Motivation

Motivation is one of those mystical words that you know is important but it’s not something you can just go and buy off the shelf or hire someone to give it to you.

I view motivation as two key parts:

• Psychological – I have to ‘feel’ in my head that I want to put my nose to the grindstone and do the work
• Productivity – I have to make things happen and see the output of my efforts in the real world

Psychological aspects of Motivation

This sounds more daunting that it is. I mean here that there are lots of reasons not to get up and make things happen for ourselves, you’re busy with work, family, friends, social networks, television, movies, you name it.

In order to make things happen your head has to tell you that this is what you need to be doing. Anthony Robbins in his book ‘Awaken the Giant within‘  would call this the pain and pleasure principle – we all as humans look to increase our pleasure and avoid pain and all of our actions are driven by this desire.

Stephen Pressfield wrote a book called ‘Do the Work‘ and in it he offers up the idea of ‘Resistance’ being the big bad character that is a constant malevolent force that is at work on you every day to stop you doing the things that will move your idea forwards.

Task Avoidance

The reality is you have to ‘want’ to do the work.  The Bottom Line is – If you don’t want to do it you will find ways of not doing it. The washing needs doing, this report needs writing, whatever it is that stops you doing what needs to be done to move it forwards.

Find your Need or Driver

What you need to have is a real driver to make you want to do it. These drivers come in different forms:

• Serving an Audience – the Fizzle guys are all about wanting to serve their audience for the next ten years, they are in this for the long haul and everything they do is aimed at ten years down the line.
• Being with your Kids – Pat Flynn has a desire to be able to work from Home and be with his family, this drives the projects he takes on and the work that he does – he even turned down a dream trip of a speaking gig in Italy as it clashed with his key driver.

What I’m highlighting here is your need to find the ‘driver’ for you that can flip these tasks from ‘glass half empty’ negative view to ‘glass is half full’ and is getting me to where I want to be view. Only then will you be able to light a fire under your ambitions to drive yourself forwards and achieve what you set out to.

Productivity aspects of Making things happen

Okay, so getting yourself to focus your head on doing something is one thing, but unless there’s evidence of progress and some kind of rewards coming back to you pretty soon then that tank will soon run low on motivation and things will seize up again.

The second plank in my motivation model is around the results of the tasks that you undertake. No matter who you listen to, be it Pressfield, Anthony Robbins, Tim Ferris and the like they will all tell you that you just need to ‘jump in’ and get started.

The benefit of this is in ‘breaking the ice’, getting your mind to break through the barrier of actually starting. And it doesn’t have to be on a big scale, small steps are just as beneficial and in fact make it easier to see results to spur you on – faster.

Tangible Results

The key is to have completed a step that gives you something tangible. It might be drafting the first ‘to-do’ list planning out the tasks you will take this week to move you forwards. It could be the first post in your new website, the first call to the supplier that can give you the beads for your masterpiece necklace creation or it could be the first paragraph of your new book to share with the World. Whatever it is, it will break the ice and get you started.

Keeping up the momentum

So you got started but how do you keep up the momentum to keep you going?

We’ve all been there, you got the idea and got enthused. You may even have bought some things to get it going. You were already there in your head with the masterpiece finished, the book signings happening or the product launched. And then the moment came where you were short of time and didn’t take the next action step to get you there, the energy disappeared and the dream quickly evaporated – another fish that got away.

So, to battle this disease you need to build a couple of things:

• Strategy – describe where you are now and where you want to get to. That’s all, in probably a single page.
• Plan – put down the steps you need to take to get you there, just high level like – Find suppliers, Source Materials, etc.

Keep both of these to hand and look at them every day, even if just for 10 minutes to keep you aware of where you’re going and the things you need to do to get there.

The other key step that you need to take is to create your ‘to-do’ list, this is the list of things that you ‘need to do right now’. So if your plan said ‘Find Suppliers’ then the first thing you do is Google Search for Supplier One, or maybe Telephone Supplier One to get prices and lead times.

This is the real and genuine tasks, things you can actually do to get you moving and show results. And once you’re on the ladder then you just keep climbing to your next milestone – pat yourself on the back nad bask in the achievement!!

But not for too long or you’ll lose the momentum and be back in the doldrums with another hill to climb.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but I am saying it will be worth it for you. And I guarantee that if you follow this advice it will get you where you want to be faster.

Practical Tools and Methods

The methods I’ve talked about above can be helped along by some practical applications, tools and techniques:

• Pomodoro – is a time management technique that breaks down the tasks into 25 minute slots with breaks in between (surprising how much you can get done in 25 mins with a clock ticking in your ears!)
• GTD (Getting Things Done) – a cult of a productivity approach very well respected and based on regular reviews and lists of activities. The key idea being you store information outside your head so that you can focus on the key things that need doing.
• ZTD (Zen to Done) – Getting things done size Zero. It’s about the habit and the doing not the system and the tools. Similar to GTD but with more of a focus on the practical aspects.