Providing professional Training/Consultations for Managers, Start-ups and Professional groups
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Thursday, 7 June 2012
Motivating Yourself - Practical Tools and Strategies
Do you get excited
about everything you need to do? Or do you sometimes need a bit of help to
get started, never mind getting the task done?
Maybe you're continuing to ignore those overflowing filing cabinets, instead of taking some time out to reorganize them. Or, you're avoiding that difficult conversation with a person who is always late, choosing instead to tolerate the tardiness. Perhaps you keep rearranging your priorities, so that the tasks you hate stay at the bottom of the list. |
The longer you delay doing something, the more stress and pressure you're likely to feel. After a while, you may even start to lose confidence in your ability to complete the task at all.
Many of us sometimes need help getting motivated. And it can be very frustrating when we know we have to do something, but we just can't get around to making a start. So how can we motivate ourselves to do these things?
Motivation Basics
There are essentially two types of motivation:
- Intrinsic motivation - This is when you are motivated by internal factors to meet your own personal needs. Most hobbies and leisure activities are based on intrinsic motivation. We do them because we enjoy them, not because we have to.
- Extrinsic motivation - This is when you are motivated by external factors that are given or controlled by others, for example, by salary or by praise. Our jobs are usually based on extrinsic motivation, although there will be some intrinsic motivation involved if you enjoy aspects of what you do.
Most situations at work involve both types
of motivation. If we do a job we enjoy, some of the work we do will be
intrinsically motivating. Realistically though, we probably wouldn't go to
work if we weren't being paid! Enjoying your job is intrinsically motivating,
while being paid a good salary to do it is extrinsically motivating.
Even if we do a job we enjoy, problems can crop up where we need to do something that we don't inherently like - such as filing, speaking with staff about performance issues, completing reports, and so on. We have to do undesirable tasks as part of our job, so we have to find a way to motivate ourselves to complete them. That's where self-motivation is necessary.
To motivate yourself, you must examine and understand your needs, so that you know what you find valuable and rewarding. Then, by changing your environment and perspective, you can find the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to complete those undesirable tasks. So, rather than relying on other factors to make a task more rewarding, you make it more rewarding yourself.
Even if we do a job we enjoy, problems can crop up where we need to do something that we don't inherently like - such as filing, speaking with staff about performance issues, completing reports, and so on. We have to do undesirable tasks as part of our job, so we have to find a way to motivate ourselves to complete them. That's where self-motivation is necessary.
To motivate yourself, you must examine and understand your needs, so that you know what you find valuable and rewarding. Then, by changing your environment and perspective, you can find the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to complete those undesirable tasks. So, rather than relying on other factors to make a task more rewarding, you make it more rewarding yourself.
Self-Motivation Strategies
Just as there are two types of motivation, there are two main strategies for motivating yourself:
1.
You make the task
more intrinsically satisfying.
2.
You provide your own
extrinsic rewards.
Using a combination
of both is often the most effective way to motivate yourself. So, you have to
find further intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to get those undesirable
tasks done. Here are some tactics that you can use motivate yourself:
- Change your attitude and approach to undesirable tasks - For example, the task of reorganizing your filing cabinet may not be motivating in itself. But being seen as a competent and organized person might provide intrinsic motivation for you. By thinking of filing in this way, for example, you can connect completing the task with meeting your needs.
- Think about why you do what you do - Sometimes you may start to think that your job is pointless, so why bother to do things? A great way to increase self-motivation is to list all of the positive outcomes of your job. If you're on the cleaning staff in a hospital, ultimately your job keeps patients safe from germs and disease. If you sell office equipment, you're helping people to work more efficiently.
- Set goals - By setting goals you'll know exactly what you need to do to achieve what you want in life. Then, by looking at this "bigger picture", you'll be able to see how those undesirable tasks can help you reach your goals, and you'll be able to see "what's in it for you" to complete these tasks.
- Break your tasks down into smaller pieces - Organizing the entire filing cabinet may be too large a task to do all at once. Start alphabetically, or with the first section of files. Then, when you complete the first group, you can use your success with the smaller tasks to motivate you to finish.
- Build in accountability - Tell you colleagues or manager about your task. It can help to motivate you if you know that someone else is expecting you to complete the task.
- Master time management - Learn to take control of your time, and create a schedule that helps you to do things more efficiently.
- Don't procrastinate - When low motivation and procrastination occur together, it can be doubly hard to get things done. See our article on beating procrastination for more on dealing with this.
- Reward yourself - Make an agreement with yourself to give yourself a reward when you complete a task. For example, buy yourself a specialty coffee for completing smaller tasks, or send yourself to the spa for a massage when you finish a major one.
- Scare yourself with the negative consequences of not doing it - If not doing the task is going to get you in trouble with your boss, focus on this, and scare yourself into doing it!
- Swap tasks with a colleague - Maybe you can trade your undesirable task with someone else who doesn't mind doing it, and you can do something for that person in return. Use each other's needs, interests and talents to work more efficiently.
- Surround yourself with positive thoughts and people - Positive thinking is very powerful. Just telling yourself that you can do something is often all you need to get started. And when you're around other positive people, they'll support and encourage you to keep trying.
- Create an accomplishment log - Use this to record all of the times when you were able to motivate yourself to complete a task or keep moving forward. The log can inspire you the next time you need some extra motivation.
Key Points:
Motivation is a complex subject, and motivating yourself can be difficult. By examining your needs, you can often change the way you view a task, and you can link completing it with something that's intrinsically satisfying. You can also provide your own rewards, and change how you approach undesirable tasks to provide more extrinsic motivation.
By using a combination of self-motivation tactics, you'll motivate yourself to get those undesirable tasks done. Then you can get on with the parts of your job that you really enjoy!
Even if we love what we do, there are always going to be tasks that we don't enjoy. So next time you're struggling to motivate yourself, use these ideas to keep you on track.
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
BUSINESS AND LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY - PART 2
Initiative: Go to the ant, you slacker! Observe its ways and become wise. Without leader, administrator, or
ruler, it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food during harvest
I have always wondered what on earth is the difference
between a rich man and a poor one, and my discovery after a long while revealed
to me is in their taking initiative and daring to do the impossible. They don’t
wait for their ship to sail to them rather they swim to meet up their ship.
Dear friends, the only way to grow and succeed in the 21st century
is to constantly develop the ability on daily basis to act out and do that
thing you ought to do even when it isn’t sure that you will succeed.
A dreamer is someone who sees the opportunities around
and makes the most of them by taking action. He or she does today what others
are not doing in order to have what others will not have tomorrow. That’s why I
agree with the wise words of Dwight Roosevelt which says that “Do what you can with what you have right
where you are”.
Everyone has what it takes to start something, no
matter how small; therefore, don’t hesitate to start with what you have now.
Start doing something with what you have because until you take steps nothing
takes shape. The Chinese proverbs says, “Don’t be afraid of doing slowly but
only be afraid of standing still.” A great life and business can’t be realized
without making things happen.
Creativity: One great thing that will differentiate your life and business to attract favour, influence, resources and great relationships that will pace you is creativity. A lot of people today are drab, mediocre and live average lives all because the lack creativity.
“One good idea
is all you need to start a fortune. Business breakthrough come from finding
faster, cheaper, better and easier ways to perform a task. “Brian Tracy
We need on a daily basis to be original, make new
discoveries, work out new concepts, and possess the idea of doing common things
in uncommon ways. I dare you today to do things differently in your life and
business approach. Take out time to do the analysis of your present reality and
work out a new course of action as to what you need to do to become a
phenomenal success and a role model to others, it’s time for us to start
thinking outside the box and unleash the power of our imagination and move out
of the things we are used to as we stretch ourselves to new boundaries of
possibilities and opportunities Even the sky is not your limit as you dare to
be creative in the way you live and do business.
Excellence: one great quality that is lacking today in our world is the capacity to do things in an unusual way. In order to survive in today’s world we need to develop the passion for unlimited quality in every sphere of our influence. Excellence is the habit of doing the best with best resources to achieve the best. As someone said,” Those who always deliver on quality never go unnoticed.” The habit of excellence prevents you from being an apostle of mediocrity who does things shabbily but it makes you do things better today than you did yesterday. It is true that little things make for excellence, but excellent is not a little thing. See thou a man diligent in his ways, such man will stand before kings and not with mere men. My submission to you is to go and do beyond your current efforts in your quest to live a full life in this 21st century.
Aristotle said, we
are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore isn’t an act but a habit. In
a nutshell you need to daily place a demand on yourself to find ways of doing
things in a different manner so as to attract more opportunities in to your
life and business.
I leave you with this African proverb that never
seizes to inspire me,” “Every morning in Africa, a GAZELLE
wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest LION or it
will be killed. Every morning a LION wakes up. It knows it must outrun
the slowest GAZELLE or it will starve to death. It doesn’t
matter whether you are a LION or a GAZELLE . . .
When the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
Haastrup
Steven is a Global Guest Writer on Personal Finance for Under30CEO.com in the
USA (Forbes Inc. associate)
He is by CORE an
Idea Strategist, Empower-Trainer and Business Communicator.
The
Global Group Leader: WingsforteNG (50 days old) with 1742 Global audience
from 11 countries
The Founder: YOUNG -
TIMA (Young Top Impact Managers in Africa)
+234 - 813 940 0370;
+234 - 815 541 4284
steven_haastrup@yahoo.com
haastrupsteven@gmail.com
wingswordcorp@gmail.com
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@LinkedIn: Haastrup
Steven
@GooglePlus: Haastrup Steven Friday, 18 May 2012
BUSINESS AND LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY - PART 1
We live in a
world that is characterized with “Three C’s namely Competition, Change and
Complexities. If any one of us must live and do businesses in today’s world
must be ready to embrace and tactfully understand these powerful 3C’s to
achieve unlimited success.
Amazingly we
all dread and detest change but you will agree with this wise saying that “One
cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. If you want to
experience a full life full of possibilities and opportunities, then you must
be ready to attempt and do the unusual as this is what is required to stay on
top in today’s world. Look at our world today, science and technology as
impacted almost every aspect of our personal and business life. The
introduction of the personal computer and the internet is no doubt transforming
the way we go about life today and guess what you must not be left out of the
enormous opportunity to be live your best life now.
It’s indeed
a big world out there, a big world full of enormous opportunities and
possibilities to be your unlimited best in every aspect of life and business.
Think about this, How easy it is to be “average”. The ranks of the mediocre are
crowded with status-quo thinkers and predictable workers. How rare are those
who live differently!
Now, indeed
you can be productive, relevant, secured and wealthy in today’s world, all that
is required is to develop some certain personal qualities that make up the
traits of leadership and vigorously apply timeless principles that would bring
about the desired change you want to see in your life. It’s so sad that many
people go through life hoping for the best, however you need more than a hope
to live successfully today, you need a plan and a right course of action to
maximize every opportunities that life will present to you.
In the
school of life and business in the 21st century, you need four innate,
personal tools that will consistently guarantee immense success and
significance that you seek passionately. The deployment of these four innate
tools have been used by great business thinkers like Bill gates who is the
richest man in the world today, Albert Einstein, Barrack Obama, Aliko Dangote,
Helen Keller who was blind and deaf but became an Elder state woman, writer and
a lecturer in her time. These four innate tools are:
1 Dream
2 Initiative
3 Creativity
4 Excellence
Dream: Friends you need to realize that
all things in this life are created twice, their is first the mental creation
before the physical creation. That is why the scripture says that “ Where there
is no vision the people perish” if you really want to be super successful and
be productive in all aspect of your life then the starting point is you need to
develop the capacity to see beyond the realities of your life. Your
circumstances are not the conclusions of your life. Eyes that look are many but
eyes that see are few. Celebrated men and women in our world today have learnt
to go inside of themselves to draw inspiration and deep revelation from their
rich resources of their mind. The starting point to dreaming is to first of all
on a daily basis change and upgrade your thoughts to world-class regularly.
Change your thoughts and you change your world.
“One
philosopher states that the purpose of our life on earth is to learn that our
thoughts have power. William James wrote that the greatest discovery of this
century is that by changing our thoughts, we can change our lives. We are
constantly thinking, and every thought is filled with creative power. We are
constantly creating, but more of it is done unconsciously. The purpose of a
dream is to get us in to conscious creating.
A dream is
not the images you experience when you sleep but it is an “ IDEA, A PLAN, AN
AGENDA, A GOAL “ which you have deliberately determined to pursue in other to
make your life and business a phenomenal success.
A whack on
the side of the head is a book on how to break the inertia and unlock your mind
for innovative thinking. By adopting a creative outlook, as Roger von Oech, the
author of the book, points out, we open ourselves to new possibilities and
change. But that requires thinking outside the prisons of common boundaries. It
requires a Dream.
Friends my
submission to you today is that on a regular basis, take out time to unleash
your imagination and see the great things you want to have, experience in your
lifetime and stop seeing and focusing on your present circumstances because “imagination
is everything,” wrote Albert Einstein. When you are dreaming, think about a
world where, “With God, anything is possible.”
Color
outside the lines. Look at people who are having, being, doing, and creating
what you want to create as role models. The illustration is simply this, You
Think – You Do – You Become
”Nothing
limits achievement like small thinking; nothing expands possibilities like
unleashed imagination”
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