Thursday, September 10, 2009

Finding Your Motivation

Many people select motivators as if they were picking bon bons off of a dessert tray. This one is vanilla and that one is dark chocolate.

The effect is pleasurable and short-lived and the motivators are always attractive.

Others listen to motivational speakers who can bring an array of good advice to a group. Unfortunately, their eloquence will only go so far unless the individual audience member is able to discover a burning personal motivator; one that can become a passion. Many are turned off by that search because passions can be hard to identify until they are held. We first get into the water and then we learn to swim.

There is another approach that can be highly effective but is frequently overlooked in the whirl of upbeat messages: Turning demotivators into motivators. Rather than permitting negative experiences nudge you into negative behavior, let their energy propel you into greater productivity. We've all read of individuals who achieved extraordinary things because someone told them they couldn't do it and they were determined to prove that person wrong.

Some may argue that using demotivators as a springboard is undesirable because it is reactive. That may be so, but it can also be highly effective. There's a military expression about handling bad times: "Embrace the suck." You accept and perhaps revel in the circumstances but you do not let them erode your will to prevail; indeed, you turn them into an energy source.

1 comment:

Rob said...

With every task you have a choice, to be motivated or not to be motivated, it's an active decision. If you choose to be motivated, and therefore positive, then the task will be easier. If you choose to be unmotivated, or hence negative, the task will be more difficult. Simply by having this mindset you are making life easier for yourself, I guess that is a good thing. A negative is only a negative if that is how you perceive it. Often negative are just there, and we make them road blocks, we make them negative, instead of working around them, it doesn't help get the task achieved, so what if something has gone wrong, or not gone to plan or circumstances have changed, stuff happens, deal with it and move forward. Now I need to take some of my own medicine :)