Most people don’t need motivation to start on a new goal.
People buy workout DVDs, they join a gym, they start taking business classes, they start working on a new habit but they soon lose steam and stop.
People have a general sense of what’s good for them, but they struggle with sustaining their motivation to see their goals realized.
And, contrary to what you may think, you don’t always need motivation hacks to kick start your motivational levels. Sometimes these things are not enough.
What you need is a strategy of action.
Read on.
1. How to Motivate Yourself?
The first question I ask people when they tell me about their new goal is:
What are you going to do when you don’t feel motivated to work on your goal?
People are always stunned when I ask them this question. They look at me suspiciously and assume I’m trying to rain on their parade…
… I am not.
The purpose of my question is to encourage them to think ahead and plan. I try to prepare them for the challenges that lay ahead.
Imagine how silly you would look when you go out and invest in a whole lot of stuff for your startup business only to stop a few months into the process. What happened to your goal? Weren’t you going around telling everyone how excited you were about starting this business? Did you stop because you found x y z excuses? You didn’t know that you’re going to encounter those challenges? Did you assume it was going to be fun and profitable to work on your grand idea?
It’s important to stay grounded when you’re thinking through new ideas. Don’t overestimate your motivation levels and assume you’re finally going to work day and night in the pursuit of your goal. You probably won’t and you probably can’t…(sorry!) unless you’re serious about finding solutions to keep going.
Here’s a list of questions to think about:
- What techniques are you going to use to motivate yourself when you’re in a slump?
- How are you going to deal with procrastination?
- Are you going to decline requests that distract you from your goals?
- Do you have the tendency to postpone your work? Why is this time going to be different?
- What attitude are you going to have toward things that don’t go your way?
- Are you willing to accept that there is %70 chance that your business won’t succeed?
- Are you going to be honest with yourself about how hard you’ve been working and whether or not it’s enough?
- Are you going to exhaust every single possible resource in pursuit of your goal? Or are you going to “forget” that you had access to those resources?
- Do you get bored when it’s time to work on a marketing strategy or a business plan?
- Do you plan to keep trying if you fail?
Do yourself a favor and answer these questions honestly. You will learn quite a bit about yourself and why you weren’t able to reach your goals in the past.
I am asking you these questions because when you’re excited about your new project, you are not going to think about them.
In fact, if you let the excitement of the new idea fly you to fantasy land, you’re likely to overestimate a lot of things about yourself and the progress you can make. You will overestimate how hard (and how long) you can work, how much profit you can make, and how well your business will do. So it’s really not in your best interest to immediately believe the calculations of your “excited mind”. Your excited mind is only excited in the beginning.
2. The “No Hack” Approach
How did I ensure that my motivation levels will stay high? Before I take on a certain project, I envision myself in the middle of the project.
When you start thinking about how things might look like when you’re in the middle, you will get a much more realistic picture about your performance. Try to visualize yourself after you’ve set things up. Imagine yourself sitting at your desk when you’ve sent out all the emails, when you’ve made a lot of phone calls, and when you’re finished with building the product. What are you going to do then if people don’t like your product? What are you going to do if your marketing strategy flops?
The same goes for other goals. Imagine yourself after you’ve already paid for a gym membership, and you’ve been going to the gym for a few weeks. What are you going to do if it’s raining outside and your mind tells you to stay home? What are you going to do when you’re tired from work? What are you going to do if you have family obligations that can make it difficult for you to go to the gym? Are you going to give up?
You don’t need motivation hacks to work hard. What you need is answers to difficult questions. You need to be prepared to tackle those problems when they arise. You need high self-efficacy and the assurance that you’ve done everything you could do to be successful. That’s what you need.
Accordingly, you need to begin by creating a personal strategy. If you’ve struggled in this area in the past, then you may benefit from working with me. In fact, if you need to make serious breakthrough in your life and tackle a challenge that’s been holding you back for some time, that’s exactly where I can be of tremendous value to you.
You can read more about me here. I believe that each challenge is unique and there’s no one size fit all solutions. Therefore, I won’t lead you into a paradigm of action that doesn’t fit your needs. I want us to work together to create a customized plan that will help you become comfortable with taking conscious willful action. To get a sense of my philosophy and what I can exactly help you do, please read my story and see my home page.
For more information, please contact me at scully.elias@gmail.com