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Motivation is a huge business in America. There are thousands of speakers waiting to motivate you on how to sell, how to close, how to work better, how to motivate others and any other subject you can imagine!
Motivation is worth every penny.
For example, I believe everyone should (and can) be in awesome shape. But not everyone is.
The reason is because we (the people who aren’t in the shape we want to be in) have trouble staying consistent with exercise and/or healthy eating.
If you don’t have a problem staying consistent with your diet and/or exercise, you should be in great shape!
A highly motivated person wouldn’t have any problem staying consistent though.
As Zig Ziglar said, “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.”
But most people keep searching for more tactics. The problem with that strategy is it delays action. And consistent action is the only way to get to where you want to be.
I don’t think you can teach someone to be motivated. Motivation has to come from with in.
However; I know inspiration can absolutely make someone motivated!
I believe motivation occurs once a switch is flipped in your mind. Maybe you caught a glimpse of yourself in the mirror and don’t like what you see. Maybe your jeans aren’t fitting the way they used to. Maybe you have a vacation coming up. Maybe a Rocky marathon was on TV. Maybe your Body Tutor wrote something that hit home with you…
Inspiration, on the other hand, is all about looking inside yourself.
If he can do it why can’t I? If she can do it why can’t I? If I was able to do this back then why can’t I do it now?
I don’t know any kid who dreams of being overweight and out of shape. It just happens. Life happens! Work, kids, friends, and on and on….
But when no one is forcing you to look inside yourself (I believe good inspiration should) and to be honest with yourself; it’s really easy to lose sight of the life you want to lead. It’s really easy to rationalize all of your excuses.
Tiger Woods has 3 coaches. The finest musicians and athletes all have coaches. Why shouldn’t you?
These highly successful people are highly motivated. But like any human being sometimes we slip up and sometimes we lose sight of where we’re going and we lose our motivation.
This is when you should:
Listen to your favorite music. Look at pictures. Read great articles and books. And whatever it is that you do that inspires you.
Know the difference between motivation and inspiration. And when you’re loosing motivation; seek inspiration!
If you’re losing motivation often then you should:
Surround yourself with inspiring and motivating people. Accomplish one small task every day. Take a look at everything around you. What’s bringing you down?
You don’t want mediocrity for yourself. You know you don’t. Don’t ever convince yourself that you do. And the most successful people I know are constantly investing in inspiration whether it’s from books, seminars, coaches, music, etc.
Inspiration = Successful!
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Comments
02.05.09
Great post Adam!
I find that motiviation tends to feed upon itself, but it takes effort to get there. It is just getting over that hurdle to make a change. Once you "get over the hump" it becomes easier.
For eating right and exercise, once you get into the routine and over the hump of your old ways you don't see how you could ever go back. As you see the change in your body it become motivation to continue. As you feel better from eating properly, you can't fathom the thought of eating something fatty and greasy. It is just a matter of overcoming the resistance to change. Once you overcome the resistance, it becomes much easier to stay on track and the success feeds upon itself.
02.05.09
Thanks, Matt!
As you described, momentum is a very powerful force!
Objects in motion stay in motion. Objects at rest stay at rest.
Unfortunately, it's very challenging to keep that momentum going.
02.05.09
I think focus has a lot to do with it, too. If you have too many "biggies" you're trying to juggle, you're probably going to loose motivation to stick with all of them. If you're someone who feels more accomplished when you can say you actually finished something, staying fit might be hard because that's maintence once you've hit a goal weight. Additionally, if you find yourself taking off in billions of directions, you may never accomplish anything.
I've found it's helpful to have smaller goals within large ones. It's kind of like making a checklist. And then you get that happy feeling when you get to check something off.
02.08.09
Great post! It made me think of is discipline, which I think relates to what you describe as consistent action. I think sometimes we expect motivation and inspiration to be these huge massive things. But when you're trying to get to a goal, sometimes it's really painful. It's those times that motivation requires you to just be disciplined and tell yourself to get in gear. And it's that moment that you just need the discipline to stick to it and just keep at it.
Coaches can help because they can really kick your butt! But they can also be a crutch; at least for myself I search for ways that I can motivate myself and not always having to have other people trigger my motivation.
What can also help is how badly you want it. I think highly motivated people that are successful at making a change can sometimes be highly discontent about something; that's one of the reasons why they just keep going.
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