Become a Master of Motivation

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Summary

We all must generate motivation on a continual basis to continue to contribute and feel like we are leading a meaningful, joyful life.  To have a life led by motivation you must be intentional about what you do, what you think and what you say.  The best way to keep this in check is to constantly be reviewing what you want out of life.  What to do you want to be, what do you want to have and what do you want to give back.  That’s right I said give back.  It can’t always be about ourselves.  The best system is the one that you will use and moves you forward every day in measurable ways to achieving a bigger life.  A life filled with happiness, success and contribution.

To be a highly motivated individual you must engage with people.  I know you are probably asking, what does engaging with people have to do with motivation?   I am sure that you have heard that man was not meant to live alone…we are extremely social beings and helping others, giving back and being a part of something bigger than ourselves is a great motivator.

So, this all makes sense right…. but how does this help me tomorrow morning when I wake up, grab the coffee and head out the door to sit behind my same desk, with the same emails demanding something of me and the same leftovers waiting for me at the end of the day.

It is all going to start with a few simple habits.  The tough part is consistency.  Like anything new it is great the first few days, and then it is easy to get off track and fall back into your old routines.

#1 - Do Not under any circumstance start your day in front of a screen.  If you start by opening an email, or watching the news, or getting sucked into social media you have lost the battle, as your day's future has been determined by someone else’s agenda.

#2 – What you do need to do is get your body moving.  Here is where you get to decide what that looks like. 

#3 – Connect with your dreams.   Write out your goals.  These can be questions that help you discover weaknesses that you need to work on or remind you to do the things you know make you feel awesome and in turn motivated. 

#4 – Finally find something that helps you move into your day with a sense of peace and control.  To some people this may be reading. Meditation or prayer.  It may be a combination of these.  Again, you will be the author of this morning routine and decide what moves you.

Full Transcript

As I sit here writing this I have to laugh, as it’s been a crazy long weekend of to do’s and chores and trying to squeeze some recreation and fun time in there and frankly, I was not very motivated to focus and work.  Then I thought about it and thought well, what a perfect time to prove that not everyone is motivated 24/7.  It is not something that you are either born with or don’t have the luck to have.  

Motivation is generated from within and every one of us has the power and the strength to be extremely motivated.  I do believe though that mastering motivation, which is our topic today, is a skill to be practiced and like anything that we focus on and are purposeful about we get better…motivation is the same way.

You probably know people that seem like they are constantly motivated to go do the next big thing or get the next big toy.  They are constantly conquering goals.  It just seems like they love everything that they do.  On the flip side you probably know a lot of people that get up every day and drag through their day, complaining, and rarely do you hear them excited about something or striving for that big goal.

Have you also noticed that the person that is able to maintain that motivation is the one that is usually the first to help someone, or is more giving than most of the group, while the less or non-motivated person is typically the one complaining?  They may even be complaining about the happiness of the motivated person.  Crazy right?  

So, what makes these people different from one another?  Intention. That's right, intention.  When I mentioned earlier that we all have the power to create motivation, what I didn’t mention is that it can take work.  Some days it takes a lot of work.  But I think I am safe to say that if you asked 100 people if they want to be happy and motivated, they would say yes.  People want to experience fun and joy.  They want to achieve at a high level and love doing it.

You may think that I am being overly optimistic and that’s ok…I get it.  The human brain functions in such a way that we all have days where we wake up and just want to check out and sit on the couch and eat Doritos.  That does not make us horrible people, it makes us real.  The key to realize is that too much is what leads to a life without ambition, goals and excitement…in other words it’s just ho hum.

We all must generate motivation on a continual basis to contribute and feel like we are leading a meaningful, joyful life.  Let’s go back to something that I said earlier…intention.  To have a life led by motivation you must be intentional about what you do, what you think and what you say.  The best way to keep this in check is to constantly be reviewing what you want out of life.  What to do you want to be, what do you want to have and what do you want to give back.  That’s right I said give back.  It can’t always be about ourselves.  

In order to be a highly motivated individual you must engage with people.  I know you are probably asking, what does engaging with people have to do with motivation?  I am sure that you have heard that man was not meant to live alone…we are extremely social beings and helping others, giving back and being a part of something bigger than ourselves is a great motivator.

So, this all makes sense right…. but how does this help me tomorrow morning when I wake up, grab the coffee and head out the door to sit behind my same desk, with the same emails demanding something of me and the same leftovers waiting for me at the end of the day.

It is all going to start with a few simple habits.  The tough part is consistency.  Like anything new it is great the first few days, and then it is easy to get off track and fall back into your old routines.  But trust me on this one…. when you fall, and you will, you need to think back on how amazing your day was when you started it out with intention and a plan.  That in itself will likely motivate you to try again.

I am talking about our morning routine…If you have been listening to me for a while you have heard me mention this before in a variety of concepts.  There is no right or wrong morning routine, but it must work for you.  Like any system, which this basically is a system of how to assure that you will start your day motivated.  So, like I was going to say…the best system is the one that you will use and moves you forward every day in measurable ways to achieving a bigger life.  A life filled with happiness, success and contribution.

When I say that there is no perfect routine, I speak from experience in that I follow some amazing influencers through coaching, masterminds and educational material and when I first started buying into this morning routine thing to have a motivated day I felt like I had to do exactly the things that they were telling me to do every morning, in that order for that amount of time.  You see I am very type A, so deviation from a proven structure can be a challenge for me.  What I discovered though was that some of those things did not resonate with me…or quite honestly, I didn’t want to do some of them.

So here is the long and short…there are some things that you really need to subscribe to, and I am going to hit those here.

#1 – Do Not under any circumstance start your day in front of a screen.  If you start by opening email, or watching the news, or getting sucked into social media you have lost the battle, as your days future has been determined by someone else’s agenda.

#2 – What you do need to do is get your body moving.  Here is where you get to decide what that looks like.  Some people like to go for a run or hit the gym.  Others prefer some quiet yoga or stretching.  Whatever your flavor of moving looks like, if you can finish it with some quiet movement to reflect that can be helpful.  So even if you are the run 5 miles every morning type…finish it off with a nice walk or stretching, which we know you should be doing anyway.  It will reset your mind and allow you to process a bit.  Some of my best ideas come during a good walk.

#3 – Connect with your dreams.   So many people write out their goals and put them on a shelf.  It is so sad as I can about guarantee they will never attain what they hoped to.  Heck, they will be lucky if they remember what they wrote down in 3 months let alone be able to show you what they have done to move closer to the ambitions.  Again, you will decide what works best for you.  I personally use a journal that I write in every night that focuses on my goals and ambitions.  I answer questions that will lead me through my day.  These can be questions that help you discover weaknesses that you need to work on or remind you to do the things you know make you feel awesome and in turn motivated.  One that resonates with me is who do I need to connect with today and how I can be a positive influence in their life.  For me I can get on that project track and forget about those around me…remember that social piece that I said was so critical in our lives.  There it is every day.   By writing these down every evening, I can really think about what how I want my day to fall into place.  Then each morning you can take some time and sit and look at what you orchestrated your perfect day to look like.

#4 – Finally find something that helps you move into your day with a sense of peace and control.  To some people this may be reading. Meditation or prayer.  It may be a combination of these.  Again, you will be the author of this morning routine and decide what moves you.

Now, remember that you have done all of this before you let anyone in to disrupt your plan.  Your plan is now set and gives you the strength and a plan for your day.  A planned day where you have visualized what you are going to do, what your goals are and how you are going to attack them.  That leads to motivation that can take you to levels you have never seen on a consistent basis.  

This is just one tool or habit that you can utilize to help your level of motivation.  There are many more things that need to constantly be on the forefront so that we don’t lose that motivation or drive, but this is a good start.

I hope this has proven helpful.  I can tell you that it helped me to rev up my motivation from where I started. So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you. 

I would love for you to do me a favor.  If you liked this, please share it with 5 friends, hit that little like button and put your comments or questions below so we can personally answer and continue to serve.

Go out there have an amazing day and remember the choice is always yours to focus forward.