Monday, July 8, 2013

Motivation & Inspiration: When Combined Anything Is Possible

By Lachlan Haynes


You're likely already aware that action is the key to achieving your goals. However, there is a more rarely considered - and much more important aspect of action, and that is training yourself to sustain this action-oriented mindset in order to direct your energy to sustain long-term action.

So how do we achieve long term action? Two qualities rank high on the list, consistency and persistence. Not everyone is born with these traits but you do have the ability to learn them. A key tip that can help you learn persistence is to set aside your emotion. We are all very emotional creatures at our core. We experience our ups and downs, sometimes more downs than ups, and it is important to try to set the negative emotions aside to learn persistence. Some other key tips that are worth including are becoming accustomed to succeeding which can be done by setting small goals and meeting them, make small changes which means changing one bad habit at a time, and remember to reward yourself for every accomplishment.

We have all felt what it is like to get that sudden rush of motivation and turn that feeling into energy. This influx of motivation and energy can develop into great progress toward our goal or action, but the problem with that rush is that it's usually fleeting. Motivation is like a sound wave; it flows up and drops down, often in line with our emotions. When we are feeling happy we are more likely to have the energy to follow through, but when we are facing setbacks and feeling down, that energy is suddenly sucked away. This intrusion of varying emotions can impact our motivation and therefore results.

Whether or not we are going through a rough patch, if our bodies are in good shape (plenty of sleep, physical activity, good nutrition, healthy relationships, etc.), we tend to feel pretty resilient overall. And, when we enjoy a good return on our investments - whether we are invested in school and are earning good grades, getting praise from our bosses, or whatever the case may be, our energy toward these activities remain consistent overall.

However, when the opposite happens, you are aren't eating right so you are hungry, you aren't sleeping well so you are tired, you aren't staying active so you feel run down and unhealthy, and you are not staying in touch with your friends or family, you will begin to feel the down part of the upswing. With all of these emotions and physical issues going on it will be likely you won't be able to focus on your studies and you may start to get poor grades or negative feedback from your teachers. This will only further push you down in your already unhappy state and you may begin feeling depressed and like you want to give up.

One of the most important keys to success in life and in your schooling is to learn how to turn short term action into sustained long term repeated actions. We all know that to achieve big things you need to drill things down into the steps necessary to get there. When you know your big picture and you have a road map, the formula to reach your destination is just one step per day. How do you get from one side of the country to the other side? Simple - one mile at a time. Don't you? You have a big picture goal and lots of little achievements are necessary to get there. You don't take one step and all of a sudden you've made it! Sustained action executing the right techniques, which follow the right strategy, leads you to achieving your vision. The only remaining roadblock to your success is you.

Inspiration is what you'll need to harness in order to get to the top of that mountain. Inspiration is more powerful, and a more deeply spiritual practice than motivation, because it comes from deep within your heart. When you wield your own inspiration, you are able to see past any temporary setback; because it will be clear to you that there is something bigger than you at work - something that exists outside of our daily trials and tribulations. Inspiration is a prolonged, consistent desire to change, to reach that goal whether it is large or small. Of course, motivation can still be useful to us - but it exists mainly within a singular situation, a constrained time frame or one temporary set of circumstances. It deals mainly with the present, and has little to do with the big picture.

An easy way to separate the two is thinking about going to school. Do you go to school every day because you want to graduate and get your diploma? Or do you go to school every day because you possess an unyielding desire to get into the college of your dreams? And then graduate and have the job of your dreams or start an organization that could change the world? While both of these scenarios are driven by ambition and motivation, the inspiration comes from the latter; that feeling, the internal drive to want to do something, be something, and achieve more. This is where inspiration gives you the desire that will push you through, carry you through the ups and downs, and create sustained long term action.

Now is your time. You can create the dreams that you desire for yourself and make them into a reality. You can do things you have never considered or thought possible before. You can get into the college of your choice and get the job you have always wanted. You can create something that could help thousands or even millions of people around the world. These dreams require you, your motivation, and your inspiration. They require your sustained long term action with just one step at a time. No matter your current circumstance, you can change it! Only you have that power. Your potential is limitless. What you want and what you believe in is all that truly matters. The only thing you have left to do is ask yourself, what do you believe is possible?




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment