What is motivation? And how can you get more of it?
I often hear people using the
word motivation. Some might say, “I really don’t want do this now - I don’t have any
motivation for it” and others say, “I love it - I’m always so motivated when I’m working on
that!”. But no one really talks about how to get into the state of being motivated, nor do
most people try to understand why they feel that way.
In
What does it take to accomplish your dreams?, I mention the 3 components which the
process of dream achievement needs and how to understanding them.
Motivation
Mindset
Methods
I want to take a closer look at the first
M – Motivation.
We all know the moment when all of a sudden
motivation rushes into our vanes and the feeling of desire that we wanna do something RIGHT
NOW! Such a motivation boost is often a result of inspiration – someone or something
inspired us.
A couple years back when I was actively training Parkour, I got this
motivation boosts mostly after watching a Parkour video. Those videos brought up thoughts
like:
“Nice jump/trick - I wanna try that too.” …followed by a feeling of excitement and the action of going outside for trying those
things I’ve seen on the screen.
I guess one of the reasons for this boost (after
watching those videos) was, that I had a clear plan and something in mind what to do
next.
You can look at motivation as a formula, which is:
Motivation = Purpose x Energy x Simple Steps
So, let’s
start with the
Purpose.
“If you know the WHY, you can live any HOW.” (Friedrick Nietzsche)
I
feel like you can also use this wise quote in terms of reaching your dream.
So, if you
know the reason WHY you want to do something, your motivation level automatically raises up
and you set steps towards the goal without question the way until then.
And by WHY I
don’t mean reasons like
“I want to get rich.”
That’s probably not enough to say
:)
Your WHY has to go a lot deeper than that. For example:
I want to
get rich because money gives me the opportunity to build this bucket list platform as big as
I want and therefore people can help each other to make their dreams come true. Because I
truly believe that everyone can live a life full of joy by doing the things that he or she
loves.
Well yeah, that was my purpose right there :) … But I think you get the
point.
Let’s move on to the factor Energy.
You also need
the right amount of energy to be motivated. Although I believe that if we have a deep enough
purpose, it will also fuel our energy. However, it definitely helps for your energy level if
you eat healthy, sleep enough and exercise regularly.
You’re most likely not
gonna be productive after a long Party-night ending up at 4AM with eating a BigMac menu
right before going to bed and then waking up at 7AM because the construction site right in
front of your window has started again.
Yeah - we all love to have a good time and
Party every now and then BUT take care of your health and give your body what it needs
otherwise you won’t have enough energy to pursue your dreams.
Last but not least
--> Simple Steps.
I mentioned earlier that after watching a Parkour video I’ve always been motivated to
train, because I knew what I’m going to do as soon as I leave the house. If we conquer our
biggest dreams, we have to break them down into
Small Simple Steps. Having the exact next steps in your mind will give you a plan.
A simple step for
instance, doing research about our goals (If my goal is to dive with sharks - the simple
step could be: looking up at which places I can do shark diving).
Pretty easy in times
of the Internet – Isn’t it?? :)
For now, I want you to think about the last time
you were super motivated.
What was the reason for this motivation boost?Was there a deeper purpose?
Have you
felt real passion about something you did?
If YES – what do you think was the reason
for that feeling?
Did you have an exact plan of what you’re going to do next?
Have
you
been able to imagine how the end-result will look like?
As soon as you start to
understand HOW to be motivated, you can implement this technique
to all kind of areas in your life. And that will help you to move forward even through the
tough times, where you have to do tasks you don’t enjoy that much. BUT those ones are
important as well because they will take you closer to your goals.
Autor: Joel Eggimann // Editor: Tracy Ray
