I woke up Monday morning in a funk

I woke up Monday morning in a funk. I just wasn't in the mood to do all the stuff I knew I needed to do. Maybe it was because I’d had a great weekend, having fun. I’d spent Saturday taking photos at the Mag Lab Open House (Tallahassee houses the world’s most powerful magnet and once a year the public is invited in and the kids are entertained and taught at the same time.) Saturday night I edited the photos and discovered I’d gotten some great shots. (I need to remember to put some on my Flickr account - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobprentiss, if you’re interested). Sunday evening I’d had a nice dinner with my brother who brought along his daughter and her husband who are visiting him from Buffalo.

So why was the Master of Self Motivation simply not motivated? Darned if I know. I guess I was due for it. But you know what? I doesn’t matter where it comes from, that’s history. What matters is what you do with it. That’s now.

When I am in a funk, and just happen at the same time to be in automatic man mode, my tendency is to sort of enjoy the funk. Do you ever get in that place, the “woe is me” place? I’m not sure why it can be so attractive. Perhaps because it allows us to give up responsibility.

After studying and writing about self motivation for so long, you’d think I would have eliminated my automatic man. Unfortunately, it’s not true. I go automatic just as much as anyone else. The difference is that now I usually catch myself more quickly than I used to. And when I catch myself going automatic, I take steps to increase my motivation and quickly pull myself out of that space.

My favorite strategy for getting out of a place of low motivation is to revisit my vision. This strategy comes from the Resonance Performance Model I shared with you in an earlier blog posting on motivation in sports. You can use this strategy when you are feeling unmotivated, feeling unconnected to your vision, or when you have run head on into a road block and need to get off the ground and get moving again.

I revisit my vision by reading it aloud, which is why I have it posted above my desk, and by envisioning what my life will be like after I have manifested as my vision. I try to get in touch with how it will feel when I have reached that place. I make that image as real as I can.

In an essay recently printed in Michael Masterson’s Early to Rise newsletter, best selling author Harvey Mackay quotes Woodrow Wilson, "You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forgot the errand."

When I read that, and thought about my vision, I couldn’t help but get charged up, and think about the important reason I am here, to enrich the world by teaching people how to motivate themselves so they can achieve all their dreams.

So don't wait to get in touch with your vision. It's a great motivator.