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Self Motivation

Self motivation precedes employee motivation. If you have a high degree of self-motivation, you will be able to motivate others. It’s as simple as that.

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So what is self-motivation? It is your own ability to move yourself towards the results you most desire in your life. (For those of you who don’t know – Motivation comes from the root-word “movere”, which means “to move”)

I wrote in an article on team motivation of the 3 pillars of team motivation. Well, self-motivation is built on pillars as well. Why do I like to use the word pillar? Because it holds something up. Without one, the rest won’t be as strong. So here are the pillars of Self motivation

Setting Goals that Inspire and Motivate

The first step to self-motivation is to establish powerful goals that inspire you. I can’t emphasize the importance of goal setting enough.

Goals give you something to work towards. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning. It makes present-moment decision making so much easier. In short, if you don’t have clear, powerful goals, you would struggle to know where to go next.

It is a great way to change your habits into the ones you want.

Goals also help you to have a clear vision. Research has shown that successful people are people who have a clear picture of what you want to achieve.

If you have a clear picture or vision, you will attract more of it in your life. This is the law of attraction. And for those of you who don't know, the Law of attraction basically says: "You are like a magnet, attracting unto you the essence of that which you are thinking and feeling." So, if you are feeling fat, you cannot attract thin. If you feel poor, you cannot attract prosperity, and so on.

This article on the Law of Attraction will give you more clarity on the topic

And here is an article on how to live a purpose driven life.


Self Awareness

I believe that self awareness and emotional awareness is the key to life in general. Self-Awareness is the following:

  • Knowing your own emotions

  • Being able to name them

  • Being able to recognize when you are feeling a certain way

Emotions are the fuel that drives your behavior. It determines your passion. And yes, it is the very thing that motivates you.

Your emotions serve as your guide. It tells you when you are on track in getting the results that you want. It guides you through feelings of joy, happiness, depression and frustration.

Most people go through life unaware of their emotions. If this happens, you are unable to use this crucial guide in your life…Martha Beck call it your emotional guidance system. Follow these six daily techniques to make emotional awareness a habit

Self Awareness can be developed, but it takes discipline. It happens in two ways.
  1. First it happens through reflection. You can have a multitude of experiences in your life, but still lack self awareness. You need to take the time to get outside of your experiences and consider the meaning of it

    How was I feeling when that event occurred? What was I thinking when it occurred.

  2. Gathering feedback from others. Granted, another person’s reflection of you is simply their interpretation, but it never hurts to ask. Most of us go through life “making up” how we think others perceive us. Why not ask “can you give me some feedback on how well you think I empathize with other people?” This could be very powerful if you ask your employees

Improve your self awareness by working through this self awareness worksheet. It will help you to make self awareness a habit

To illustrate the importance of self awareness, I want to share with you the response that Dick Leider of Inventure Group got when he asked a group of senior citizens what they would do differently if they could have their lives over again.

  • First they would have taken time to reflect. They got so caught up in doing, they say, that they often lost sight of the meaning.
  • Second, they would have taken more risks – not physical risks-but in relationships and in expressing their creative side.
  • And finally they would have understood what really gave them fulfilment.


Positive Thinking

Our thinking drives our emotions 99% of the time. So if we have positive thoughts, we will have positive emotions. The two goes hand in hand.

This is important to self motivation. Our mind usually has a pattern of thinking for certain situations. One for stressful situations, one for when we get threatened, one for conflict, etc.

Some of those thinking patterns give you the results that you want, and others don’t. The problem is that most people don’t think what they think about, so they keep on behaving the same way in certain situations and keep getting the same results.

This article will help you to fully understand how powerful our thoughts and emotions are in the results that we get.

The right thinking is a vital pillar of self motivation. Of course you can’t walk around all day, thinking what you are thinking about.

You don’t want to tamper with the thinking patterns that are giving you the results that you want. These patterns are already contributing to self motivation. You would want to change the patterns that don’t give you the results that you want. The one’s that don’t contribute to self motivation.

Read this article on how to change your thinking patterns to get the results that you want.

This is where your emotional awareness plays a big role. Since your emotions are driven by your thoughts 99% of the time, it will tell you when you are having a thought that’s not in line with the results that you want. Trust your emotional guidance system to tell you when to think what you are thinking about.

Values

Values are your deepest beliefs...your deepest thinking patterns. It is the deepest part that drives your self-motivation.

Values are formed by your environment. Your upbringing, education, influences from other people and your culture, the media, books, your knowledge and many more.

It is these deep rooted thinking patterns and beliefs that drives your emotions and, in turn, your behaviors.

Values and self motivation also goes hand in hand. You make decisions based on your values. If you don’t act according to your values, you will feel disconnected and there will be a drop in self motivation

So, Establish and define your core values. Then live by them in every decision you make. It will help you to become the person and leader that you want to be. Here is an exercise on how to determine your personal core values.

The first step you can take in self motivation, is to realize the importance of it. Like I have mentioned, self motivation precedes team motivation.

The next step is to have the tools available and work on your self motivation on a daily basis. It’s a bit like a training program. It has to happen daily.

And if you want to use use me as your life coach to help you with self motivation follow this link to read more...



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