Your passion is powerful

My daughter, Beth, came home from California for my birthday. Beth is working on her Masters and, as we were catching up, I got a wonderful example of the power of a great vision. Beth was sharing all this wonderful stuff that’s been happening in her professional pursuits. She’s making wonderful contacts, opportunities have been opening up, and has even been asked by an acknowledged expert in her field to consult.

I told her how proud I was of her, and how wonderful it is that she has become aware of how special she is. She told me, unprompted, that once she had a good handle on exactly what she wanted to do professionally, all of a sudden everything clicked. All these things started happening. There was no stopping her. She had found her passion.

This is the reason we want to find our vision. Once we find our calling, our purpose for being here, the universe, some would say, opens doors for us that had never been opened before. Others would say once we find our calling we notice open doors that we had never noticed before. Either way, and the difference is unimportant, once we find our passion there will be opportunities available to us to help us move forward to answer the call.

Notice, we are talking about two things that impact our motivation, one, having a great vision and two, having clarity in our lives.

A great vision gives us a destination. Until we know where we are going, we have no idea how to get there, we don’t know what we should be doing. We are confused and unfocused. Having a vision allows us to feel passion and use its power. Having a vision motivates us and keeps us motivated.

Clarity, on the other hand, guarantees that we know exactly how to get to our vision. It not only tells us our vision, but helps us determine the path to manifest it in our lives. Clarity increases our confidence in our competence, our successability.

It took Beth a while to figure out her vision. But now she knows what it is, there will be no stopping her.

Being authentic is motivating

As I shared in an earlier blog posting, the factor of self motivation about which I get the most questions is the vision. A frequent question goes like this, “Does the vision really have to be who I truly am; can’t it be something else, like me with a million dollars in the bank?”

The answer is that the vision can indeed be anything you want it to be, so long as it is worthwhile to you, so long as it is something you desire. Research in motivation shows that any worthwhile endeavor (worthwhile to you) will be motivating. It does not have to be why you are on this planet, why God put you here, or your purpose for existing.

So why did I make the vision these things? Why did I make it more than just “something you want,” or “something you strongly desire.” I did this because who we truly are is so worthwhile to each of us, so much more worthwhile than merely “me with a million dollars in the bank.” Consequently, it is that much more motivating.

I also have a problem with visions like “a million dollars in the bank” because that is more a means to an end. What does having a million dollars in the bank mean to you? Does it mean you don’t have to worry about bills? Then what you really desire is a feeling of security, a way to keep yourself safe. Does it mean you feel like a big shot? Then what you are really desiring is feeling important, feeling okay about yourself. Using the authentic you as your vision is much more powerful than merely getting your fantasies fulfilled.

The word for “why we are here” or “why God put me here” is authenticity. Authenticity means being genuine, true to who you are.

People seem to be coming more and more conscious of how important it is to become aware of who we authentically are, and to strive to be that person.

I receive monthly a catalogue from a company in Boulder, Colorado, called Sounds True, Inc. The catalogue advertises CD’s, DVD’s and online workshops on myriad subjects, such as meditation, neurobiology, relationships and yoga. In the most recent issue there are three different CD sets, by three different authors, addressing authenticity. One CD set teaches us how you can become who you truly are without fixing or changing anything and thereby experience your true nature. Another set teaches you how to become the person your soul seeks to be, and respond to the call from within to live a more purposeful life. This, the author informs us, will bring richness and value to our lives. The third set calls on you to honor the call of your authentic self.

All three of these CD sets, like the model for self motivation, acknowledge the power that is created when we live our authentic self. It may be more difficult to become aware of a vision that is your authentic self, when compared to just having as your vision acquisition of material things, such as a million dollars. But the extra work you may have to do will be more than compensated by the increased motivation you will feel.

There are many ways to get in touch with that authentic part of you. It doesn’t matter which way you do it. Just pick a way and do it, and you will turbocharge your motivation.

What have you done to get in touch with that authentic aspect of you? Please share your strategies with your fellow readers.

Give yourself the right message

Michael Bloomberg, the extremely popular mayor of New York, is characterized as being very complementary of his city workers. He is quoted as saying, “The problem is, if you never give an agency credit for doing a good job, you’re not going to have good people there and they’re not going to stay motivated.”

I work for a state agency and we weren’t treated very complimentarily by the legislature in the session that just ended, so I appreciate what Mayor Bloomberg said. But I wondered how what he said fit into the model for self motivation.

Recall the model is

MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).

It means that your motivation is a function of (impacted by) vision, successability and environment.

Were you to apply the Mayor’ words to self motivation, rather than motivation directed at someone else, you would say you need to be complementary to yourself in your self talk. Self deprecating talk, in which you demean yourself, is demotivating, robs you of your motivation. Complementary talk, on the other hand, can be very motivating.

It has this impact on your motivation at least two ways, both of which can be seen by examining the model for self motivation.

The first impact is to your vision. Recall that the vision is the reason you were put on this planet, your potential manifested. Self deprecating talk adversely impacts the power of your vision. If your vision is worthwhile and meaningful to you, it will increase your motivation. If, on the other hand, you continually spout negative things about yourself, demeaning yourself, your motivation cannot help but suffer. Look at the definition of demean, “to reduce in worth, to degrade.” Such talk lessens the value of your vision, and lowers your perception of your potential, resulting in reduced motivation.

Self deprecating comments also adversely impact the your successability, your confidence in your competence. By engaging in negative self talk, you are directly questioning your competence, your worth as a human.

Many of us are hard on ourselves, harder than we would ever be on anyone else, and harder than anyone is on us. This is not good for our motivation. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging our mistakes, in fact it’s a good thing as it’s the only way to learn by our mistakes and improve. Just remember, criticize the mistake, not the one who made the mistake.

By engaging in positive self talk, on the other hand, talk complementary to ourselves, we can increase our motivation and move forward in achieving our dreams.

What type of self talk do you do? Do you feel the impact of the talk on your motivation?

Five steps to motivate yourself

Do you find that starting a project is easy, but staying with it is difficult? Do you wonder why you can’t stay on track? The odds are the answer is that you can’t maintain your motivation. The initial excitement of a new project is enough to get you motivated and sustain you for a while, but once that initial excitement wears off, especially when something else exciting starts to pull you away, or when you hit a bump, suddenly … there is no motivation. Not enough to resist the pull of that other exciting thing, or certainly not enough to keep you going when the going gets a little rough.

So how do we maintain our motivation, so that we can stick with our plans through the rough times, and so we can ignore those oh so exciting distractions?

I would like to share with you five steps you can use to keep yourself motivated, so you can stay on track and complete your important goals.

Step One: Learn the model for self motivation.

MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).

At first glance it may appear complicated, but actually it is easy to understand. Just as important, it is a practical way of staying motivated, practical meaning it’s easy to put into practice. What the formula tells us is that if you increase any of the three factors of motivation, which are to the right of the equals sign, you automatically increase your motivation.

Step Two: Understand the three factors of motivation.

1. vision
2. successability
3. environment

Vision is your purpose, why you were put on this earth. Successability is your confidence in your competence. Environment is the place you do your work and the people and organizations that surround you.

Step Three: Have a powerful vision.

The more clear you are about why you are here, and the more worthwhile it is to you, the more motivated you will be. That’s the what the model tells us, the more powerful you make any of the factors, the greater will be your motivation.

Step Four: Increase your successability.

The more confident you are in your competence (your successability) the more motivated you will be. The two best ways of increasing that confidence in yourself are:

1. Clarity
2. Proper degree of risk

Clarity means knowing exactly what you want to accomplish, and figuring our exactly how you are going to achieve it. The proper degree of risk is a moderate degree of risk, not so great that the odds are you will fail, but not so low that even if you accomplish the task, it gives you no increased feelings of competence.

Step Five: Maximize both types of environment.

Maximize your physical environment by making the place you do your work enhance your productivity or make working in it more pleasant.

Ways to maximize your social environment include seeking out a mentor, joining professional groups, getting additional training from brick and mortar institutions or even from blogs such as this one.

Motivation makes the difference between merely having dreams and achieving your dreams. Do you have a special way you keep yourself motivated? Why not share it below?

Using positive public pressure to motivate yourself.

As an author and speaker on motivation, I make it a habit to read what other people are writing about motivation. I am currently reading and enjoying a book I recently downloaded, called The Essential Motivation Handbook, by Leo Babauta and Eric Hamm. The book, which is a series of informational and inspiring essays on different facets of motivation, is available at Leo’s web site, zenhabits.net . Leo recommends that you read the book in little bits, and then put them into action. I can see the descriptive table of contents being very helpful when you find yourself unmotivated for a particular reason. Just skim through the table of contents and find the essay that relates to your problem.

When I read writings by other people I like to see how what they write fits into the model for self motivation I created. If it does, it corroborates the validity of my model. If it doesn’t, but I agree with what they have written, it creates some cognitive dissonance, but I invariably learn something new, and become better able to manifest my vision as a teacher of self motivation.

For those of you who are not yet familiar with the model for self motivation, it goes like this:

MOTIVATION = ƒ (VISION, SUCCESSABILITY, ENVIRONMENT).

The model means that any positive impact on any of the three factors to the right of the equals sign will create an increase in your motivation. The more you are in tune with your vision, your purpose for being on this planet, the more motivated you will be. The higher your successability, your confidence in your competence, the higher your motivation will be. The better your environment, both your physical environment (the place where you do your work) and your social environment (the people and organizations that surround you) the greater your motivation.

In The Essential Motivation Handbook, I particularly liked an essay entitled “The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You’ll Ever Need.” The two secrets are positive public pressure and enjoyment. By positive public pressure, Leo means telling people, family, friends and co-workers exactly what you are going to do, and letting them create gentle, positive pressure on you to carry out your plans. By enjoyment, Leo means making the way you carry out your plans enjoyable. If your plan is to write a blog, for example, make it a blog about something you enjoy writing about, or something you are passionate about.

The two secrets fit very nicely into the model for self motivation. The positive public pressure is elicited from part of your environment, specifically your social environment. The model tells us that increasing the beneficial impact of your social environment is one way to increase your motivation. Leo presents some great strategies for utilizing your social environment to positively impact your motivation.

The second secret, enjoying your work, relates to the vision. I can’t imagine anything giving you more joy than becoming who you were meant to be, living up to your potential. The more personally meaningful and valuable your vision is, the more motivating it will be.

Motivation is what makes the difference between merely having dreams and living your dreams. What dreams do you have that you would like to live?

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Use your desires to motivate yourself

This is the last in a series of four blog postings presenting strategies you can use to discover your vision, that first, and most important, factor of self motivation.

This strategy, look to your desires, approaches the vision quest from an entirely different perspective than that of the other three approaches. If your attempts in using the other three strategies have been not been as productive as you might have wished, or if you just want to try something different, give this strategy a try.

In this strategy we look at the different needs that can be met by manifesting one’s vision. Victor Maslow, the father of motivation, created a hierarchy of needs based upon his studies. According to Maslow certain needs motivate us to take the actions we take in our lives. We call them motivating needs.

Here are the five needs, in ascending order of complexity.

1. Physiological: Physical needs such as food, sex, drink, sleep;
2. Safety: Needs such as the security of one’s body, having secure employment, having a safe and secure place to live;
3. Love and Belonging: The need to have friendship, family, sexual intimacy;
4. Esteem: The desire to have self-esteem and the esteem of others; to have a sense of competence and be regarded as useful;
5. Self-Actualization: The desire to grow as a person, to achieve one’s potential, to be spontaneous and actualized.

This hierarchy of needs is frequently presented as a pyramid, with the most basic needs, physiological needs, at the bottom and the most complex need, self-actualization, at the top. Maslow believed that generally a person had to meet the lower level needs before he could move up to more complex needs. In other words, the first level, one’s physiological needs, had to be met before one was motivated by needs on the third level, esteem.

To do this strategy, you first read the list of needs and the definition of each. When you read the list of needs, think about which of them are important to you at this time in your life. Focusing on your needs may help help you discover what vision will help you meet these needs.

Remember, the purpose of discovering your vision is to increase your motivation. Anything you do that increases the value of your vision, how important that vision is to you, will automatically increase your motivation.

A statement of your philosophy can build your motivation

This is the third of four blog postings directed at helping you discover your vision. The first two strategies I wrote of were indirect ways of discovering your vision. In this strategy we approach the issue head on. We contemplate the question, “Why am I here?”

This strategy is called my philosophy statement. This strategy consists of two steps. Both of them involve paper and a pen or pencil.

Step One: Sit down in a quiet place where you will be undisturbed for a while. Write on the top of a clean piece of paper the following words, “I was put here on this earth so that I could …” Then take some time to get quiet and still. Think about all the possible reasons you are here. You may come up with many reasons. Think about all the different roles you play. Write down all your thoughts. This is brainstorming, so do not be critical of what you write down. After you have worked awhile and are out of ideas, stop for the day. Come back another day and pick up where you left off.

Step Two: After you have taken at least two sessions working on Step One, it’s time to move to Step Two. In Step Two, just as we did in Step One, we start with a clean sheet of paper. We write down on the paper the following words, “The things that are important to me are …” Think about the principles that guide your life, or have guided it in the past. Think about difficult decisions you faced, and the choices you ended up making. Think about why you decided the way you did. What was there about that choice that made it the right choice for you? Write down all your thoughts. After you have worked awhile and are out of ideas, stop for the day. Again, come back another day and pick up where you left off.

These are not easy exercises. Don’t be surprised if you have difficulty with them. And even if you are in touch with the answers, you may find they make you uncomfortable. Getting in touch with who you are can be disturbing. But finding that person is worth the work it takes, and worth the discomfort that may come. Finding your vision is the most important work you do in motivating yourself, because it sets the tone for all the other work you do.

Why not take some time now, it doesn’t have to be a lot of time, to get in touch with this powerful motivator.

A personal inventory can lead you to your vision

Today’s posting will tell about a second strategy you can use to help you find your vision. It is called my inventory. In this strategy we look at our abilities, in order to get a handle on our potential. We do this because the vision is the manifestation of our potential, the reason we were put on this planet. The vision is the most important of the three factors that determine your motivation.

Emmet Fox once wrote that you will never be content unless you find your true place, your heart’s desire, what you are uniquely qualified to do. This is what this strategy is designed to do.

My inventory involves brain storming, answering a question (in this case three questions) by intensely thinking about them. When we brainstorm we are tapping into our imagination and our creativity. The most important rule about brainstorming is we do not judge our answers, no matter how shocking, crazy or futile they may appear. We merely record them, for we are looking at possibilities. We write them down, and then, at a later time, evaluate and improve them.

The first question we brainstorm is “What do I do well?” In answering this question, we look to our strengths, our special talents and our blessings. These are the special gifts we have received.

The second question we answer in my inventory is “What do I love to do?”

To find the answer to this question we look at what we love to spend our time doing, our passions. We also look at what we consider to be the highlights of our lives.

Looking at just these two questions, “What do I love to do?” and “What do I do well?” will frequently reveal our vision. But just in case it doesn’t, we have a third question to answer that may lead us directly to our vision. This third question asks us to identify our heroes. Our heroes, the people we identify as having it all together, are frequently evidence of what’s important to us; they are doing what we would like to do.

My hero is Wayne Dyer. He is doing what I want to do, and is doing it well. He writes books that help people, and that are fun to read. I also love the low key way he has of presenting.

After we identify our hero, the next step is to make an inventory of our hero’s positive attributes. We then look to see which of these positive attributes we can see in ourselves. These positive attributes are keys to our vision, the reason we are on this planet. We also need to identify those positive attributes that may actually be hidden in ourselves. These hidden attributes are referred to as our potential.

Make sure to write down your answers to each of the questions you address as you prepare your inventory. Your inventory is not something you should finish in one sitting. By writing it down, when you come back to do further work, you can easily continue your journey.