Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
Posts tagged negative motivation
Planning for Success Part Four
Feb 7th
Death twitches my ear. “Live,” he says, “I am coming.” ~Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), Minor Poems, Copa
Greetings! How have you been since my last entry? Hopefully great! Last time we looked at my list of 20 reasons why I was going to do what it takes to get back into great shape in 2009. I also talked briefly about towards motivation and away from motivation. For many goals, for many of my clients, I will have them only look at towards (positive) motivations. I do this for good reason, negative motivators are by nature stress inducing and one thing most of my clients tend to already have enough of is stress. When you focus just on moving away from something, then you will feel stress.
Is negative motivation always bad then? No. Negative motivation is often, even commonly, more powerful than positive motivation. Given that, when you really need to get something done, and especially if you have tried to make a change in the past and it did not happen, then it becomes a good idea to use negative and positive motivation.
For me, I have been trying to get back into shape since I became a non-smoker. I have gotten most of the way there and gotten out of shape again. I have lost weight again and again only to gain it back. I have lost, conservatively, 500 pounds in the past 12 years and yet here I am, still virtually the same weight. I could be depressed about this; I could even give up, but I am not going to. This time things will be very different and you will see why as this series of articles progresses and the year goes on!
My Vision for Optimal Health
(Here is the first draft of my personal vision that I will use to help me get back in shape. It is a work in progress, I will update it whenever I find a way to make it feel even better, work even better, motivate me even more fully.)
I wake up in the morning feeling great – feeling completely rested and energized. More >
Getting Leverage on Yourself to Achieve
Jun 3rd
“How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I’m committed to?” ~Anthony Robbins
Yesterday, I made a public commitment that I would have my first book for sale, in at least 2 formats, by 5pm Central Time on Wednesday September 17th, 2008. Why did I make that commitment here on this blog? I did it to get leverage on myself.
For me, and for most people that I know, it is easy to break promises that are made just to ourselves. When the promise is made to someone else however, someone that I like and respect, I feel terrible if I don’t fulfill that promise. Since I know this, if I am having an issue getting something done, then it is time to make a public commitment. This is exactly what I did on this blog yesterday and I can feel the power of this working already.
This is negative motivation and it is very powerful. I do most of my work, with myself and with others, from a place of positive motivation. There are times however, and this is one of them for me, when I also need the away from “push” of a strong negative motivator. I don’t want to feel the bad feelings that would be there for me should I not achieve my public goal; so I know I will take the actions that I have been putting off.
This power of the commitment to someone else, someone that you like and respect, is one of the reasons that coaching can be so effective. A good coach will be asking you to make well-planned and achievable commitments each and every time you work with them. What is well-planned and achievable? That is another conversation.
Till next time…Jack
“Nothing interferes with my concentration. You could put on an orgy in my office and I wouldn’t look up. Well, maybe once.” ~Isaac Asimov