Showing posts with label self motivation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self motivation. Show all posts
Friday, November 9, 2012
8 Things Successful People Do
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/advisor/eight-things-remarkably-successful-people-do.html
Thursday, October 25, 2012
External Motivation Doesn’t Work
[Taken from the Simple Dollar]
Quite often, I’ve written about how my family has been a tremendous motivation for me.
My infant son was there at the moment I decided to get my financial house in order.
My daughter was there at the moment I decided to commit full-time to my writing.
My wife and children serve as a constant reminder of the things I want to change in my life.
The thing is, my family isn’t enough by themselves to provide adequate motivation for change in my life. They certainly help, don’t get me wrong, and they can often convince me to make a better choice in a given moment.
Lasting change, though, has to come from inside. If I’m not internally committed to doing something different, then it won’t happen.
I often look at motivation for change as being a lot like having a big rock at the top of a hill. My family might be enough to push that rock over the top and get it rolling down the hill, but the momentum of that rock comes from inside of me. It’s made up of my own desire for change.
If that’s the case, how do you make change happen in your life? I can’t comment on what motivates others, but I can certainly tell you what pushes me to make changes.
First, you’ve got to really tap into the problem. It isn’t enough to say that you want to lose weight or that you want to build up financial independence. You’ve got to understand why you’re not achieving those things right now and you’ve got to understand the dangers of staying on the current path.
The way to do that, at least through me, is studying the issues. If I stay on my current path, what will happen to me in a few years? What will my life look like if I don’t commit to change? Is that a future I want? Is that devastating future really worth the small pleasures of staying on the path I’m on?
Next, you’ve got to understand what the correct solution is. There are so many recipes out there for improving your wealth or losing weight or getting in shape. What’s the right one for your situation? Often, this involves digging into the core principles to see what is actually tried and true and really works for people.
Fad diets? No. “Millionaire by thirty” investment schemes? No. Spend the time to really understand what works.
Once you understand the solution, do everything you can to minimize the resistance to that solution. Throw out the food that doesn’t match what you should be eating. Pull money out of your checking account so it’s not so easily available for spending.
Then – and this is the most important part for me – put constant reminders everywhere of the reason you’re doing this. Put copies of your overdraft statement in your wallet. Put pictures of yourself at your fattest on the fridge. Put pictures of your heart exam on your candy stash. Put your student loan statement around your credit cards.
Your willpower makes all the difference, but you can take action to make the bar as low as possible. In the end, it’s up to you.
Quite often, I’ve written about how my family has been a tremendous motivation for me.
My infant son was there at the moment I decided to get my financial house in order.
My daughter was there at the moment I decided to commit full-time to my writing.
My wife and children serve as a constant reminder of the things I want to change in my life.
The thing is, my family isn’t enough by themselves to provide adequate motivation for change in my life. They certainly help, don’t get me wrong, and they can often convince me to make a better choice in a given moment.
Lasting change, though, has to come from inside. If I’m not internally committed to doing something different, then it won’t happen.
I often look at motivation for change as being a lot like having a big rock at the top of a hill. My family might be enough to push that rock over the top and get it rolling down the hill, but the momentum of that rock comes from inside of me. It’s made up of my own desire for change.
If that’s the case, how do you make change happen in your life? I can’t comment on what motivates others, but I can certainly tell you what pushes me to make changes.
First, you’ve got to really tap into the problem. It isn’t enough to say that you want to lose weight or that you want to build up financial independence. You’ve got to understand why you’re not achieving those things right now and you’ve got to understand the dangers of staying on the current path.
The way to do that, at least through me, is studying the issues. If I stay on my current path, what will happen to me in a few years? What will my life look like if I don’t commit to change? Is that a future I want? Is that devastating future really worth the small pleasures of staying on the path I’m on?
Next, you’ve got to understand what the correct solution is. There are so many recipes out there for improving your wealth or losing weight or getting in shape. What’s the right one for your situation? Often, this involves digging into the core principles to see what is actually tried and true and really works for people.
Fad diets? No. “Millionaire by thirty” investment schemes? No. Spend the time to really understand what works.
Once you understand the solution, do everything you can to minimize the resistance to that solution. Throw out the food that doesn’t match what you should be eating. Pull money out of your checking account so it’s not so easily available for spending.
Then – and this is the most important part for me – put constant reminders everywhere of the reason you’re doing this. Put copies of your overdraft statement in your wallet. Put pictures of yourself at your fattest on the fridge. Put pictures of your heart exam on your candy stash. Put your student loan statement around your credit cards.
Your willpower makes all the difference, but you can take action to make the bar as low as possible. In the end, it’s up to you.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Are you ready to change?
[Taken from Simple Dollar]
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
When I first entered college, I was not mentally prepared for it. I didn’t have adequate study skills, nor did I have the focus or patience to do the work that needed to be done to really succeed. My first two and a half years of college were spent simply focusing on doing the minimum I needed to do to keep my scholarships.
At about the end of my fifth semester or so, I woke up. I went from struggling to stay in school to making the dean’s list while majoring in two hard sciences. I couldn’t completely undo the performance of my first three years in school, but I certainly left college on a completely different trajectory than when I entered it.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my education and career trajectory.
Later on, I spent myself into a pretty deep financial hole. We had a mountain of credit card and other consumer debt. Throughout 2004 and 2005, we just kept spending and spending, digging the hole deeper and deeper.
When our first child arrived on the scene, my perspective began to change on a lot of things in my life. I began to realize that I was not only responsible for my own path, but for the path of this tiny child. I turned the ship around, and today Sarah and I own a home and are completely debt free.
When I was mentally ready for it, I was completely able to take control of my finances.
Sometimes, we’re not mentally ready for the things we need to do in our lives.
I see it all the time in people around me. There are people who are just not ready to go through the hard steps needed to correct their finances or get on a different career path. They’re more interested in maximizing their enjoyment of this very moment and they just assume tomorrow will figure itself out.
I see it in myself. There are personal challenges I’d love to take on, but I often feel like I just don’t quite have it in me to make a success out of those things.
If you’re not fully on board with the changes you want to make, you’ll find it very difficult to make those changes.
So, what can you do? You’re aware of a change that needs to be made, but you’re just not quite on board with it. What’s next?
For me, introspection works better than anything. I’ve found that, time and time again, I’ve reached breakthroughs in my life by constantly looking at my life and asking myself what I want out of it and what I need to do to get there.
When I’m not ready to achieve something, the answers aren’t there yet. The key is to keep asking. Keep thinking about it. Keep reading. Keep translating that reading into the reality of your own life.
The first step is recognizing that a change needs to happen.
The second step is digging into your life and really understanding what’s wrong and what needs to be fixed.
After that, the journey can go in a lot of different directions. Different things work well for different people as long as you have that foundation of understanding what needs changed and you’re truly committed to it. Without that foundation, changing your life is next to impossible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)