What exactly is motivation? Is it a thing in itself? Or is it a collection of feelings, behaviours and mindsets? It is hard to describe exactly what motivation is, yet we seem to be pretty good at spotting when we have it, and when we don’t.
There sometimes seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why we wake up some days firing on all cylinders, full of this thing called motivation. And on another day we wake feeling sluggish and distinctly lacking in motivation.
It is a very subjective thing. You can recognise motivation through behaviour and feelings, but you can’t see it or touch it. It can come and go very easily. It seems fragile and easy to lose, yet we know we need it. We can have it in one area of our life, but then it can seem absent in another. In some instances it can disappear in an instant as a reaction to a situation; in others it can hang around endlessly, despite setbacks and difficulties. How can this be?
It goes without saying that being motivated at work or in a business is vital for long lasting high performance. It is difficult to imagine a person who lacks motivation being a high achiever. Surely this is what sets ‘those that excel’ apart from those who ‘just do their job’. Yet you could argue that it takes a certain amount of motivation to simply turn up and do the job to an acceptable level. So it’s not as simple as either we have motivation or not…there are degrees.
One thing that I know for sure is that not having clarity over a situation can instantly impact on the motivation one has to address it. Uncertainty, confusion, lack of goals and loss of focus all contribute to a decreasing motivation.
So, could the first step in rediscovering motivation be to gain crystal clear clarity over the goal you have for the situation you are dealing with? This approach can work brilliantly in a range of situations, for example:
– weight loss
– improving fitness
– sorting out finances
– writing articles
– putting business plans together
– decorating your house
– tidying your desk
– training for a half marathon
– almost anything you can think of!
If you define the end point with each of these examples above, in other words, how things will be different when you have done the thing that currently you are not motivated to do, then you are already raising your motivation levels a notch or two. By defining what has happened, what is different, what is amazing now, how you feel etc, you are creating crystal clear clarity. And once you have that, it is much easier to motivate yourself to take the first step towards getting on with it!