Your motivation is one of the core resources you have to accomplish all the things you want to achieve.
Let us get one thing clear though before we handle this resource called motivation.
You may have listened to people who refer to themselves as 'motivational speakers'. And you may have attended a motivational training workshop. You got motivated there. Good!
I want you though to start of thinking of 'motivation' in a new way. And this way, which is an old fact is that 'success is not a product of motivation'.
Yes, I know I have just said it.
Contrary to some popular wishful thinking, success is not a product of motivation. Rather, it is the other way round.
High Motivation Is A Result of Success and low motivation is a result of prior failure.
What this means is that repeated success in a particular activity leads [motivates] one to want to do that activity often. While repeated failure at a particular activity leads [demotiavtes] one to want to avoid that activity.
Now that you understand that success creates motivation, and failure destroys it, what's the use?
Motivation is made up of four elements that are essential to know and apply in your quest for success and abundance. Those elements are: memories, meanings, meta-programs, and metaphors. Let us take a look at each one of them.
Memories
The memories you have about your past are influencers on your motivation. If memories of success are many and strong in your life, then it stands to reason that you will be positively inclined, and well motivated. Plentiful memories of failure on the other hand will predispose you to strong hesitancies.
It is important therefore to choose with care the memories that make up your success package.
Meta-programs
Meta-programs are patterns of acting/re-acting which an individual prefers in given situations. They may change across context and time. Two of the meta-programs you may want to think of are:
internal/external: relying on your own opinions versus relying on the opinions of others.
towards/away from: moving towards some desired objective versus moving away from an undesirable situation.
The meta-programs identify what motivates an individual and are helpful in defining 'success' and what makes it happen.
What this means for you is that you will find it helpful if you know which meta-programs you use to attain success. And use them!
Meanings
The meaning an event/experience has for an indvidual will determine how motivated they will/not be to engage in it.
Meaning is made up of expectations and criteria.
How much you expect something to occur goes hand in hand with what that particular something means to you. If it is something you are not really attached to, it does not matter whether it occurs or not. It is meaningless to you. You attach a particular criterion to something in order for that thing to have a personal meaning to you.
Criterion says: "What makes this meaningful to me", while expectation says: "How possible is this for me?".
What an event, activity or experience means to you will determine how successful you will want to be in relation to that activity. And, your perceived success will in turn influence how motivated you will be to engage in (similar) activities.
Metaphors
Metaphors are language tools we use to try to understand vague or abstract concepts and experiences. When we use them, they become frames that help us focus our attention on some aspect of a concept, situation or experience while ignoring other aspects.
Metaphors have an impact on our perceptions and the behaviours that result from these perceptions. The metaphors that you apply to yourself, others and your situations contain with them your beliefs about reality. They make experience coherent for you. And because they contain beliefs about reality, they tend to be self-fulfilling prophecies. In order to understand the influence of metaphors on your experience do the following:
identify your metaphors
which beliefs are inherent in these metaphors?
what reality (or even lies) do they create?
is this the kind of reality that you need to?
Now you know that prior successes motivates you. How can you use this knowledge?
What you can do is to recall any and/or all the successes you have had in the recent past. Fill your brain with memories of success.
Secondly, make sure you know the meta-programs that are operational in your life.
Thirdly, take a look at how you use 'meanings'. How do you balance your criteria with your expectations?
And, fourthly, make sure that your metaphors are congruent with who you want to be or with what you want to happen in your life. Contradictory metaphors are disabling.
You now can see how motivation is a core resource you can use in positioning yourself for success and abundance.
Make sure you understand it very well, and apply it wisely!
About the Author
Ke o agile (keoagile@consultant.com) is an NLP Coach as well as editor and publisher of In TheZone(http://inthezone.port5.com), an NLP focused ezine that coaches creating an abundance lifestyle.