Pleasure Can Motivate
It's all about taking action, putting the motion to your motivation, giving yourself an incentive to convert your thoughts into tangible action and motion. Here are some simple tools that I use, and that have also worked with some of my clients, for becoming a self starter.
Write out a statement of your goal, dream or project. Put some details into it. How you want it to look or be when its accomplished. Who needs to be involved, when and why. Then set a date for completing the goal. As you can see we are working up a plan of attack. When the plan has been all thought out, written up and tweaked give yourself a reward for simply completing the plan. I’m big on rewards! My guidelines for rewards are not too expensive, around $5.00 is where I usually try to limit it. Maybe it’s a special coffee drink or a mug of delicious hot chocolate with mounds of real whipped cream and chocolate shavings, or a walk on the beach or in the woods, a movie or a even a nap. What ever floats your boat and gives you a bit of pleasure. By the way did I say you get a reward after each step? Well you do.
Now that the plan is written and you have had your reward its time to get started on working the plan. To create the motivation in your mind, close your eyes for a moment and fast forward to the date you had planned for its completion. Give yourself a visualization. Imagine the goal has been completed, you have lost that 10 pounds, you have finally accomplished a project around your house or at your office, or have completed that big project at work. Bring the image of that closer to your minds eye and now with your eyes still closed bring in all of the details of that image, use all of your senses, what do you see and hear, who is around you, what are you or they saying, how do you feel, take the scene in even deeper as if you were there really living the accomplishment of your original thought or goal. When you have a really clear visceral image, when you can actually feel the accomplishment, lock in this memory. This will be your motivation. Anytime you are getting off track just close your eyes and bring up that image and spend a moment with it, feel it again and get back on track.
Elizabeth has perfected this method, give it a try yourself. What ever her goals, she takes these steps, no matter how small.
1 She always starts with a thought, the thinking of the goal.
2 She writes it out, every detail, breaking the plan down into small steps.
3 She puts a date of completion on it.
4 Takes time out to enjoy her reward.
5 She experiences the visualization and locks it in.
6 Elizabeth accomplishes step number one of her plan and then step number two until she has
crossed the finish line.
Another way to motivate yourself is to go slow taking turtle steps. With Cameron one of her goals was to start a regular exercise program. She hated exercise, every time she would want to begin an exercise program she would be filled with excitement and promise but after a few days things would pop up in her life that were more important and overrode her original goal. We decided to start slow, remembering that the turtle however slow usually finishes the race. Each day for the first week she got on her treadmill first thing in the morning before brushing her teeth. Her reward was checking her email after she put in her treadmill time, 10 minutes each day, she sets a timer, when the time is up her reward is her email fix. Each week we increased the time until before long she was up to an hour each and every morning. It took about 2 months to work up to the hour and now every morning Cameron looks forward to the exercise. She is feeling better, looking better, has a great sense of accomplishment and has now established a process for each subsequent goal she sets.
What’s your next goal? Try using structured self motivation. Incentive for motion, actually moving your body partnered with a sprinkling of rewards. Taking it slow, step by step can be very effective in accomplishing your thoughts, goals and dreams.