Category: Personal Growth

5 Key Paths of Motivation

My friend and business partner, John Maxwell, once told me, “If you want motivated employees, hire motivated people.” His point? I can’t motivate people, I can only inspire them. Motivation originates and is nourished from within.

So I decided to spend some time thinking about how we become motivated. Is it something we can create through intentional action, or is it an emotional response?

Some believe that you can become motivated by being inspired. But I don’t believe that inspiration alone will create much motivation. To be significantly motivated, we need to link inspiration with one of the following motivation paths.

1. Desperation – We are filled with motivation when we are faced with desperation. We have no other choice. We are frantic for something to change. Our fears increase to a level that requires action.

2. Clear Desire – Clarity of purpose will provide us with motivation. If we are able to see the future we want to create in exact detail,  we will be motivated to achieve. When our purpose or vision is fuzzy, or only a dream, our motivation is also subdued.

3. Momentum – We are motivated by winning. Small wins lead to bigger wins. If we begin to achieve success, we are motivated to attain more.

4. Breakthrough – A significant discovery or advancement can fuel our motivation. If we suddenly see new opportunities, we become energized to continue. We want to discover the next breakthrough.

5. Methodical Persistence – Some of us are driven towards a goal, step by step, steadily. We never consider giving up. We never consider failure as an option. We are driven by the process of improvement. This feels different than desire or breakthrough because it is less emotionally charged. We are attached to the practice and less towards the outcome.

There are times when I have felt a lack of motivation, but now I have the ability to develop it intentionally. I can select a source of inspiration. I can decide which motivational path will be most effective. (I hope I can always act before I get to the desperation stage!) Then I can allow my motivation to grow through the actions associated with that path.

Motivation truly does come from within. So where do you need more motivation to increase your success?

The Top 3 Reasons People Invest in Themselves

I have often wondered why some people are continuously investing in themselves, and others invest nothing. There are three main reasons I have discovered that lead to a person being comfortable investing in themselves. They are:

1) Humility – They have an attitude of humility. They never believe they know it all. They are willing to listen and be open to new information.

2) Expectations – They have an expectation of a positive result. They have experienced the link between learning and success, and they are wanting to achieve a goal that requires learning something new.

3) Enjoyment – Some people are good learners. They have practiced a lifetime of learning. They are very successful learners. Some of their positive self esteem is based on their ability to learn.

There are other reasons also, but they don’t seem to have the longevity factor that these three have. Some people invest in themselves based on trying to achieve other people’s expectations. Seldom is that situation highly effective.

Are you a learner? What drives you to invest the time, energy, and money required to learn more?

Protect Your Goal

A friend of mine explained to me the importance of protecting my goal. It took a few minutes of explanation to grasp the full effect of what he had said. But it has changed my daily outlook.

Most people don’t reach goals in their life because they let them die. My friend suggested that once your goal is crystal clear, you can reach it. But along the way, you must protect it. Here are three required strategies when you are considering your big life goals:

1) Let tomorrow’s goal inspire today’s action. If you are to reach your goal, let your inspiration come from the clear vision you have for success. Take daily actions based on the steps needed to reach your goal. Keep the goal clear in your mind every day.

2) Don’t let distractions blur your goal. There will always be distractions. If distractions make you question or change your goal, then they are negatively impacting your success. If you let distractions fill your day, then your goal will become blurry. Over time your vision for tomorrow will lose clarity.

3) Continuously adjust, but don’t divert. You will encounter failures, losses, mistakes, and obstacles. It is unavoidable. All of these are the cost of success. If you let them stop you, you have failed. But if you keep learning, adjusting, and moving towards your goal, you cannot fail.

If you are going to achieve big goals in your life, you need to clearly define them, and then protect them every day.

The 3 Stumbling Blocks of Failure

John C. Maxwell wrote, “Successful people approach losing differently. They don’t try to brush failure under the rug. They understand that life’s greatest lessons are gained from our losses.” Everyone encounters failure and loss in our lives. How we react to those losses determine how well we succeed.

There are three common stumbling blocks that keep us from learning from our failures. Any one of these can keep us stuck for an extended period of time.

1. We let failure become an emotional roadblock. We become so attached to the failure that we don’t process the lessons we could learn. We are so devastated emotionally, that we don’t have the energy to move past the failure. It becomes the excuse for us not to take any further action.

2. We become mentally defeated. We cannot let the failure become overwhelming. Finding hope in all situations will lead to new solutions. Mentally we need to keep failure from being the end of our journey.  It was Albert Einstein that said, “You never fail until you stop trying.”

3. We become bogged down in regret. When we encounter failure, it is natural to begin blaming ourselves for not taking different actions. We must learn to forgive ourselves and not get stuck on regret. It is important to evaluate results, and determine different actions that would have been more effective. However, once that is complete, we need to focus on tomorrow and not yesterday.

How do you process failure? The key word is process. Success and failure are both processes. They are not events. If you want to learn more, I am beginning a new mastermind group that will discuss and develop strategies to build success upon failure. Send me a message at mark@marksbrown.com if you would like more information about participating.