Welcome to my blog. Here you will find an archive of almost a year of blog postings about motivation in general and self motivation in particular.
However, I have moved my blog to my new website: www.BobAPrentiss.com
I'm pretty excited about it, so please join me there by clicking on the link.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Express your vision as an affirmation
In my Professionally Speaking Toastmasters club, a guest highly recommended a book, The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace Wattles. The book was written back in 1910, and is the progenitor of a long series of more famous books, such as Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich and a recent best seller, The Secret. I had read many of its offspring, but had never heard of the original.
I searched for it on google and found it available for free download as a .pdf at http://www.xtrememind.com/science.pdf. I downloaded it and started reading it right away. It’s a quick read; I had finished it by the time I went to bed that evening.
I’m writing about it because I heartily recommend it to everyone, but also because it and its progeny have a special connection to the self motivation model. Here is the model:
MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).
This means that your motivation is related to your vision, the change you want to make in your life, your successability (How confident are you in your competence, your ability to make the change?) and your environment, both your physical environment (where you will do the work necessary to make the change) and your social environment (the people and organizations available to you).
These books explain the power of affirmations and the characteristics of a good affirmation. The link these books have to the self motivation model is that when you write down your vision, that change you want to make in your life, you should write it as an affirmation to take advantage of an affirmation’s power. The power of affirmations are well known:
1. They help you focus on what you desire.
2. They reprogram your unconscious mind and open you up to powerful belief in yourself.
3. What you focus on, you will achieve.
How do you write a good affirmation? These books explain this as well. These are characteristics of a successful affirmation:
1. It is focused or targeted on you; use the word ‘I”.
2. It is stated in the positive, not the negative – focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
3. It is stated in the present tense, as if the change has already occurred.
4. It is clear and specific.
So write your vision, that change you want to make in your life, as an affirmation. When you write your vision as an affirmation, you not only get the motivational power inherent in having a worthwhile pursuit, but you also get the life changing power from the affirmation.
We call this leveraging your vision!
I searched for it on google and found it available for free download as a .pdf at http://www.xtrememind.com/science.pdf. I downloaded it and started reading it right away. It’s a quick read; I had finished it by the time I went to bed that evening.
I’m writing about it because I heartily recommend it to everyone, but also because it and its progeny have a special connection to the self motivation model. Here is the model:
MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).
This means that your motivation is related to your vision, the change you want to make in your life, your successability (How confident are you in your competence, your ability to make the change?) and your environment, both your physical environment (where you will do the work necessary to make the change) and your social environment (the people and organizations available to you).
These books explain the power of affirmations and the characteristics of a good affirmation. The link these books have to the self motivation model is that when you write down your vision, that change you want to make in your life, you should write it as an affirmation to take advantage of an affirmation’s power. The power of affirmations are well known:
1. They help you focus on what you desire.
2. They reprogram your unconscious mind and open you up to powerful belief in yourself.
3. What you focus on, you will achieve.
How do you write a good affirmation? These books explain this as well. These are characteristics of a successful affirmation:
1. It is focused or targeted on you; use the word ‘I”.
2. It is stated in the positive, not the negative – focus on what you want, not what you don’t want.
3. It is stated in the present tense, as if the change has already occurred.
4. It is clear and specific.
So write your vision, that change you want to make in your life, as an affirmation. When you write your vision as an affirmation, you not only get the motivational power inherent in having a worthwhile pursuit, but you also get the life changing power from the affirmation.
We call this leveraging your vision!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Make a promise to yourself
On my way home I stopped at the library and picked up some videos.
I am still having a love affair with my new 42” TV and blue ray player.
After having spent the last six months watching DVD’s on my 15” lap top, I am captivated by the amazingly large and incredibly sharp picture.
But I knew I had to write and publish a blog. Well, I figured, I won’t watch a dvd until the blog is published. So when I got home I started on dinner, thinking about the blog, and thinking about which video I would watch. But I was also thinking about the business emails I needed to answer, and the video on increasing blog readership I knew I needed to watch.
Well, I thought, I can answer those emails and the blog video tomorrow. But then I remembered I wanted to go for a run tomorrow after work, after which I was to meet a friend who would break his Ramadam fast at eight… And the next night was my Apple User Group, and so it wouldn’t be till Friday when I would get to do the things I needed to do to get closer to making my dream become real. But I knew I shouldn’t wait till Friday, I should do it now.
So I was going back and forth, do I play or do I work. But then something snapped. I made a decision. And I made a promise. I said to myself, “I promise I will not watch a dvd tonight.” A load was immediately lifted from my mind. There was no more going back and forth about what I would do tonight, play or work. Once I said that, once I had made a promise to myself, there was no going back.
I knew it was all I needed to do to bring the matter to a close, but I am still amazed at how powerful the effect of making that promise was. Once I made a commitment to myself to do the right thing, doing the right thing had an additional impetus. Prior to making the promise I was weighing the two choices, do I watch a video, or do I work, and the choices were pretty much in balance. But once I made the promise, it was as if an additional weight had been added to the scale, a weight that made the choice clear; I was going to work.
I urge you to try this strategy. Next time you are caught balancing the choices, especially when you know exactly what the right choice is, try stacking the deck for the right choice, by making a commitment, a promise to yourself.
I am still having a love affair with my new 42” TV and blue ray player.
After having spent the last six months watching DVD’s on my 15” lap top, I am captivated by the amazingly large and incredibly sharp picture.
But I knew I had to write and publish a blog. Well, I figured, I won’t watch a dvd until the blog is published. So when I got home I started on dinner, thinking about the blog, and thinking about which video I would watch. But I was also thinking about the business emails I needed to answer, and the video on increasing blog readership I knew I needed to watch.
Well, I thought, I can answer those emails and the blog video tomorrow. But then I remembered I wanted to go for a run tomorrow after work, after which I was to meet a friend who would break his Ramadam fast at eight… And the next night was my Apple User Group, and so it wouldn’t be till Friday when I would get to do the things I needed to do to get closer to making my dream become real. But I knew I shouldn’t wait till Friday, I should do it now.
So I was going back and forth, do I play or do I work. But then something snapped. I made a decision. And I made a promise. I said to myself, “I promise I will not watch a dvd tonight.” A load was immediately lifted from my mind. There was no more going back and forth about what I would do tonight, play or work. Once I said that, once I had made a promise to myself, there was no going back.
I knew it was all I needed to do to bring the matter to a close, but I am still amazed at how powerful the effect of making that promise was. Once I made a commitment to myself to do the right thing, doing the right thing had an additional impetus. Prior to making the promise I was weighing the two choices, do I watch a video, or do I work, and the choices were pretty much in balance. But once I made the promise, it was as if an additional weight had been added to the scale, a weight that made the choice clear; I was going to work.
I urge you to try this strategy. Next time you are caught balancing the choices, especially when you know exactly what the right choice is, try stacking the deck for the right choice, by making a commitment, a promise to yourself.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
How I came to this where I am
I was born in the fifties, at that time one of four children (we later added two more). My dad was a janitor, and my mom, like many of the people in our town, was an attendant at the local state mental hospital.
As you can imagine, with four kids we didn’t have a lot, but my parents gave me the stuff that money couldn’t buy, like lessons on how to live your life. One of my earliest memories, I must have been around four, is of my dad, after a hard day cleaning out toilets and mopping floors, sitting at the kitchen table, working on his correspondence course in electricity. The course, as I remember it, was a series of small, maybe 6” by 8” pamphlets that instructed him and tested him on all he needed to know to become an electrician. He completed the course, became an electrician apprentice, and later a journeyman electrician.
My mom wasn’t a slouch either. She went back to school and earned her bachelors degree in social work and moved up and out of the hospital. The lesson I learned from my parents was that if you are willing to work hard at something, you will succeed. I also learned that the harder you work, the better results you'll get.
My own life has confirmed the truth of this lesson. I have found that everything I have worked hard on I have accomplished. Though I had dropped out of my first college as my grades kept getting worse and worse, I discovered when I started working hard at my subsequent colleges (which included going to classes) suddenly I was successful. I also worked hard in law school, and graduated in the top third of my class. So the lesson I learned from my folks was true in my life as well.
However, while I was finishing up my bachelors and while I was working on my JD, I had a dream, a dream to be a professional speaker. In my dream I stood in front of crowds, teaching them something that would make their lives better. I knew that was what I wanted to do. But even though I knew that was what I wanted to do, and even though I had firmly integrated the lesson from my parents, I wasn’t doing the things that I needed to do to make my dream become real. And I was frustrated, and annoyed and bored. I knew I could do it, but I just wasn’t doing it!
After years of not going after what I knew I wanted, I decided something needed to change. Luckily (if you believe in luck) I just happened to be working on my masters in education and was studying the role of motivation in learning. I realized that even though I wanted to be a professional speaker, I wasn't motivated to be one. So after learning all I could about motivation in education, I expanded my study into motivation in sports and motivation in employment.
When I gathered enough information I created my own model of motivation, based upon my studies. This first model explained how one person could motivate another, whether it was a teacher motivating a student, a coach motivating an athlete, or a boss motivating a worker.
But I knew I wasn’t done, because I wasn’t interested in motivating someone else. I was interested in motivating myself. And so I modified my model and created the model for self motivation.
I have been using this model in my life and it has made all the difference. I now take the steps I need to take to make my dream come true. I have developed a niche and my book has been written. I blog and tweet and finetune my speeches in Toastmasters. I am making my dream become real.
I urge you to use the model for self motivation. Take those dreams, desires and aspirations that lay dormant in your mind, apply motivation to them, and make your dreams come true.
I did it, and so can you.
As you can imagine, with four kids we didn’t have a lot, but my parents gave me the stuff that money couldn’t buy, like lessons on how to live your life. One of my earliest memories, I must have been around four, is of my dad, after a hard day cleaning out toilets and mopping floors, sitting at the kitchen table, working on his correspondence course in electricity. The course, as I remember it, was a series of small, maybe 6” by 8” pamphlets that instructed him and tested him on all he needed to know to become an electrician. He completed the course, became an electrician apprentice, and later a journeyman electrician.
My mom wasn’t a slouch either. She went back to school and earned her bachelors degree in social work and moved up and out of the hospital. The lesson I learned from my parents was that if you are willing to work hard at something, you will succeed. I also learned that the harder you work, the better results you'll get.
My own life has confirmed the truth of this lesson. I have found that everything I have worked hard on I have accomplished. Though I had dropped out of my first college as my grades kept getting worse and worse, I discovered when I started working hard at my subsequent colleges (which included going to classes) suddenly I was successful. I also worked hard in law school, and graduated in the top third of my class. So the lesson I learned from my folks was true in my life as well.
However, while I was finishing up my bachelors and while I was working on my JD, I had a dream, a dream to be a professional speaker. In my dream I stood in front of crowds, teaching them something that would make their lives better. I knew that was what I wanted to do. But even though I knew that was what I wanted to do, and even though I had firmly integrated the lesson from my parents, I wasn’t doing the things that I needed to do to make my dream become real. And I was frustrated, and annoyed and bored. I knew I could do it, but I just wasn’t doing it!
After years of not going after what I knew I wanted, I decided something needed to change. Luckily (if you believe in luck) I just happened to be working on my masters in education and was studying the role of motivation in learning. I realized that even though I wanted to be a professional speaker, I wasn't motivated to be one. So after learning all I could about motivation in education, I expanded my study into motivation in sports and motivation in employment.
When I gathered enough information I created my own model of motivation, based upon my studies. This first model explained how one person could motivate another, whether it was a teacher motivating a student, a coach motivating an athlete, or a boss motivating a worker.
But I knew I wasn’t done, because I wasn’t interested in motivating someone else. I was interested in motivating myself. And so I modified my model and created the model for self motivation.
I have been using this model in my life and it has made all the difference. I now take the steps I need to take to make my dream come true. I have developed a niche and my book has been written. I blog and tweet and finetune my speeches in Toastmasters. I am making my dream become real.
I urge you to use the model for self motivation. Take those dreams, desires and aspirations that lay dormant in your mind, apply motivation to them, and make your dreams come true.
I did it, and so can you.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Go the distance
After not running for too many years I decided to get physical therapy on my knee and hip. After five months of therapy, which primarily consisted of me doing exercises four times every day, I’ve started running again. I love running like no other exercise, and the social aspects of it just make it better.
I was in the library a couple of weeks ago, and spotted on the books for sale table (donated books) a copy of How to Train for and Run Your Best Marathon, by Gordon Bakoulis Bloch. When I was a healthy runner the marathon had been my nemesis. I am pleased with all my other PR’s (personal records), low 19’s for the 5K, 39:54 for the 10K (allegedly short, but an official time never the less). Half marathon and 30 K (18 miles) times were even better. But the marathon – don’t ask, don’t tell. I’ve only been able to complete one, as the training for my other two attempts did me in. So I never qualified for the Boston Marathon. In my circles, without a qualifying time, the other PR’s didn't amount to much.
So I bought the book. As I was paying for it, I told myself, “Well, it only costs fifty cents, so if I never use it, I won’t be that much in the hole.” But as it sat on my dining room table, day after day (I live alone, so no one complains) I kept noticing it, and eventually started reading it. I started thinking about doing a marathon.
Just tonight I noticed that the back of the book has big letters on the top, in red, saying, “Go the distance.” It means go all 26.2 miles, but for me it meant something else. It meant, “Give 100% toward your goal, qualifying for Boston.” If Ms. Bloch’s title is accurate, and I run a better marathon than I did ten years ago, I will make my goal, since the qualifying times get longer as you get older (one of the few benefits). My time in the only marathon I ran would qualify me at my present age.
As I am writing this I am thinking about my last posting, about why people don’t work really hard. The four reasons my trainer and I came up with are:
1. They are lazy
2. They aren’t familiar with working hard
3. They think they are going to hurt themselves
4. They don’t think getting really strong is important.
How does that apply to me?
#1. Nope, I’m not lazy, plus I enjoy running, especially hard.
#2. Nope, I am familiar with working hard and pushing myself.
Skipping 3 for now,
#4. Maybe, getting to Boston isn’t necessary for my wellbeing, but it is important; I’m just not sure it’s important enough to prioritize my time for the training it will require.
For me,#3 is the big one. Part of me thinks, going the way you are going now, you will be able to run in the woods for half an hour to an hour. That’s what you really enjoy. You start doing the long runs training for a marathon requires and you will hurt yourself and won’t run at all.
So I’ve got one definite applies and one partially applies. So how do I get motivated using self motivation?
#4 is easiest to deal with. All I need to do is make a decision, take control. I look at what training will actually entail. The question for me is not will it take too much time. The question is, “Will it take time away from other things that are more important to me?” The only thing more important right now is the time I spend on developing my speaking career. When I take the time to phrase the question that way, the correct way, instead of having an automatic knee jerk reaction, I am able to reflect. If the answer is yes, it will take time away from something more important, then I have made a decision. That decision is "this path is not one I want to take." Motivation means doing what’s right for you.
With respect to #3, the fear that I will injure myself, I have decided to expand my environment(the third factor of self motivation) to include chi running. Its originator/inventor, Danny Dreyer, claims it results in "effortless, injury free running." Sounds exactly what I need. So I have bought his book and his DVD and am trying it out. When I finish this posting I will go online and see if there is someone in my city who coaches it. If not I will look into attending a seminar in a near by city.I will make a coach part of my social environment.
As you can see by what I am going through, a large part of self motivation means looking at yourself, knowing yourself. That’s what so great about self motivation. You are in control; your motivational plan is totally focused on what’s important to you.
Taking charge of your motivation may involve a little more thought than just listening to a motivational tape, but the benefits greatly out weigh the additional work.
If you have some advice for a runner like me, don't hesitate in leaving a comment.
I was in the library a couple of weeks ago, and spotted on the books for sale table (donated books) a copy of How to Train for and Run Your Best Marathon, by Gordon Bakoulis Bloch. When I was a healthy runner the marathon had been my nemesis. I am pleased with all my other PR’s (personal records), low 19’s for the 5K, 39:54 for the 10K (allegedly short, but an official time never the less). Half marathon and 30 K (18 miles) times were even better. But the marathon – don’t ask, don’t tell. I’ve only been able to complete one, as the training for my other two attempts did me in. So I never qualified for the Boston Marathon. In my circles, without a qualifying time, the other PR’s didn't amount to much.
So I bought the book. As I was paying for it, I told myself, “Well, it only costs fifty cents, so if I never use it, I won’t be that much in the hole.” But as it sat on my dining room table, day after day (I live alone, so no one complains) I kept noticing it, and eventually started reading it. I started thinking about doing a marathon.
Just tonight I noticed that the back of the book has big letters on the top, in red, saying, “Go the distance.” It means go all 26.2 miles, but for me it meant something else. It meant, “Give 100% toward your goal, qualifying for Boston.” If Ms. Bloch’s title is accurate, and I run a better marathon than I did ten years ago, I will make my goal, since the qualifying times get longer as you get older (one of the few benefits). My time in the only marathon I ran would qualify me at my present age.
As I am writing this I am thinking about my last posting, about why people don’t work really hard. The four reasons my trainer and I came up with are:
1. They are lazy
2. They aren’t familiar with working hard
3. They think they are going to hurt themselves
4. They don’t think getting really strong is important.
How does that apply to me?
#1. Nope, I’m not lazy, plus I enjoy running, especially hard.
#2. Nope, I am familiar with working hard and pushing myself.
Skipping 3 for now,
#4. Maybe, getting to Boston isn’t necessary for my wellbeing, but it is important; I’m just not sure it’s important enough to prioritize my time for the training it will require.
For me,#3 is the big one. Part of me thinks, going the way you are going now, you will be able to run in the woods for half an hour to an hour. That’s what you really enjoy. You start doing the long runs training for a marathon requires and you will hurt yourself and won’t run at all.
So I’ve got one definite applies and one partially applies. So how do I get motivated using self motivation?
#4 is easiest to deal with. All I need to do is make a decision, take control. I look at what training will actually entail. The question for me is not will it take too much time. The question is, “Will it take time away from other things that are more important to me?” The only thing more important right now is the time I spend on developing my speaking career. When I take the time to phrase the question that way, the correct way, instead of having an automatic knee jerk reaction, I am able to reflect. If the answer is yes, it will take time away from something more important, then I have made a decision. That decision is "this path is not one I want to take." Motivation means doing what’s right for you.
With respect to #3, the fear that I will injure myself, I have decided to expand my environment(the third factor of self motivation) to include chi running. Its originator/inventor, Danny Dreyer, claims it results in "effortless, injury free running." Sounds exactly what I need. So I have bought his book and his DVD and am trying it out. When I finish this posting I will go online and see if there is someone in my city who coaches it. If not I will look into attending a seminar in a near by city.I will make a coach part of my social environment.
As you can see by what I am going through, a large part of self motivation means looking at yourself, knowing yourself. That’s what so great about self motivation. You are in control; your motivational plan is totally focused on what’s important to you.
Taking charge of your motivation may involve a little more thought than just listening to a motivational tape, but the benefits greatly out weigh the additional work.
If you have some advice for a runner like me, don't hesitate in leaving a comment.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Lessons on motivation from my trainer
I make a physical fitness trainer a part of my social environment. I use a personal trainer, John Fahey, because of his expertise and because he encourages me to work harder than I would by myself. Further, having a set time to work with him means I will work out even on those days I don’t feel like it.
I was talking with him the other day, in between sets, about people he had worked with who refused to worked hard. It didn’t matter how much he tried to encourage them, he said, they just refused to put out the effort.
People who don’t train hard, whether they are his clients or not, doesn’t make sense to my trainer, “Why wouldn’t you want to be as strong as you can be?”
We talked about the reasons people don’t exercise hard:
1. They are lazy
2. They aren’t familiar with working hard
3. They think they are going to hurt themselves
4. They don’t think getting really strong is important.
All these reasons come down to one reason. These people aren’t motivated to train hard. Each one of these reasons can be resolved, if the person wishes it to be resolved, by application of the model for self motivation.
This the model:
MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).
This means that your motivation is related to your vision (How worthwhile to you is the change you want to make?), your successability (How confident are you in your competence, your ability to make the change?) and your environment, both your physical environment (where you will do the work necessary to make the change) and your social environment (the people and organizations available to you).
The first reason, they are lazy, has to do with factor number one, the vision. Though it’s conceivable that someone might be a lazy person in general, I believe most people are lazy just about some particular facet or things in their life. For these people, those things they are lazy about are just not important to them. They may give lip service (claim it is important) to some principal, but if it were important, the person would not merely be given lip service, they would be doing. In order for you to be motivated to do something, it has to be important to you.
The second reason for the lack of motivation, they aren’t familiar with training hard, is similar to the third reason, they think they are going to hurt themselves. In both cases, the person lacks the confidence that they are able to work hard, either at all, or at a minimum, in a healthy way.
The fourth reason is similar to the first reason. If someone doesn’t think getting really strong is important, there is no way they will be motivated. John and I disagree with this, but I think it’s more important to find the exercise you enjoy, that gives you pleasure, even if it doesn’t make you the strongest you can be.
So why am I motivated to do these ridiculous tough workouts, even though they are not pleasurable? Three reasons:
1. The payoff is great. Though I don’t like having to buy bigger suits, the bigger shoulders and lats look great. This makes working out more valuable to me, which motivates me. If I can just get rid of the love handles, I will look as good as I looked in my twenties (below the neck, anyway).
2. I like the intensity of working my hardest. My knees and hips have kept me from running as hard as I did when I was younger, so I had to find something else. This, like #1, makes it hard workouts more valuable to me.
3. Small successes. If you don’t know what a calf ham glute raise is, check it out here.
No, that’s not me, but I actually have done six of these, and that success has fueled my desire to be able to do twenty in a row. The more confident I get, the more successes I want.
Motivation is a personal decision. If you don’t want to do something, if it isn’t valuable to you, it’s going to be an uphill battle for you to get motivated. But if you want to do it, the model for self motivation will help you achieve what you desire.
I was talking with him the other day, in between sets, about people he had worked with who refused to worked hard. It didn’t matter how much he tried to encourage them, he said, they just refused to put out the effort.
People who don’t train hard, whether they are his clients or not, doesn’t make sense to my trainer, “Why wouldn’t you want to be as strong as you can be?”
We talked about the reasons people don’t exercise hard:
1. They are lazy
2. They aren’t familiar with working hard
3. They think they are going to hurt themselves
4. They don’t think getting really strong is important.
All these reasons come down to one reason. These people aren’t motivated to train hard. Each one of these reasons can be resolved, if the person wishes it to be resolved, by application of the model for self motivation.
This the model:
MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).
This means that your motivation is related to your vision (How worthwhile to you is the change you want to make?), your successability (How confident are you in your competence, your ability to make the change?) and your environment, both your physical environment (where you will do the work necessary to make the change) and your social environment (the people and organizations available to you).
The first reason, they are lazy, has to do with factor number one, the vision. Though it’s conceivable that someone might be a lazy person in general, I believe most people are lazy just about some particular facet or things in their life. For these people, those things they are lazy about are just not important to them. They may give lip service (claim it is important) to some principal, but if it were important, the person would not merely be given lip service, they would be doing. In order for you to be motivated to do something, it has to be important to you.
The second reason for the lack of motivation, they aren’t familiar with training hard, is similar to the third reason, they think they are going to hurt themselves. In both cases, the person lacks the confidence that they are able to work hard, either at all, or at a minimum, in a healthy way.
The fourth reason is similar to the first reason. If someone doesn’t think getting really strong is important, there is no way they will be motivated. John and I disagree with this, but I think it’s more important to find the exercise you enjoy, that gives you pleasure, even if it doesn’t make you the strongest you can be.
So why am I motivated to do these ridiculous tough workouts, even though they are not pleasurable? Three reasons:
1. The payoff is great. Though I don’t like having to buy bigger suits, the bigger shoulders and lats look great. This makes working out more valuable to me, which motivates me. If I can just get rid of the love handles, I will look as good as I looked in my twenties (below the neck, anyway).
2. I like the intensity of working my hardest. My knees and hips have kept me from running as hard as I did when I was younger, so I had to find something else. This, like #1, makes it hard workouts more valuable to me.
3. Small successes. If you don’t know what a calf ham glute raise is, check it out here.
No, that’s not me, but I actually have done six of these, and that success has fueled my desire to be able to do twenty in a row. The more confident I get, the more successes I want.
Motivation is a personal decision. If you don’t want to do something, if it isn’t valuable to you, it’s going to be an uphill battle for you to get motivated. But if you want to do it, the model for self motivation will help you achieve what you desire.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
motivating employees
When I was researching my book on self motivation, I first studied motivation in education, next in athletics, and finally in the job setting. Though the research in these three fields mainly focused on one person motivating another person, it provided a basis for the model of self motivation that I created.
One source for my information on motivation in the employment setting was the work of Thomas L. Quick, presented in his book, The Quick Motivation Method.
In Quick’s model the boss decides what the positive choice is in a particular situation, and then the boss motivates the employee to view that same choice as positive to the employee as well. The boss does this by increasing the motivational value of that particular choice. Quick has five pointers for increasing the motivational value of a choice:
1. People have reasons for what they do.
2. Whatever people choose to do, they do it to gain something they believe is good for them. The achievement must be sufficiently important for them to choose it.
3. The person has to perceive he or she can attain the goal.
4. The conditions under which the job (the activity) is done (the situation) can affect its value to the doer or his expectation of success.
5. The manager can increase the employee’s motivation by increasing the value of the goal to the employee, increasing the employee’s expectation of reaching it, and enhancing the situation surrounding the performance.
There are similarities between Quick’s five pointers and the model for self motivation.
The first pointer is the underlying assumption for the vision, that people need a reason to do what they do. The second pointer states that the reason people do a certain thing is because it is important to them; it is valuable.
The third pointer is similar to successability, the person’s confidence in their competence. If the person does not think he is capable of achieving the thing they want to do, they will not be motivated to try.
The fourth pointer relates to the power of the environment in which the person is doing his work. In the self motivation model we deal with both the physical environment (the place where the work is done) and the social environment (the people and organizations available to the person).
The fifth pointer explains that the boss can increase the worker’s motivation by fine tuning the other four pointers, that is, by making the goal more valuable to the worker, by increasing the worker’s expectations of success, and by enhancing the environment.
In the self motivation model, rather than having someone outside of us take these steps to increase our motivation, we are in charge of doing it. By taking charge of our own motivation in this way we can be assured that what we are moving toward is what is truly valuable to us, and not just valuable to someone else.
That’s what taking control of your life is about, making your own decisions, pushing your own buttons, and making your dreams come true.
What in your life do you want to take control of? If you would, leave a comment below sharing your answer to this question.
One source for my information on motivation in the employment setting was the work of Thomas L. Quick, presented in his book, The Quick Motivation Method.
In Quick’s model the boss decides what the positive choice is in a particular situation, and then the boss motivates the employee to view that same choice as positive to the employee as well. The boss does this by increasing the motivational value of that particular choice. Quick has five pointers for increasing the motivational value of a choice:
1. People have reasons for what they do.
2. Whatever people choose to do, they do it to gain something they believe is good for them. The achievement must be sufficiently important for them to choose it.
3. The person has to perceive he or she can attain the goal.
4. The conditions under which the job (the activity) is done (the situation) can affect its value to the doer or his expectation of success.
5. The manager can increase the employee’s motivation by increasing the value of the goal to the employee, increasing the employee’s expectation of reaching it, and enhancing the situation surrounding the performance.
There are similarities between Quick’s five pointers and the model for self motivation.
The first pointer is the underlying assumption for the vision, that people need a reason to do what they do. The second pointer states that the reason people do a certain thing is because it is important to them; it is valuable.
The third pointer is similar to successability, the person’s confidence in their competence. If the person does not think he is capable of achieving the thing they want to do, they will not be motivated to try.
The fourth pointer relates to the power of the environment in which the person is doing his work. In the self motivation model we deal with both the physical environment (the place where the work is done) and the social environment (the people and organizations available to the person).
The fifth pointer explains that the boss can increase the worker’s motivation by fine tuning the other four pointers, that is, by making the goal more valuable to the worker, by increasing the worker’s expectations of success, and by enhancing the environment.
In the self motivation model, rather than having someone outside of us take these steps to increase our motivation, we are in charge of doing it. By taking charge of our own motivation in this way we can be assured that what we are moving toward is what is truly valuable to us, and not just valuable to someone else.
That’s what taking control of your life is about, making your own decisions, pushing your own buttons, and making your dreams come true.
What in your life do you want to take control of? If you would, leave a comment below sharing your answer to this question.
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