Wanting or wishing for Motivation

There is a big difference between really wanting something or wishing for it. When you merely wish, chances are that you will never see it happen.

Photo by nicmcphee Flickr CCHow to recognize a motivated person

A common challenge in sports psychology is to keep the athlete motivated for grueling and often boring training sessions. So how do we know if someone is motivated? Simple - they act like it! Motivation is shown in three behaviors:

1. Choice: The choices made defines the person, choosing to play a sport, choosing to practice, choosing to set challenging goals.
2. Effort: The amount of effort shows the amount of motivation, how intensely the athlete compete and try to achieve their goals.
3. Persistence: Motivation is also shown by how long the athlete will try before giving up. The way he or she continues when the going gets tough and obstacles are everywhere.

There is no way somebody can give you motivation. No manager or leader can ever motivate anyone, what you can do is create conditions for someone to motivate themselves.

This is the big difference between driven and motivated persons. Those motivated will try harder, longer and continue going even when the challenge seems overwhelming.

What you can do is create an environment that is fun and stimulating, where the difference between people is accepted and welcomed. In short, and environment where people feel competent and successful.

Handling failure

Failure is a part of change and growth. By definition the course is unchartered and the water full of rocks, you will fail at times. The trick is in how you look at failure.

If you see your failure as caused by lack of ability or talent, your motivation will be destroyed. But, if you feel that the causes of failing are due to lack of preparation, that you didn't try hard enough or that you have not learned enough yet - then your motivation will continue high.

The steps you need to take to change

Michelle Biton and Sabitri Ghosh list the following five steps to change:

1. Awareness: I am aware that I need to change.
2. Emotion: I want to change.
3. Decision: I have decided to change.
4. Cognition: I know how to change.
5. Action: I am changing.

This is a little bit like what they say in medicine: The first step to healing is to accept the illness. When you know you are ill, you can decide that you want to get better and find out how to do it.

When you know what to do, you become like the athlete that need to keep the motivation high. One way is to get professional help from a coach, but if you are organized and really want the change you can make a plan with milestones and actions. Then you just tick them off on your road to improvement.

Conclusion

Change is possible, it takes motivation and more than just wishful thinking. Of course you can strive for change just by being an ambitious person, but change is more than that. If you don't change your life shrinks.
It is a terrible concept, but unfortunately true, we all want to avoid the work and risk of change so we prefer to do nothing. When we do nothing, we try to eliminate the unpleasantries in everyday life and start to shrink. To grow we need to not only wish for new things, we need to keep our motivation high and focus on continuous change - only then will we grow as persons and leaders.

Comments

[Paulo]

Hi Johan!
Great post again! By the way I really like the new layout and the clear and suggestive article list on the right! Great improvement and a simple way to get navigation going!

About motivation, and regarding awareness and the pic you chose allow me to share this tool called Goal Patrol! Maybe you have heard of it...but it is a great tool for awareness for change! I guess change comes with goals...

For more about Goal Patrol: http://www.goalpatrol.com/

Great message ending...I should now read the "Start on the right foot" article again! :p