Motivation
What is motivating you today? Do you ever suffer from the lack of motivation?
Although it may not be obvious at first, the lack of motivation many times stems from fear. Fear that we will fail. Fear of not knowing how to proceed. Fear of looking foolish. Fear that we are not as good as someone else. We start to see all of the obstacles that on our trail, and we are fearful to move forward because we are not sure how to overcome those obstacles. I still suffer from some of these thoughts, and I consider myself both optimistic and motivated most of the time. Some have called this the impostor syndrome, where we lack the motivation to move forward because we lack confidence.
To stay motivated, you need to have a burning passion and desire to succeed and reach your goals regardless of the obstacles on your trail of life. Henry Ford put it this way, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” You also need to have a plan in place to continue on as Proverbs 21:5 tells us, “Good planning and hard work lead to prosperity, but hasty shortcuts lead to poverty.” One of the biggest challenges in meeting any goal, whether it be related to productivity, waking early, changing a habit, exercising, or just becoming happier, is finding the motivation to stick with it. If you can stick with a goal for long enough, then there is a chance that it will become a habit. Once a habit is formed, then it becomes part of your normal routine of life. It just takes patience and persistence. Habitual motivation is the key, but creating motivation as a habit is not easy. As I have learned over the years, very few things in life are worth having if they are easily obtained.
Motivation is always an inside job. In other words, you must motivate yourself through an internal drive. All external motivation is temporary at best and usually completely non-effective. Internal motivation provides the catalyst to drive you on even when you don’t necessarily want to. There may be times, for example, when you don’t feel like getting up early to exercise, and in those times, you may seriously just want to sleep in. I find myself with those same feelings almost every morning. If you have a reason to want to get up early, something you desire strong enough, you will get up and pay the price now, so that you don’t have to pay a much larger price later.
Today, let the internal long-term desire for improvement be greater than the short-term gratification. Allow that internal drive to fuel your passion to improve yourself, so that you can have a greater impact on those around you. Your living legacy will depend on it.
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