Calvin's Blog

Motivation Blogs

Written by: Calvin Anderson

Topic: How to MOTIVATE yourself for any given task

Noun 1.motivation - the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; "we did not understand his motivation"; "he acted with the best of motives" http://www.thefreedictionary.com

Whenever we feel "moved" do anything; eat, sleep, work, exercise, fight, it is triggered by our internal motivation. It is practically impossible to do anything without it being first triggered by a motive. This is why it is vitally important for a prosecutor in a case to establish a "MOTIVE" for a given crime, failure to do that just simply means that the defendant didn't act.

Many times our motivations are influenced by external factors such as a threat or reward. to first begin to understand how to motivate yourself you have to first understand what motivates you.

There are basically two types of motivation, while we all have a little of both, but there is one in particular that seems to dominate. The two types of motivations are:

1. Away From (Flight)

2. Towards (Fight)

two people can have to different motivation but still complete the same actions.

Example:

Action - Bill & Tom Waters their Garden

Motivation Away from - Bill waters his garden because he doesn't want the plants to dry up and die

Motivation Towards - Tom waters his garden because he wants the plant to grow

Most of this behavior is learned and stems from our child hood. It is all based on how we were raised and how the influencers in our lives motivated us to get a particular task completed.

Your parent may have threatened you to clean your room so you cleaned it to avoid a punishment.       They may have actually promised you a reward so you were motivated by what you will receive.

These things remain with us a lot of times and when we become aware of their existence we can chose to capitalize on them or change our habits, the task however for this blog is to capitalize on them.

Experiment on your friends just ask them why they did something. You will be able to tell if it was an away from or towards motivation that caused them to do it.

Activating your Motivation

Now you know why you are motivated for the most part, the task that you are now faced with is to be able to control your thinking process. Use your imagination to your benefit. Whenever a person asks you to do something and you do want to do it but you lack the drive, create in your mind your own personal reasons for doing the task. Make those reasons corresponds to your specific type of motivation.

If you are away from motivated: Think of as many things you'll avoid by doing the task, don't stop, the more things you can come up with the more motivational build up you will receive. Try not to think of any Toward things it may de-motivate you

The same goes for the Towards motivated: Think of as many things you'll achieve by doing the task, don't stop, the more things you can come up with the more motivational build up you will receive Try not to thing of any away from things, it may de-motivate you..

For the most part many people have both Just connect your internal reason to the right areas, think of all the things you'll avoid, and think of all the things you'll achieve the more you can come up with the more motivational build up.