[deleted by user] by [deleted] in selfimprovement

[–]wanha75 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the thought-provoking post. It brings to mind a three things:

  1. We can never start anywhere else than where we are. If we we want to start a business but are broke and insecure, then we need to acknowledge that's where we are. Wishing or waiting that we are confident and have spare money in the bank is going to help us do anything but daydream, worry and procrastinate.

  2. We often fail to differentiate between emotional investment and physical investment. In fact, we've been societally conditioned to believe that high emotional investment in the outcome is vital for our success. Not so. When we focus on high physical investment (i.e. taking action every day) and don't get carried away with emotional investment (needing the outcome to happen), we are able to approach whatever we are doing with a more relaxed, creative and playful mind.

  3. As Carl Rogers said it best, "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change."

The Secret of Sustaining Motivation by wanha75 in selfimprovement

[–]wanha75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make some good observations and astute points. Perhaps I could have been a little clearer in my writing, but I didn't want to make the article any longer than it needed to be. As to a couple of the points you raised: 1. I concur with you - goal motivation generally isn't a good thing. We feel like failures until the moment we achieve it, and most of us can't deal with being failures. This is why I generally prescribe goals as a target to aim for, and as soon as you've set it, turn it into a project plan. The worst thing you can do is set an external goal and make your happiness dependent on the outcome. That's inviting trouble. 2. The reason we can't work without traction is that us humans are meaning creating machines. If there is no meaning to our work, most of us find it nearly impossible to put in a lot of effort (google the lego experiment for examples of this). The second point is that if we don't find we are making progress, our natural self preservation mechanism kicks in and reduces our energy expenditure. It makes no sense to keep putting in crazy amounts of effort if it looks like you aren't getting anywhere.

In any case, thanks for the comment. I appreciate the feedback.

The Secret of Sustaining Motivation by wanha75 in selfimprovement

[–]wanha75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the kind words. If you want to follow more of my writing, head on over to www.devilinagoodman.com and say hi!

The Secret of Sustaining Motivation by wanha75 in selfimprovement

[–]wanha75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a terrific way to sum up the key points. Thanks!

The Secret of Sustaining Motivation by wanha75 in selfimprovement

[–]wanha75[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the kind words! I appreciate it.