Where does motivation come from?
All life coaches and motivational experts will tell you that you need to find your why before you can excel in your chosen field.
This video explains this better than anyone could with words.
The message here is that when your reason to do something is strong enough your motivation to keep going will remain strong and achieving your goal becomes a foregone conclusion.
Remember that setting a goal is only the start of the process.
You then need to break that goal down to the the minimum steps you must do each day to reach that goal and then build the habit of taking action on those steps every day.
Good habits are hard to make and easy to live with, bad habits are easy to make and hard to live with.
Most people never really set their goals in the first place, they set a wish list of things they’d like to do, have or be, but never set a time for reaching those things or put in the work required to get there.
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride”
And we’d all be lottery or Internet millionaires.
But we’re not are we.
The main reason for that is that we haven’t set our goals correctly.
We haven’t set a timeline for achievement.
We haven’t broken the goal down to daily tasks that take us one step closer to the goal.
We haven’t developed the habit of doing that task every day until it is a process that we follow daily.
When you do that, keeping your focus on the why helps you maintain the process until you see the progress.
Leave a comment if you found this motivating.
Is “Finding Your Passion” necessary? No It’s Not.
The latest scientific studies show that “finding your passion” is far too limiting and only works for a small number of people. The optimal approach is to “develop your passion” through following up your interests and working to develop them. You may not be passionate about your interests at first, but as you learn more […]
This is good stuff. I am in the process opf breaking my goal down to daily achievable steps.
Excellent Joseph, that’s the way to do it.
Once you have daily tasks it is so much easier to do those few things you can achieve each day knowing that you are on track to reaching the bigger goal.
Keep a record of your achievements by ticking off each day that you nail it and don’t miss two in a row.
It has taken me a long time to get here. I imagine becoming excellent at it Is also going to take some time.
Excellence can take a long time but high levels of competence can be achieved pretty quickly.
You do not have to be the #1 in anything, you only have to do the best you can where you are now.
In this manner you improve by increments every day. In a matter of weeks you’ll be amazed at how far you have come.
I totally agree Brent. I can definitely see lots of growth, especially as I commit to slow, incremental intentional growth.
That’s excellent Joseph, it’s really the only way to grow.
All those ‘overnight success’ people have been working hard for years without anyone noticing.
That is one of the biggest de-motivators for some people. They see this apparent easy success without knowing anything about the background work and pain. When they can’t emulate that they quit.
I have quit many things for just that reason. I think now I have learned the lesson.
I utilize the 12wy protocol. It has helped me make faster progress on the right size goal s
G’Day Leslie, I don’t know the 12wy protocol.
I did a quick search and what I found suggests that it is a training process for runners.
How do you apply that to your other goal setting/achieving process?
Oh! It is definitely not for runners! It’s called the 12 week year by Brian Moran!
Thanks Leslie, I’ve found the website and will explore that further.
It looks very interesting. How is that working out for you?
It works for me because it has helped me break down goals and identify the daily and weekly tasks that need to happen for the goal to be realized. Also the 12 week time parameter is long enough to make progress to a point but it’s short enough to where you don’t drift away or put off actions towards it. For example.. If a person wants to lose 20lbs in a year…. It’s easy to always think …i will start later. Then you look up and it’s November! If that goal is broken down into 12 weeks… You think…i an going to lose 5 pounds..i need to lose .5 a week. Then you are more apt to set about it and accomplish it and then you can evaluate your protocols and either repeat for the next 12 weeks or make any adjustments.
It’s very well. Time frame is long enough to get a goal accomplished and short enough to keep me motivated to complete the daily and weekly tasks needed for progress. Each 12 week gets a review week and it provides time for reflection or changes. It corrected all my goal setting issues.
It works for me because it corrected my two biggest issues when it came to goal setting and time management. First, it forced me to clearly define the milestone goals so that any goal could be broken down in mini-goals with a time parameter that deterred procrastination. Second, the scorecard system helped me to identify what actions could be routinized and what things got in the way of the flow of my day! I have spread this system to my team at work and this is the first year we are planning on a quarterly basis! The 13th week is a review week so we have a chance to see what is working and what isn’t. I love it!
That is excellent Leslie. Whatever works best for you and your team.
I need to do better so I will explore this further.
Thanks for bring it to my attention.
Sure let me know how it goes! I have a couple of posts about it on my site and it!
Yep, I’ve read them.
I’ll let you know.
Thanks!
Great insights!!
G’Day Angel, thanks for your comment.
Was there one in particular that you had an aha moment with?
Loved the video. Yes, it is very clear.
Thanks for your comment Ali, interesting poems on your site.
I’ll point my ex-wife to your site for inspiration, she loved to write poetry as well.
Wonderful. Please let her know that I host writing circles online. I would love to have her join me
I will, thanks for letting me know.
Informative and encouraging ✨, however did not motivate me as much as it does remind me of the value of patience and diligence.
G’Day JMG, thanks for your comment.
Would you agree that being reminded of patience and diligence is also motivating?
Nice site by the way, interesting poetry.
Hi Brent, yes absolutely, we can be motivated to be more like this or that, or to achieve this or that.
Thank you, and you also, I will enjoy reading your posts.
Hi there! I just wanted to thank you for sharing this insightful post. It’s a great reminder that setting a goal is only the beginning and that building good habits is key to achieving it. Your emphasis on knowing our motivation and breaking down the goal into smaller daily tasks is spot on. I completely agree that good habits are hard to make but easy to live with, and the opposite is true for bad habits.
I have a related question: What do you suggest for those times when our motivation wanes or we feel discouraged in the midst of building a new habit? Any tips on how to stay focused on our why and push through those challenging moments? Thank you again for sharing your wisdom with us!
Thanks for your comment and question. Finding the why seems to be the most important for some and it works for them. For me I find that focussing on the desired outcome works better. I have a small poster behind my computer that says “There is always more to get done than there will ever be time to do.” Focus in no longer an issue because I also practice Creative Procrastination.