Motivation Needs Your Participation - Grasshopper

What motivates you? My guess is it’s dependent on the day. Some days it’s something immediate that needs your attention, and other days it’s a long term goal that requires interim steps.

But where does your motivation come from? The answer is I don’t know, but I have a guess.

My best guess is it comes from a feeling of lack - lacking something that you deem would make your life a whole lot better.

Motivation may be born of lack, but for it to bear fruit, you have to start running on a track. You need a routine.

Let’s pretend you’re motivated to write the great American novel. Writing a page here and there isn’t going to deliver for you. Celebrated writers have a process they follow, and it’s different for each one, but it’s a process.

Motivation to become actualization requires perspiration. If you’re unwilling to sweat, you’ll do nothing but fret and your desires will remain all wet.

To find out if you have the proper motivation for your goal, take what I call the “nice to have” test. Here’s how it works: Imagine a horizontal line that goes from zero to one hundred. Zero on the left and one hundred on the right. Now mark how motivated you are on that line. In other words, assign your motivation a percentage for the goal you want to achieve.

In my experience, if it’s less than 60 percent, it’s something you think would be “nice to have,” but aren’t willing to do all the work necessary to get it. In order for your motivation to succeed, you’ll need a higher number, one that says, “If I don’t get this I won’t be able to breathe.” Lack of air is a giant motivator.

Someone that says, “I could stand to lose 10 pounds” really isn’t motivated to take off the weight. It reeks of effort and it will be on their to-do list forever. The boxer who has to lose 10 pounds to get a shot at the championship doesn’t lack motivation and will huff and puff lots of air to get into the ring to hear the bell go “ding, ding, ding.”

Your motivation needs your participation. Otherwise, you dreams will remain on vacation.

All the best,