Tag: Motivation

How To #Thrive In Tough Times

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Searching for the light – Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash

There are 153 days left in 2020. I suspect I won’t be the only one glad to see the back of a year which has featured widespread: 

  • Health dilemmas 
  • Job insecurity 
  • Prejudice against minorities 

Fortunately, there have been desperately difficult times before (and sadly there will be more in the days ahead).

Nonetheless there is wisdom we can tap into to inspire ourselves and those around us. Wisdom which reminds us that the future is brighter than the present.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus, to see the light

Aristotle

In other words: it is the toughest times which test us most. Those are the times during which we need to look hard, to find the life lessons to keep us moving forward. 

What is the phrase you use to motivate yourself, or the people around you when the going gets tough? Share your thoughts in a comment, or by tweeting @RogerD_Said

The Value of Emotionally Inspiring #Goals

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Lincoln Memorial Washington D.C.

Are Your Goals Emotionally Inspiring ? Picture Credit Pexels.Com

I like working on goals with other people as I did at a recent workshop. There is something powerful about taking an opportunity to share information and experiences; help people connect to one another; solve a longstanding problem. This work and the changes it triggers can get emotional.

I know some people prefer standing alone. They believe the status quo is necessary. They have a Me-versus-The-World mentality. Their emotions are negative. Their life is more of a struggle than it need be. Their well being suffers.

That isn’t necessary. When they are emotionally ready even isolated people can choose to change.

With Work Dreams Can Become Reality

Speaking of emotions, this week marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. It is inspiring to realise he helped build lasting change in the United States by saying the civil rights status quo of the 1960s was not acceptable.

He brought change-ready people together, so they could reflect, share experiences and identify solutions to the longstanding problems they and the country faced.

Speaking in front of the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963 Doctor King set out a goal which he would not live to see realised. The goal changed the course of history in the United States. The goal he outlined was simple. He dreamed of a day when diverse American children would:

Not be judged by the colour of their skin…but the content of their character

(President Kennedy was more specific with his emotionally inspiring September 1962 goal – to be delivered before the end of that decade. Choosing to land a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth also changed the course of American history).

What’s the valuable lesson? That adding emotion to a goal makes it a more powerful target to work toward.

How Are Your Goals Progressing?

Most of us are working on smaller, more personal goals then those Doctor King or President Kennedy planned. We still need to pay attention to what we want to achieve at each step; fix the boundaries within which we are working so we don’t go off course; care passionately about the progress we make along the way. How much emotion do your goals contain and how much progress are you making on them?

Thank you for reading to the end. I hope this post has inspired you. Feel free to comment, like, share and see what else the site has to offer. There will be more to say in May. Meanwhile enjoy the rest of April.

Roger

This Year I Am Going To…

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motivation

motivation (Photo credit: I am marlon)

I suspect any day is as good as another to change one’s life.  The start of January is popular since the year ahead is a clean slate.  Change seems more possible with 12 months to play with.

 

I wonder how many people pledging to make a change in their lives in 2013 know exactly what they are going to achieve by taking action ?

 

It seems to me there are complex psychological processes at work behind the scenes as change is mulled over.  It doesn’t matter whether that change entails learning a foreign language; eating five portions of fruit and vegetables per day; or doing something about the extra weight gained before Christmas, by the time this year’s summer holiday begins.

 

Thankfully someone has already done the thinking about the motivation for change in one area, health, which may have a wider application.

 

Dr Tony Westbury, a sports psychologist from Edinburgh Napier University, and ultra-distance runner Dr Andrew Murray are advocates for an active lifestyle.  They make the case for abandoning a life spent chiefly sitting down, in favour of one involving regular exercise.  They told BBC Scotland that:

 

‘The most important aspect of this [shift to an active life] is your motivation for changing. Psychologists refer to motivation as the ‘why’ of behaviour – why we do what we do… motivationally the person who changes their behaviour out of sense of guilt or duty is different to the person who changes their behaviour because they love the activity’.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20811369

 

If it is possible to generalise about change from that specific example, success in a new goal is more likely to come from a positive desire to benefit from a situation, rather than a negative wish to get away from something else.

 

So that focus on motivation could turn the initial example I mentioned that ‘I don’t like the extra weight I am carrying and I should do something about it’ into a more positive, commitment to ‘feel good about being a proportionate weight for my height and age by time the family goes on holiday in August’.

 

A clear motivating force provides one strong element which improves the likelihood of success.  The next steps in the example probably involve a calendar, some new trainers and – let’s be honest – a fair bit of will power.

 

At least with a positive end point in mind the journey from here to there is a bit more manageable.

 

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