In an earlier posting, I discussed the concept of leveraging your motivation. I explained it was a strategy you could use to increase the power of your motivation. When your motivation to do a certain thing just isn’t strong enough to accomplish what you want, you do an intermediate thing for which you do have enough motivation, and that intermediate thing accomplishes the bigger thing.
I’ll give an example. I know if I have a DVD in my house, it may take more motivation than I have to not watch it, and instead work on my blog. I will need lots of motivation to resist it. If I want to work on my blog for two hours, it will take two hours of motivation to resist that DVD, because for those two hours, the DVD in my house will be tempting me. I drive right by the video store on my way home from work, so it would be very easy for me to just pull into the video store and pick up a DVD.
What I do instead is use motivational leveraging by driving by the video store without stopping. I do have enough motivation to not stop at the video store and rent a DVD. It only takes ten seconds of motivation to keep driving past the video store. But those ten seconds of motivation are leveraged into the two hours of motivation that a DVD in my house would have required. The result is the same, two hours of work on my blog, but it took a lot less motivation.
I recently became aware of another way to use motivational leveraging. It involves my social environment. Unlike my physical environment, which is my physical surroundings, my social environment consists of the people and organizations that surround me.
A great way to use motivational leveraging in your social environment is with coaches and trainers.
I hired a coach, John Fahey, for my strength training. I use this man for three reasons. The first is for his superior knowledge. He is a fanatic about weight training and is constantly studying and trying out different methods of weight training. We use kettle bells like the Russians do. I pay him instead of having to read all the literature and trying out the methods myself. The second reason I use John is to make sure my form is good. With bad form I don’t get the results I get with good form, and I am more likely to injure myself. The third reason I use him is to leverage my motivation. I know I don’t have enough motivation to go to the gym and stay there for an hour and a half working out, but I do have enough motivation to drive to his house twice a week if I have an appointment with him. Therefore, I have two standing appointments, so I manage to get to his house at the appointed times.
Once I am there, he will encourage me and inspire me to keep working, and will, in fact, push me to increase my weights and my reps. The limited amount of motivation I have, strategically applied, has far greater results than it would have applied directly to working out. The proof is in the larger sport jacket sizes. In my eight years at a local gym, I stayed at a size 38. In the two years I have worked with John, I have grown two jacket sizes; I am now a 42. The growth is mainly in my shoulders, and some in my chest.
Another part of my social environment is my consultant/publicist for my book, Wendy Kurtz. I pay her for her knowledge and experience as well, of course, but also to increase my motivation. She is the reason I post two blogs every week, every Sunday and Wednesday. I have enough motivation, without her, to maybe blog once a week, but she encourages me and inspires me, and keeps my focused on my vision, helping people achieve their dreams by teaching them how to motivate themselves.
These are just two examples of how I use my social environment to leverage my motivation. There are opportunities in your social environment to leverage your motivation.
Trainers and consultants cost money, but it is money well spent if it helps move you further on your path to achieving your dreams. But if you absolutely cannot afford to hire a coach, a peer partner can work very well. As your peer partner motivates you, you motivate your peer partner. You can also join clubs and organizations which can increase your motivation as you work on your vision.
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