Motivation, what is it that drives you?
I’ve always been highly motivated regarding NLP and personal development. But yesterday my gardener made me feel lazy.
And not because he did my gardening for me, but because he told me how much work he does at home – Before he starts his official gardening workday.
Well, that got me thinking about what motivates us. And why do some people get so stuck? They leave all their dreams and desires on the funeral home table.
We all seem to have some areas where we are highly motivated and some areas where we have little to no motivation.
The first thing I did was to create a list of motivation areas. That is, areas of our lives where we require more than an average amount of motivation.
If you are interested in a particular area yet lack motivation, you may want to know how to overcome that.
Top 10 Motivation Areas
Most people who come to us for coaching have needs or issues in at least one of these areas (we no longer offer coaching to stop smoking).
- Personal Development
- Weight Loss
- Continuing Education
- Job Change
- Exercise
- Professional Development
- Workplace
- Sales
- Stop Smoking
- Life Exploration (Travel)
What Causes Motivation And What Prevents It?
What causes your motivation, and what prevents it?
At the highest level, motivation is seen as a strategy. Each person has a strategy comprising several steps, the simplest being a two-step “see-do” strategy.
So, the first thing to do is figure out your motivation strategy. This is done by finding an area in which you are highly motivated and breaking down the steps.
Most, if not all, of your motivation strategies will have the same steps.
So, find the steps and then list the order they are in.
After figuring out the steps and their order, the next step is to find the trigger that fires off the motivation. And for good measure, I also like to discover the trigger that stops the strategy from running.
What Are Your Triggers?
For a strategy to run, you need a trigger that will fire it off.
This is an absolute must to know. But I believe you must also know which triggers will stop your motivation strategy as well.
This is why strategies top the list for your motivation.
Because once you know your motivation strategy and your triggers for that strategy, you should only have to fire off the trigger to run it.
Think of a row of dominos falling, and that’s basically how it works. Tipping the first domino with your finger is the trigger.
For long-term projects, you may need several triggers, in cases where a de-motivation strategy is mistakenly fired off. Having a restart trigger will remotivate you to keep going.
Fear Trigger Both Motivator and De-motivator
Fear is one of the biggest motivating triggers but it’s an even bigger de-motivator.
It’s often referred to as the “Carrot or the Stick” motivation on the motivating end. And known in NLP as Toward or Away From motivation.
If you are motivated by the “Stick,” then you are motivated by fear or away from something because no one wants to be hit by a stick.
A typical scenario would be to hear, “If you don’t do X, then Y will happen.”
If you are motivated by the “Carrot,” then you are “Toward” motivated. You move toward a reward or goal.
In that scenario, you will hear, “If you want X, then you must do Y.”
Although this sounds simple, it’s not so cut and dry. Many people are triggered by fear and then switch to the reward to complete the strategy.
And even the percentage amount of each will vary.
For example, a kick in the butt will get a person moving (move away or stick), but then once moving forward, the person will see a desired reward or outcome (toward or carrot).
Beware: Motivation by fear alone is very hard on your system and can often create many other problems, especially in your health.
Other Important Factors
Other important factors, such as using NLP Submodalities in motivation, add to the success rate.
Marketers rely heavily on submodalities and fear to make you buy things.
The proof can be found in your kitchen cupboard, that is if there are any left.
Your favourite late-night snack may not be potato chips, but for millions, it is. And you won’t find them in dark grey bags, no siree. They will be in bright, shiny bags.
Because marketers, at least the smart ones, know how important the role sub-modalities play in motivating you to part with your money.
NLP Anchoring is another way of triggering a motivation strategy to run.
I like using the baseball player strategy because it’s very visual.
If you have ever watched pro baseball, then you have seen at least one player go through a routine of some sort to trigger his motivation, to psyche himself up.
It may be pulling on a hat, adjusting something, tapping the home plate with his bat or swinging his bat a certain number of times.
All possible triggers psychologically anchor him to a particular state that is highly effective in achieving his outcome.
De-motivation Factors
Do you know what triggers demotivate you?
It’s important to know what they are because the triggers that demotivate you are often more potent than your motivation triggers.
So it’s just as important to know your de-motivation triggers as to know your motivation triggers.
And it’s also possible that if you got rid of your de-motivation triggers, your motivation triggers would automatically run. It all depends on the strategy that you use.
Get Your Strategy
Many triggers and other factors are part of the strategy that motivates you. If you don’t know your triggers and strategies steps, I recommend you find out.
Also, many powerful NLP Techniques can be used to overcome any problems you are having with your motivation.
If you feel this is the right time to finally stop struggling and start getting the things you want in life, then give us a call and find out how we can help.