Be Self Motivational and Stop Procrastinating

Posted on November 21st, 2008 by admin in self motivational

How can you overcome procrastination? Put it off till tomorrow! An old joke but for self motivational people there may be some truth in it. Procrastination is a state that is all too easy to slip into and once in there is very difficult climb back out of. When self motivational people find themselves beginning to procrastinate they take it head on. They challenge themselves to find out what the root cause can be. Procrastination is our subconscious trying to protect us from something we don’t like or even fear. So we must ask ourselves what is our subconscious trying to protect us from. Once you know the underlying cause then you can do something about it.
The best way to overcome procrastination is to meet the challenge head on and just get on and get the thing done. Gritting your teeth and battling your way through it is often rewarded by an amazing sense of achievement. As you have heard me say before you just stepped outside your comfort zone and what happened, your comfort zone just got bigger.
Often when a task appears too big to handle the best approach is to break it down into manageable pieces. As they say “how do you eat an elephant?” - “One bite at a time”. Self motivational people know that by taking a large project and laying it out in manageable steps it then becomes a journey not a fear.
If you are trying to avoid something then plenty of other tasks will appear to fill up your time. You then have the satisfaction of knowing that you have been very busy and so have not had time to tackle the task which you would rather avoid. If you do have a number of things to do then list them down. Then start with the task you would least like to do and then onto the next least favourite task and so on. What you find is that you have gained momentum, become more self motivational and can coast out on the easier tasks you prefer to do towards the end of the day or week. The important thing here is to have your list or plan and stick to it. If you feel you are not going to have enough time to complete a task in time, don’t rush it revise your plan. But at least you still have a plan to drive you on to completion. Even when you encounter unexpected delays you know that you are not procrastinating just adjusting your plan and still moving towards your goal. Take a look at this minute and a half video which should hit home about how you procrastinate (once you view it get back to the tasks you need to do, don’t start surfing more videos!!!) A better use of your time is take a look at this Brian Tracy Book on procrastination, its one of the books on my list of self motivational books on the Take a Look tab at the top of the blog.

 

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Self Motivational Means Taking Personal Responsibility

Posted on November 19th, 2008 by admin in self motivational

Do you feel that life has dealt you a poor hand and that it is difficult to be self motivational? Do you believe that things are outside your control especially in today’s troubled financial environment? Have you just been made redundant from your job and think there is nothing you can do about it? If you do, you are in good company because there are many many people who feel exactly the same as you. And if you continue to feel that way, then you will experience the same fate as those many many people ie a fairly mediocre time of it at best. However if you want to be like the much fewer self motivational people who are dealing with what life throws at them you need to take personal responsibity for your life. You can’t control the wind but you can control your sails on life’s troubled ocean.
If you don’t take the self motivational stance and accept personal responsibility for your current position then you are casting yourself as a victim. Once you do that you are handing control of your life over to others. For an inspirational book on taking control rather than being a victim look at the Viktor Frankl book on my self motivational booklist. You can never become self motivational while you see yourself as a victim.
As soon as you say to yourself “I am responsible for my life” you will already start to feel empowered and much more self motivational. As soon as you accept personal responsibility you begin to see what is possible rather than what has happened to you. And once you can see what is possible you will begin to realise what action you can take. Self motivational people spend more time taking action rather than wallowing in their current predicament.
Taking personal responsibility means looking for new opportunities, acquiring new skills and finding out how others have solved similar problems rather than sitting on your butt complaining what the world has done to them. However it depends if you like to stay within your comfort zone or are prepared to step out there into the unknown. If you don’t take action come tomorrow, come next week, come next month you are still going to be where you are now or perhaps in a worse position. Doing nothing is not an option if you truly want to be self motivational. If you are still worried about how much you think you can change then start with something small and once you have a sense of achievement you will be amazed how easy it is to take the next and even bigger step. Before you know it you have some momentum and that begins to make you self motivational and unstoppable. Self Motivational people have what is called an internal locus of control. Take a look at this 3 minute video which emphasises the point.

 

 

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A List of Self Motivational Success Clues

Posted on November 13th, 2008 by admin in self motivational

When you become truly self motivational you realise that success is not a destination it is something within you. It is the self motivational attitude that you take to every aspect of your life. Not just the big things but the every day mundane things to. Success is not something you grab a hold of, pin down then show off as some kind of trophy which some less than self motivational people have come to view it. Successful people don’t just achieve success they live it on a daily basis. Many definitions of success describe it as a journey. However I believe it is more than a journey and is in fact a life style and indeed a self motivation life style choice.

Success leaves clues, here is a list of some of the success clues to look for:

1 Focused on worthy goals
2 Self motivational to work towards them (not just looking for short cuts)
3 Pushing for high standards but not bogged down in seeking perfection
4 Seeing the big picture while attending to the detail
5 Persistence is the self motivational watchword
6 Balancing the need for big step change with incremental improvement
7 Holding the gains in success not backsliding into old behaviours
8 Helping others, particularly less fortunate, set and achieve their goals
9 Commitment to delivering on promises
10 Knowing that your goal is still there after the buffeting storms subside
11 Not surrendering control to others by losing your temper
12 Seeing hate and abuse from others as a gift you choose not to accept from them
13 Refuse to acknowledge failure and see it as a learning experience
14 Forge alliances with those who will commit to supporting your goals
15 Knowing that everyone has within them the resources to achieve their goals
16 Realising that success is a self motivational choice you make not made for you
17 Seeing money as a scorecard to the energy you create in the world not success itself
18 Respect others and their vision of success even when you can’t agree with them
19 Living in the now and valuing every moment of every day
20 Valuing health as the great generator for a self motivational and successful life style

To be self motivational and adopt a success lifestyle you need to be a detective looking for clues. My list above is not meant to be comprehensive but merely a starting point to begin your quest. To get some further clues have a look at this self motivational booklist I compiled.

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Self Motivational Perseverance

Posted on November 9th, 2008 by admin in self motivational

Self motivational people learn not to give up too easily. However they also know when something isn’t working and its time to move on. So how can we find the right balance? The first question self motivational people ask when things aren’t working is; “do I still have the same desire to achieve my goal?”. If our goal still inspires us then perhaps we need to keep on keeping on. Tony Robbins sums it up by saying “God’s delays are not God’s denials”.Sometimes however we need to either reconfirm our goal to ourselves to refocus our efforts. If we don’t feel so enthusiastic towards that goal then our actions aren’t going to give us the result we want and maybe it is time to try something else and revise our goal to make us more self motivational.
Self motivational people know the difference between the end and the means to that end. If you are chasing financial gain you may be achieving it but at what cost and is it giving you what you really want? Many successful people have achieved great financial success only to ask “Is that all there is?” So if financial success is not bringing the fulfilment you seek it may be time to change tack.
Successful people know there is no short cut to success. If you can find a way of working smarter then by all means do but don’t get lazy and give up just because it’s not working. Self motivational people are the ones who keep going when others have fallen by the wayside.
Entrepreneurs like Thomas Edison are not put off by failures. Edison reputedly had 10,000 attempts to discover the incandescent light bulb. When questioned after 5,000 attempts why he continued after so many failures he said “these are not failures I have just discovered 5,000 ways not to invent the electric light bulb!” So recognise when your perseverance is providing a learning experience. If not it again may be time to move on. However again many successful entrepreneurs will tell you that their greatest successes have come just after a string of unsuccessful outcomes. Self motivational people believe success is always lurking just around the next corner.
Again to balance our view of perseverance remember the adage “if you always do what you have always done, then you will always get what you always got”. So what this is telling us is that as well as perseverance we also need to be flexible and prepared to look at new ideas.

Finally if you want something to inspire you to persevere take a look at this video about the bamboo tree.

 

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Self Motivational Means Being in Control

Posted on November 1st, 2008 by admin in self motivational

One way to recognise self motivational people is the fact that they take control of their lives. Many of us do the opposite and give up control of our lives to others. What do I mean? When you lose your temper at the driver who cuts you up in traffic, at the call centre operator or their systems that send you round on an endless loop or at the waiter who brings you the wrong order you are giving up control to others. What we are doing is passing the blame for our current situation to others and so we don’t have to take responsibility for our lives. The key to being self motivational is to take responsibility for your current situation and ultimately for your life. When you take responsibility you will find it immensely liberating. If you want to improve your life you need to be in control and to be in control you need to take personal responsibility.
So how can you take personal responsibility? In the first instance it is how you react to situations. You can’t always control how others act towards you but you have a choice in how you respond to them. The next time some acts mean to you or insults you say to them “I do not accept the gift that you are offering”. Now what happens if someone offers you a gift and you don’t take it? That’s right the other person still owns it and they are stuck with it unless they can offload it on someone else. Try this and see how liberating it is and feel how much more self motivational you feel.
An important way to take responsibility and thus be in control is to be prepared to take decisions. It is said that our current situation is a direct result and the sum of all the decisions we have taken to date. So if you don’t like where you are now you need to be more self motivational and start either taking decisions or at least stop letting others take decisions for you by default. And in turn if you want a better future you need to start taking better decisions.
To have better control in decision making you need to become less reactive to what is happening around you. Self motivational people are always proactive in their decision making.
I am not saying it is easy and you can start doing this immediately. However you need to immediately begin practicing this type of self motivational behaviour until it becomes your natural response to the world and your future.

Take a look at this new 6 minute video on taking responsibility

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