Is motivation overrated?

Hi Brian back again, how are you fairing lately? Keeping in good health, or just feeling a bit yuck? The weather here has been rather wet in places, a lot of flooding, particularly in the north of the country. What is your motivation like? Is motivation overrated, that’s the topic I am going to consider.

What’s been happening?

Since the last update my wife has had full blown influenza, completely knocked out, a whole week in bed. Really knocked her for six, stay in bed, plenty of water and rest. I managed to escape, just getting the snuffles and sneeze a bit more than usual. Really played with the work ethic.

After a week of looking after the wife (trying to), and getting myself a bit of a rest as well, I am back into it, all fired up.

I was looking into getting some transcriptions done and have found a neat way of doing it. It uses free to access tools, so doesn’t cost a dime. I shall be covering this topic in the newsletter, have you subscribed yet?

Question: Is motivation overrated?

If you are in any kind of social grouping like at your work or community, neighbourhood, or in fact your family, you may be thinking that success in terms of group dynamics is just something that happens. There is just something about certain people that ensures that they rise to the top. Like they say, cream always rises to the top.

You may be thinking that certain groups of people are just the cream of society. It is just one of those things. Which is all very comforting if you are part of that group. What if you are just like everybody else? If you are not habitually successful? And if you try really hard, but for whatever reason, things just don’t pan out? Is this YOU?

• Do you write yourself off?
• Do you settle for the crumbs of life?
• Do you instantly believe that your best days are behind you?

Of course not.

You see, whatever successful people can achieve, you can achieve as well. Now, you’re probably rolling your eyes and you’re probably thinking that is some sort of empty pep talk. You may even be thinking that you’ve heard this a million times before, part of the psycho babble.

I really can’t blame you for such a dismissive attitude because that is mostly to be expected. However, until and unless you are able to wrap your mind around the importance of proper motivation, the chances are, you won’t be able to make the necessary sacrifices that would enable you to achieve amazing success with your life and business.

What you need to address

Make no mistake, working towards success is a sacrifice because you’re giving up something that you are entitled to do. You’re entitled to a break. Yes seriously. You’re entitled to take things easy. But you chose to do something hard now in exchange for the promise of a greater victory in the future.  

As long as you are capable of doing something, you can choose either the easy or the hard way. You are entitled to those options because you are capable of taking them.

In other words, if we were to bring this all back to grade school, you have decided to not eat chocolate chip cookie now in exchange for three chocolate chip cookies tomorrow. Sounds good so far, right?

Motivation overrated? Certainly not

Well, the problem is, sticking to that plan of action is much harder than coming up with a plan in the first place. You need motivation. This is why I can say with a straight face that motivation is not overrated. In fact, it’s the other way around. Motivation is absolutely crucial to any kind of success.  

I don’t care how you define it. I don’t care about the timeline you have set for yourself. You need to remain motivated and most importantly you need to be able to get motivated on command. This is why you need a systematic and methodical approach. You can’t just let your feelings get the better of you. You can’t just assume that certain things will come into place and by intuition or random luck you will get motivated. It doesn’t work that way.

Look out for further comment on this issue in the newsletter and future blog posts.

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