Learning to be Self Motivational from Viktor Frankl

Posted on December 9th, 2008 by admin in Motivational Stories, self motivational

If you have not heard of Viktor Frankl he is the author of several works, the greatest of these is the self motivational book Man’s Search for Meaning. Frankl was already formulating his approaches to focusing on the true meaning in life before the Second World War. After the outbreak of the war he and his family were dispatched to concentration camps. As the only survivor of his family he used his experience to further clarify his thinking on the meaning and purpose in life.

He realised that in the most extreme situation of depravation the one thing that could not be taken away from him was his freedom to think. He noted at one point that his concentration camp guards had more liberty than he but that he had more freedom of thought than those who carried out orders without questioning them.

One of the things he observed among his fellow prisoners was it was the ones, that were self motivational through focusing what was beyond their current situation and a purpose for their life, who had a greater chance of survival. Those that focused only on the misery of their current situation and the lack of meaning in it were more likely to perish. In fact he established a principle that people who have led a fairly superficial existence when they are thrown into a harsh environment often come out as stronger after their suffering. When they realise they have great freedom of choice even in a difficult situation it is incredibly empowering and self motivational.

He saw in the behaviours of fellow prisoners while still incarcerated and after their release inflicting pain and cruelty on others as a result of that meted out to them. This choice and reaction is found in many who have suffered from child abuse who go on to commit the same acts on their own children. To break such a cycle needs the realisation that we have a choice in how we interpret the actions of others and a choice in how we respond. It can make us stronger or weaker however we choose to respond.

In addition his experience taught him how precious every moment of your time can be. Many of his conclusions have helped self motivational people overcome procrastination. One principle he held was to try to do anything that needed doing as soon as possible rather than leave it to the last moment. As he explained, this ensured that when he had a lot of tasks to achieve he had not added more pressure on himself by putting off important activities which then only accumulate. In this way he taught us to stay out of overwhelm. Another principle, again used by self motivational people, is to tackle the least pleasant jobs before those that are easier to do. In this way we achieve the more difficult tasks while we are still fresh and the easier ones when we are not at our best. How often have you found yourself doing the reverse? However Frankl was known to confess that he was not perfect in keeping to this principle but admitted he always sorely regretted it if he had not stayed true. If you would like more information on Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning and other self motivational works take a look at my self motivational book list.

Also take a look at this short clip of the great man explaining part of his philosophy

 

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Success Comes from Self Motivational Habits

Posted on December 2nd, 2008 by admin in self motivational

In every part of our life we have habits, they may not be self motivational habits but we have lots of them. Your overall health is impacted by your eating habits and your exercise habits. Is it all too convenient to reach for fast food and quicker to take the elevator than the stairs? There are distinctly bad habits that even more negatively impact on our health like a habit of smoking or other substance abuse. Not all habits are negative but we have them hardwired into our brain. Our social habits determine the quality of our relationships. We have cleanliness habits which determine the level of personal hygiene and that of our home environment. Our work ethic establishes the habits we exhibit in the workplace which determines how our co-workers see us. You even have buying habits which often you are not aware of but ask the retailer who monitors your use of their loyalty card and they know your buying habits intimately if they want to be successful. And if you want to be successful you need to identify self motivational habits and monitor them.

So what are habits? A habit is an activity which we have repeated so often that it is like the groove in an old gramophone record in which we automatically operate often without thinking or even being aware. It is so hardwired it is difficult not to do it. Now if that is a self motivational habit then that will work towards your success but if a negative habit can have serious consequences on your life. People often say but it is difficult to get a positive activity like a self motivational habit to the state where it becomes so automatic. Yet the same people see no reason why some of their bad habits have so readily become ingrained and they can’t give them up eg smoking. The problem is we don’t consciously decide at any point that we are going to turn a negative activity into a bad habit. We just follow the line of least resistance and drift into it.

So what is a self motivation habit? This is an activity which we can readily see takes us on a path to achieving what we want to achieve and because it is a habit it becomes almost involuntary. We don’t have to think about it and eventually it becomes like breathing. We don’t think about how we breathe but we sure know if we didn’t have that habit we wouldn’t get anything else done! So how do we establish a self motivational habit? The answer is repetition. While it is said necessity is the mother of invention, I have heard it said (I think by Tony Robbins) that repetition is the mother of skill. It is also the mother of self motivational habits.

So if you want to lose weight and become healthier you don’t go on a diet. You change your eating habits and your exercise regime and so have a different lifestyle which becomes a set of self motivatioanal habits. So in other areas of your life you can’t latch on to the latest short term fad and hope that you will instantly achieve success. You must decide what you want and clearly define it. Then you need to decide what a self motivational person looks like who achieves the success you want. Study the habits they have and make a commitment to not just try them but do them on a consistent basis until they are hardwired in as self motivational habits.

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