Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 375 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

A Guide to Motivation (1)

Thank you for joining us for our 3 days per week, 12 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 375 of our trek, and today is Motivation Monday. Every Monday on our trek, we will assist you to motivate yourself so that you can maximize your week in creating and living your legacy, which will positively impact your world.

We are broadcasting from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. During this past week as I have been looking out our office windows, I have made two noteworthy observations. First, our two young hawks are now out of their nest and testing their wings. While they are a little unsteady, they are flying pretty well. They continue to preen the fluffy white down from their bodies, as the new dark feathers are now covering them quite well.

The second observation is the damage to the trees from the cicadas laying their eggs is starting to manifest itself. Most of the time the cicadas will pierce the bark on the tips of the new growth at the end of the tree limbs. As the eggs grow into grubs, it kills the tips of the limbs, which eventually fall to the ground. While it does not impact the large oak trees on our properly in a significant way, I did experience the major damage that the 17-year locust caused to the trees in our apple orchard while growing up. It had a major impact on the trees that took several years to recover from.

This past weekend we had the blessing of having four of our grandkids stay with us Friday night and Saturday while Elizabeth and Nat went to see the musical Oklahoma at the newly renovated Peoples Bank Theater here in Marietta. During high school, I played the part of Little Jake in Oklahoma, thanks to my small stature.

We also had the privilege of attending church with Dad on Father’s Day and also treat him to lunch at his favorite restaurant Cracker Barrel. It is motivating to me to invest time with Dad with his simplistic love for life. He has taught me so many lessons as part of his living legacy to me.

It is now time to head out on our trek for today as we consider some guidelines for motivation so that motivation becomes a habit that is integrated into your daily life. Today and next Monday we will explore…

A Guide to Motivation (1)

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 imposter 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.

What follows is a guide to motivation using what I’ve learned over the last few years in a series of successful accomplishments, goals, and habit changes. I’ve had many failures but also many successes, and I’ve learned a lot from all of them. Motivation has been a particularly important topic of exploration for me.

What Motivation Can Achieve

Keep in mind as I mentioned two weeks ago, 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.

Through this internal motivation, Paula and I have been able to achieve significant accomplishments over the past 37 years from raising and homeschooling our five children to starting and running our own businesses for 31 years to being very active in church and completing major renovations to The Big House. I do not say this to brag at all because we do not have special talents or abilities. We are quite ordinary, but we have set goals and objectives in our lives that were stronger than the obstacles that have fallen into our paths. Yes, we have failed in some areas, but we just climbed over the boulders that blocked the trail and kept on going. With the proper internal motivation, you can also achieve what may seem impossible to others.

How Does Motivation Work?

Before we get into specific methods, it’s useful to examine what motivation is, what it does, and how it works. Motivation is what drives you toward a goal, what keeps you going when things get tough, the reason you get up early to exercise, or work late to finish a project. There are all kinds of motivations, of course, from positive to negative. Having a boss threaten to fire you is motivation — you’ll likely work harder to complete a project with that kind of pressure. That type of motivation will only work until that threat has passed. I find that positive internal motivation works much better and lasts longer. If it’s something you really want to do, you’ll do a much better job than to avoid something you don’t want (such as being fired).

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.

You may be thinking, how do I instill this internal drive so that I can accomplish meaningful and significant goals and objectives?  Here are some tips to help you.

8 Tips to Motivate Yourself Internally

I’ve found that it’s important to start out with the right motivation because a good start can build momentum that you can sustain for a long time. If you start out with the correct mindset, you have a much better chance of building that internal drive. Here are some tips if you are just starting out.

1. Start small. I’ve said this before, but that’s because it’s one of the most important tips in motivating yourself toward a goal. Don’t start out big! Start out with a ridiculously easy goal, and then grow from there. If you want to exercise, for example, you may be thinking that you have to do intense workouts 5 days a week. No — instead, do small, tiny, baby steps. Just do 5 minutes of exercise. I know, that sounds wimpy. But it works. Commit to 5 minutes of exercise for one week. You may want to do more but just stick to 5 minutes. It’s so easy, you can’t fail. Do it at the same time every day. Just something – 2 crunches, 2 pushups, and some jogging in place. Once you’ve done 5 minutes a day for a week, increase it to 10, and stick with that for a week. In a month, you’ll be doing 20-30 minutes. Want to wake up early? Don’t think about waking at 5 a.m. Instead, think about waking 10 minutes earlier for a week. That’s all. Once you’ve done that, wake 10 minutes earlier than that. Baby steps.
2. One goal. Too many people start with too many goals at once and try to do too much. And it saps their energy and motivation. It’s probably the most common mistake that people make. You cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you are trying to do two or more goals at once. It may not be possible if you struggle to stay you have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely. I know, that’s hard, as I have observed many false starts with others. You can always do your other goals when you’ve accomplished your one goal.
3. Examine your motivation. Know your reasons or as I like to say, know your why(s). Give them some thought…and write them down. Sometimes being motivated for those you love is more powerful than just doing it for yourself, but ultimately you have to do it because you are internally convinced and for really good reasons.
4. You must have a strong desire. This is essentially the same as the above tip, but I want to emphasize it. It’s not enough to think it would be cool to achieve something in order to impress others. It has to be something you’re passionate about, something that drives you on, something you desire deeply. Make sure that your goal meets these criteria, or you won’t stick with it for long.
5. Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. Form an accountability group and commit to your goal with family, friends, and associates and then hold yourself accountable to them. Give progress updates to your accountability group every week. This will drive you on even when your motivation ebbs and flows.
6. Get excited. Setting up an accountability group will start the excitement, but you will need to continue to stoke that fire. Learn about the benefits of completing this goal. Visualize the outcome. Create positive energy within yourself. Set up a reward for completing milestones and the overall goal. Continue the momentum going through each phase.
7. Build anticipation. This will sound hard, and many people will skip this tip. But it really works. Plan a definite start date and projected end date. Mark it on the calendar. Get excited about that date. Make it the most important date on your short term plan. If you are just starting this journey of motivation, you can still use the Your Life Plan Blueprint program, but just choose one area of your life to start with. Complete that segment of the plan so that it becomes concrete in your mind. Build anticipation during the planning process by increasing your focus and energy for your goal.
8. Print it out, post it up. Print out your daily and weekly goals and tasks. Reduce your daily and weekly goal to just a few words long, like a mantra (“Exercise 15 minutes daily.”), and post it up on your wall or refrigerator. Post it at home and work. Put it on your computer desktop. You want to have big reminders about your goal, to keep your focus and keep your excitement going.

That completes this segment of the Guide to Motivation Trail for today. Next Monday we will continue on this trail as we explore ways to sustain motivation when you struggle. Our next trek will be Wisdom Wednesday, and we will dig for more nuggets of wisdom found in Proverbs 12. So, encourage your friends and family to join us, and then come along on Wednesday for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy.

That will finish our trek for today. Just as you enjoy your dose of wisdom, we ask you to help us grow Wisdom-Trek by sharing with your family and friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, or in person when you meet with them and invite them to come along with us each day. If you would like to listen to any of the past daily treks, they are available at Wisdom-Trek.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeart Radio, and Google Play, so each trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this trek together, let us always:

1. Live Abundantly (Fully)
2. Love Unconditionally
3. Listen Intentionally
4. Learn Continuously
5. Lend to others Generously
6. Lead with Integrity
7. Leave a Living Legacy Each Day

This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy Your Journey, and Create a Great Day Every Day! See you on Wednesday!