The Proper Level of Risk

In my earlier posting I shared that there were two major factors that affected your confidence in your competence or what we refer to as your successability. The first factor is clarity and the second is the proper level of risk. In this posting I want to share with you what the proper level of risk means.

Motivation is at an optimal level, that is the highest level possible, with tasks of a moderate level of risk. Both high risk challenges and low risk challenges are related to a decrease in motivation. To optimize your motivation, you need to set your risk at a moderate level.

One way to do this is by carefully setting up what are called mastery experiences, experiences in which you are successful. You need to be careful because if you only experience easy successes, you train yourself that success is easy, which can result in you being less able to handle difficult situations. When you experience more difficult successes, on the other hand, you build resilience, and train yourself that success is a result of sustained effort. Hard work and struggle makes you stronger. You want to avoid extremely difficult challenges if you can, however, as you are likely to fail. Failure, though it can be a great learning experience, if it occurs too often, will rob you of your motivation.

In my next posting I will share how we walk that line between easy successes and difficult successes, and an interesting game called the ball in the box game.

Achieving Clarity

In my last posting I explained how clarity was necessary for us to feel confident that we are able to achieve the goals that are necessary for us to manifest our vision. When we do feel this confidence we will be motivated to achieve our goals.

The best way I have found to achieve clarity is a strategy I developed called the three step process for successability. You can use this process anytime you are doing something and wish to enhance your motivation. Anything you want to achieve, you can perform using this three step process.

The steps in the three step process for successability are:
vision >>> goals >>> tasks

Vision is that part of our potential that we desire to manifest. To manifest that desire you set up a series of goals the achievement of which will result in you becoming who you really are. When you have achieved the goals, you will have manifested your potential. To achieve each of these goals requires a series of tasks, steps that we need to take to achieve each of our goals. A task is a behavior, that is, an action taken by a person. You can observe someone performing a task. “Losing 15 pounds” is not a task; you cannot observe someone losing 15 pounds. “Writing down what I eat” is a task; you can observe someone writing down what they eat.

Each of our tasks may involve subtasks.

The benefit of doing the three step process is that it increases our clarity, because we write down the vision we want to manifest, we write down the goals that are necessary for us to manifest our vision, and we write down the tasks we need to complete to achieve each goal. When we write it down, we have clarity. What could be clearer than words on a piece of paper that you can hold in your hand, that you can see any time you want to? You know exactly what you need to do. That’s clarity.

Doing the three step process for successability increases our clarity which in turn increases our motivation.

The process of motivating yourself something you can learn. Come back next week and learn more strategies.

Successability and the need for clarity.

The second element of self motivation is successability, a word I define as your confidence in your competence, that is, how certain you are that you have the ability to achieve that worthwhile pursuit, your vision. The more confident you are in your ability, the more motivated you will be to pursue your vision. The lower your opinion of your competence, the less likely you will be to pursue it.

There are two factors in particular that strongly impact how confident you will be. The first is clarity; the second is the proper level of risk. In today’s blog I will discuss clarity.

The more definite you are as to exactly what you want to achieve and the steps you need to take to achieve it, the more motivated you will be. Your vision needs to be clearly stated. All your goals need to be clearly stated. Each of your tasks need to be clearly stated. What I write stated, I mean written down. Your mind might be a good place for you to think about your vision, goals and tasks, but until you write them down, they are not definite, they are subject to your memory, your perceptions, and your biases. So that is the first strategy for achieving clarity in your pursuits, writing everything down. Some people like to do this in a journal, a book they keep solely for their work on self motivation. Others like to do their work on a computer.

As I am writing this, I am realizing that clarity doesn’t just apply to being specific in my vision, my goals and my tasks. It also applies to the work I am doing to complete my tasks and achieve my goals. My vision is me as a professional speaker, a teacher, leading workshops, making presentations, and writing books … helping other people achieve their dreams. One of my goals, by which I will manifest this vision of me, is to write a book on self motivation. The book has been written and now I need to start marketing it. But I am a bit confused as to how to market it. Consequently, I see myself stumbling, being hesitant in my marketing. I know I need to get clarity, write out a detailed marketing plan. Once that plan is written I know I will once again be recharged and will move forward toward my dreams.

In my next blog posting I will offer some strategies as to how you can achieve clarity in your work toward manifesting your vision.

Will and Desire

Earlier this week I was reading an article by Eknath Easwaran in the Blue Mountain Journal (for information, go to www.easwaran.org). The article, Will and Desire, made me think about the first element in my model for self motivation, the vision. Easwaran writes that a person’s desire can be compared to a river. If the person has many desires, it is like the trickling of many little creeks, flowing all over the place with no direction. He contrasts this with a person with one all consuming desire who can be compared to a mighty river like the Colorado. Like the Colorado River which carved the Grand Canyon out of solid rock, so too can a person with a focused desire do miraculous things.

In order for a person to be motivated, he or she needs a worthwhile pursuit. In the self motivational model that worthwhile pursuit becomes the vision. The vision is our authentic self, the manifestation of our potential, our gifts. Authenticity is extremely motivating, as if our unconscious knows that it is being called into play. When we are authentic, we get in touch with our true, heart felt, desire.

In order to manifest that potential, that authentic person, and satisfy that heartfelt desire, many of us are going to have to first find out what our potential is and discover who that authentic person truly is. To assist us in that discovery, we undertake the vision quest, with its four strategies, my waking dreams, my inventory, my philosophy statement and look to your desires.

The vision quest is so important, because when we take the vision quest and discover our authentic selves we stop being a whole bunch of little creeks, wandering all over the land, and feeling frustrated because nothing ever gets accomplished.

Instead we become a roaring river.