Getting More of What You Want, More of The Time
Growth and achievement are usually a result of having a picture of what you want and taking the appropriate action to get it. The anticipated pleasure or reward for achieving your outcome is what creates your motivation. But some targets are substantial, and so take a considerable amount of time, over which your motivation wains and you lose your enthusiasm.
So, what’s the key to remaining enthusiastic and sustaining motivation when the world keeps knocking you off track or putting obstacles in your way? There are a number of key factors:
A strong and compelling vision
A vision is a mental ‘full dress rehearsal’ of the future, planting the seed of what the future can look like, feel like and hold. It guides you, creates a desire to improve and gives you direction. It keeps you on track and helps you to keep moving forward, no matter what gets thrown in your way! If you’re not clear yet about what your vision could be, you can use our exercise on How to Build a Personal Vision.
Consistent movement towards your outcome
Movement creates motivation. The more you move towards your desired outcome the more motivation you will have. The more motivation you have, the more movement you will get. This creates a upwards spiral effect, resulting in growth, increased productivity and achievement.
By breaking your vision down into smaller chunks and creating well-formed outcomes (goals), you will have the stepping stones you need to generate movement, increase momentum and sustain your enthusiasm as you move towards your vision.
Take a look at our Well Formed Outcomes activity.
Focus on what you want
When you focus hard on something, it means you are necessarily excluding, and therefore missing, the other things happening around you. You’re sending a message to your brain to say ‘find me more or this’.
If you focus on the things that aren’t right in your life, how hard something is, or what you don’t want, you will overlook the things that are good, won’t see the easier path, and will miss opportunities to get what you do want.
To achieve your outcomes, you need to focus on what you want and what can help you get there. Focus on solutions instead of problems and obstacles. Focus on all the ways you can achieve your outcomes, and not the reasons why you can’t.
Celebrate your wins
Anything that you do which you weren’t sure you were going to be able to do, or that took you out of your comfort zone, is a win - no matter how big or small. You may have to be patient to see how the small win now might have a big impact on the end game, but noticing it and celebrating it will make a difference to how you feel NOW! It will make you smile, it will give you a sense of achievement, and it will trigger the motivation and courage to move to the next step, or take the next action.
Establish a habit of celebrating your wins. Pat yourself on the back, tell someone about it, or give yourself a Woo-Hoo! It doesn’t matter what you do but make sure you get in the habit of doing it. After all we celebrate our children’s, partner’s or friends’ wins, so why not our own?
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