On June 19, Coach Tim wrote in his excellent blog: “Hey Coach, Motivate Me!” The importance of understanding your “why” and having vision and purpose for your life to drive your own motivation instead of relying on others. Recently, I was in a team meeting with a client where there was a sense of momentum lost and the team wanted help regaining it. The focus turned to others providing it. As I was discussing the importance of self-motivation, I reflected on attributes my high performing clients and other top gun producers have who disciplined themselves to the results they desire- regardless of circumstances and challenges.
They all seem to exercise some or all of the discipline of self- motivation.
The Discipline of Self-Motivation
1- Know “why” you are on this earth. Probably the greatest philosophical question everyone asks themselves during their lifetime. This is not an easy question and requires a lot of soul searching and spiritual inventory. Taking time to ponder and come up with your Life Purpose Statement can help to solidify that answer. If you don’t have one – download this free attachment and follow the steps: Life Purpose Statement. Start answering this today!
2- Have a clear vision/purpose for all LIFE accounts. We will plan months for a wedding, weeks for a vacation, why is it so difficult to take three to four hours to begin shaping the next ten to twenty years of our lives? Having clarity, vision and goals in all areas of your personal life and business help to clarify your “why” and allows you to focus and help shape your future. Regardless of circumstances, challenges and other peoples negative attitudes; your desire to achieve what you have envisioned for yourself begins to drive your actions. The need for others to pick or lift you up is diminished. If you have never completed a Living Plan Contact Us and ask for our Living Plan as well as time with one of Our Coaches to help you craft your plan and goals.
3- Grow your intra and interpersonal intelligence. What is it that drives the successful entrepreneur/business owner to new levels of growth, when 80% who set out to start a business fail? Most have high emotional quotient scores or high levels of intra and interpersonal intelligence. Intra personal intelligence is the ability to understand yourself and form an accurate concept of yourself to operate effectively in life. Inter personal intelligence is the ability to understand other people, what motivates others, how they work and how to work cooperatively with them. Research shows that successful leaders and superior performers have well developed emotional intelligence skills. This makes it possible for them to work well with a wide variety of people and to respond effectively to the rapidly changing conditions in the business world. In fact, a person’s (EQ) emotional intelligence may be a better predictor of success performance than intelligence (IQ). Let us know if you would like to take an EQ assessment. When you know how you score, you can then create a plan to grow your emotional intelligence in your development areas.
Emotional Quotient
View Sample: EQ
4- Create your own incentive plan. High performers don’t wait for their boss or company to come out with a yearend sales contest. In fact, they rarely if ever look to anyone other than themselves to create their internal reward program. Instead of asking “What can my company do to incentivize me to finish strong?” , ask yourself “What can I do to incentivize myself to finish strong and grow my company as well?” This is an example of taking personal responsibility and following The QBQ or “The Question behind the Question” by John G Miller. For example, you want to end ahead or maybe need to catch up to your goal. There is no set company contest (so what) and you set in the next set of days/months (ex-30-60 90 days) you hit X (attainable – stretch goal) you will reward yourself with Y (trip to Disneyland w/ kids- new car etc.). Make it a discipline to always incentivize yourself. When the company incentives come- it will be icing on the cake.
5- Let go of the past- focus on the future. Too often we expend too much energy on the past- either on our failures – or reliving the glory days. While there can be some benefit to learning from our mistakes or revisiting what may have led to past success, the focus needs to be where we are heading not fix or change the past which cannot be done anyway. Usually the backward focus tends to be in the negative and puts your attitude/mindset into a self-deflate instead of self-motivate track. The opportunities lie ahead, not in what already happened.
6- Positively recharge your batteries daily. This discipline is best done first thing in the morning and also should be revisited all day long. Spiritual meditation and positive affirmation are key to set your day and mindset in the right frame. Consistently reading a self-development book keeps you focused on looking ahead and improving.
7- Spend more time encouraging others rather than yourself. Very few people are capable of getting beyond themselves to focus on and help others. If this is a struggle for you- take an honest effort at focusing on lifting others up- especially those around you or on your team. Be the catalyst for positive change and attitude. Help everyone to focus on solutions – not just problems. Look for opportunities to genuinely encourage and motivate others even (especially) during challenging or difficult times and circumstances. Moving others to a better place will fuel your fire to also motivate yourself. One area that keeps lower performers who need others to motivate them from reaching their full potential is over introspection of themselves. Encouraging others will usually cure this.
8- Choose to excel and self motivate even in negative environments. In almost every business and sales environment I found myself in from the age of 16 I had hard wired within me to be the best I could – to enjoy and excel in whatever I was doing. I attribute this in large part to my father and faith based upbringing. In most situations negativity flowed through the company or department like the plague. It never occurred to me to participate in the stinking thinking; rather I was focused on continually improving my performance and production. The result was always positive- pay increases- greater commissions- awards and top performer status. You can decide whether you want to soar like an eagle or flop around the ground like a turkey. That may sound corny- the fact is there are more turkeys than eagles in the natural and business world. Choose to soar!
This may all sound great to you, however, if you are seriously struggling and are having difficulty self motivating yourself- seek help. It could be more than changing an attitude, so dig deep and face the facts of what is keeping you back. Let us know how we can help and if you would like a complimentary session with one of Our Coaches.
