ourselves?
Would you like unlimited motivation, does this interest you? If so, read on because that is the design of this article.
Motivation is a set of thinking strategies or processes that we run for ourselves... Did you notice 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 in every moment of every day! It means there is no point looking to someone outside of ourselves to provide motivation for us; in fact it is impossible for another person to motivate us, only we can decide what is or is not motivational to us.
Principle No.2 to unlimited motivation is that ‘we are responsible for the amount of motivation we have’. Can you start to sense the power you have over yourself when you take responsibility for you?
You are responsible for yourself—what you say and do, what you think and feel, the way you structure and frame what you want.
Have you ever felt empowered? On top of your game? When and where? In what context?
How empowered did you feel? So now, as you remember that state, allow yourself to become aware of your two private inner powers of:
• Thinking: representing, believing, valuing, understanding, reasoning
• Emoting: feeling, somatising, emoting, valuing
In the context of that experience of empowerment, also notice your two public or outer powers by which you can influence yourself and the world:
• Speaking: languaging, using symbols, asserting
• Behaving: acting, responding, relating, etc.
How does it feel as you just notice and enjoy these powers? How fully do you feel them now? Access them so that you begin to feel these powers. What do you need to do to amplify them? Do you appreciate these powers?
What else is it that drives us to feel motivated? What drives motivation? Further, how does motivation drive us toward what we want, need or believe? What is this fuel?
The answer brings us to Principle No. 3, ‘emotions are the fuel of motivation’ and ultimately are what drive us! Let us take a look at how emotions ‘drive or move us to action; the best place to start may be with the word ‘emotion’.
E-motion, as we look more closely at this word we can see its structure.
‘E-nergy in motion’;(e motion). Our emotions are our energy. Typically we can put emotions’ into three distinctive categories:
• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
As we can define our emotions into these three simple types, then what does that also say about our energy? Well, we can make the same distinctions for our types of energy; positive, neutral and negative energy.
This leads us to Principle No.4, that ‘People are motivated and can motivate themselves using these 3 different types of energy’.
The affect of positive emotion often gives us the energy to move toward what we want or need, we somehow feel pulled or drawn (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 move away from the cause of such. We can represent this with a diagram:
The Axis of Motivation
Whether we move away from the pain and consequences or toward the good feelings or outcomes in our life, both create energy that we put into motion to do something. This is motivation (propulsion). Now what this gives us is a strategy for developing unlimited motivation for anything we want to do or have in life.
Typically, human beings have a preference to which end of the motivational axis they become or get motivated by. We can ask ourselves some questions to identify our own preference for getting motivated. Ask yourself the following questions and notice if you are motivated toward what you want or away from what you don’t want:
I get out of bed in the morning
• Because I have to (away from)
• Because I want to start the day (toward)
I take my eat well and regularly
• Because I want to be well and live life as fully as I can (toward)
• Because if I don’t I will become unhealthy or possibly ill (away from)
When asked I will go out and socialise with others
• Because I like to meet and be with other people (toward)
• Because it is rude not too and I don’t want to upset anyone (away from)
I keep my home clean
• Because I like it like that (toward)
• Because I get moaned at if I don’t, or someone unexpected may come round (away from)
I go to the gym/exercise
• Because I want to get the health benefits from it (toward)
• Because if I don’t my health may get worse (away from)
I do generally things
• Because I can
• Because I have to
How many ‘towards’ or ‘away from’ did you identify with? Most people will find themselves using motivation at just one end of the axis, either mainly toward or mainly away from.
Now that you have this understanding on how YOU are typically motivated, we can move to Principle No.5. This final principle is the one that brings all the other principles together, and will show you how to get unlimited amounts of motivation for the rest of your life!
Principle No.5 is ‘Combine both away from and toward energies at the same time, and you will create a personal motivation system that propels you into action!’
By becoming more aware of the other energy available to you, at the other end of the motivation axis, you can ramp up the emotional motivation to get you to take action, to feel motivated and finally in control of you!
Either now or later, take 5 minutes to take yourself through the unlimited motivation pattern below. These 5 simple questions can be applied to anything that you need more motivation for, any time, anywhere. After you have used this pattern a couple of times you will be motivating yourself and possibly other like an expert!
THE UNLIMITED MOTIVATION PATTERN
Identify something in your life you want to have or be more motivated about (this can be anything, getting out more, going to the gym, or doing the housework, anything...)
Once you have identified something, write it down so you have a record to remind you of what you are working on.
Notice your current motivation style associated with this activity. Are you motivated away from or toward? If you are away from read and ask yourself part A, if you are toward, read and ask yourself part B (below).
Part A. You are moving away from the pain or consequences, but you can put up with it for a while. First notice how real the discomfort is, what else could be a problem or even more painful if you don’t take action on this. To add even more energy to your motivation notice what you will get that is good or pleasurable once you have taken the action or started the activity. Notice how good it feels and how good it will feel when you have completed this activity... So as you experience all of this about that activity, notice just how much energy you have for taking the step to be doing it... Go do it then!
Part B. You are moving toward the activity, but it doesn’t pull on you enough to take any action. First notice just what attracts or pulls you toward it in the first place, that’s right, now as you think about that, 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 realise this meaning and its importance. It could be the start of procrastinating on other important and meaningful things in life, you wouldn’t want that to be true, would you? Be with this awareness, notice the heightened pleasure and possible pain if you don’t act on this as soon as you can... Just now, notice HOW much energy and motivation you know have for this... Get on with it then!
Congratulate yourself on doing or starting the activity, notice how well you can motivate yourself to take the actions that are important to you. Notice the sense of independence and pride you have for yourself as you read this and start to take the first steps to becoming expert at developing your own motivation, imagine the possibilities you now have for your life...now.
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