Ask the Readers: How to Motivate the Unmotivated
It can be hard to stay motivated – not just with Internet Business, but with life in general. At one point in our lives, we’ve all said to ourselves: “I can’t do this”, “it’s not worth it”, and “I feel like giving up.”
Whatever “it” is that we feel like giving up on, whether it’s a project, a goal we’re trying to achieve, or something else – realize that all of those negative feelings are just a test. I view it as the Universe’s way of “weeding out” who can do what – putting these thoughts in our heads and only letting those who can overcome them succeed. You can succeed in whatever you want to do, you just have to find out how you best can overcome those “anti-success” feelings. Find out what motivates you, and let that be your way out.
What motivates is different from person to person. Maybe it’s a quotation. Maybe it’s a person. Maybe it’s just knowing that there are better things to come.
For me, it’s my family. I work hard everyday to make sure I can be with my family and support them not only financially, but physically (being present) and spiritually as well.
Your Help
I’m asking for you to do me one quick favor: please comment below with what motivates you.
There are no wrong answers, and don’t be embarrassed about anything. My goal here is for everyone to share so we can all see that there are many ways to beat those “I give ups” in our heads. I look forward to your responses.
I’m hoping for at least 50 responses, so please let us know what motivates you.
Posted on : April 23rd, 2009
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26 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)
Pat– funny that you posted this. A few days ago, I just explained to a colleague who was complaining to me about people he had working for him in a sales capacity. I explained to him that it wasn’t his fault– he had done everything a reasonable person would do . . .
I closed by saying, “Bill, you took the horses to water . . . but, you have to accept that you can’t motivate the unmotivated!”
I’m personally completely motivated by the end result. Each day I open up my ‘vision wall’ in Google Docs which is a series of pictures of what I hope to get out of all my work.
Whether it be a great body from going to the gym, or a flash car due to my online methods, I find that it always kicks me into gear.
Also knowing that I can die at anytime helps
The real thing is I never get unmotivated – some years ago i used to get negative feelings often in my mind.But i concentrated hard on how i thought and since then i have always tried to be always positive.I decided i will not give up anything ever !
My fiancee, my family, my close friends, my cat, and my future.
And just this last weekend I visited my fiancee’s aunt/uncle of which they haven’t seen each other in years. The uncle runs his own roofing business, and he is the epitomy of hard working — I’m sure we all know this kind of person. So, him and I were talking one night and he was trying to help me out (cause I’m at a crossroads right know in choosing a career). He told me, don’t do it for money, do it for her *points to my fiancee*. Now I knew that I want to make the most success for her, but something just slapped me in the face right then and there — kinda like that breath of fresh air or realization. I always knew not to work for money, but work because there is someone/something TO WORK FOR! However it was just a little guiding light for myself.
Anyways, he then told me something that now I do everyday (it’s a little cheesy, but it’s now my life motto): he said you have look at yourself in the mirror every night, and tell yourself ‘did you actually work today?’ Can you say that you provided for your family, and can you go to bed knowing that you did all you could?
Sorry for the lengthy comment, but hope someone can get some inspiration as I did
Great post Pat!
I’m very strongly motivated by money and a fear of failure. I’m motivated by a strong desire to be financially independent ASAP. I know I would be bored if I wasn’t doing some form of work, but if I was financially independent I could work 100% on what I enjoy. Also, I’ve worked so hard already throughout my life that if I fail now, I would feel like my previous hard work had been for nothing.
What motivates me are the kids I work with and the goal of not having to work full time when I become a parent.
Simple yet big goals!
The idea of financial freedom is extremely motivating to me. I spend time imagining what our lives will be like at that point and it inspires me to work harder to reach that goal.
I try to motivate myself by always improving. Even if it’s just another 5 pounds on the barbell, an extra blog post, or another word of a foreign language, each little step keeps me going.
Rather than giving you things that motivate me in general (there are a lot of them), I’ll give you one specific motivator. It has to do with blogging.
Over recent weeks, my blog has reached a plateau of daily visitors. Between 10-20 unique visitors a day on average. Not much, but its a fairly new blog. As the numbers dwindled to 3 visitors daily over a 3 day period, I started looking at what I was doing and where I was going with my blog – Aspire to Grace.
I work a full time career and will be moving in 3 months and have a lot of things to do. So, is writing for my blog every night during the week really a good use of my time?
I decided that it was. I love to write, it is therapeutic for me. Instead of quitting, I decided to become more efficient and increase and improve my marketing efforts. I can’t see the long term payoff yet, and it may not even have been as a result of recent changes in my behavior, but for the past two days my visitors have increased immensely – the highest being 39. And there is still more that I am going to do, which will impact my numbers even more.
What motivates me is the feeling I get when I write and when I can see results.
Ironically, my motivation has been waning lately. It’s hard to be super-productive all the time. Sometimes it’s easier to just forget about everything and veg out. To keep from vegging out too much, there are several things that I try to do and remember so that I can stay motivated, even when I really don’t feel like it.
I create goals that are in line with what I really want. Not superficial goals that I pretend to want. It’s easier to stay motivated when you’re reaching for a goal that excites you.
I remember that hard work helps me reach my goals faster. It’s a simple formula with almost mathematical precision, and it gives you a reason to push a little harder.
If all else fails, I read motivational material. This blog is the perfect example. Pat’s hard work and success is motivational for me.
Another blog that I read regularly for motivation is Steve Pavlina. He really kicks you in the butt when you need it most.
Knowing that I have advantages in life that a great portion of the world can’t enjoy makes me feel very responsible to make the most of my gifts. That and the the horses, dog, and cats that have adopted me.
My motivation is found in keeping the end in mind. The final result is what keeps me moving forward. I’m also motivated by always trying to better my own performance and achievement.
Clair
For me, money has never been a strong motivating factor. Success certainly can be one, but self-doubt can unfortunately be just as persuasive. So what gets me moving everyday? My primary motivation is helping other people.
I was laid off a couple of months ago, and probably wouldn’t get off of the couch were it not for my husband and others who depend on me. Knowing that they depend on me, and that it makes a difference to others how I spend my time, is the best motivation for me.
And a little good music never hurts, either.
Great question! In school it was very difficult to motivate myself to study for classes. It was only the fun and exciting classes that I wanted to study for and exceed. That being said, what motivates me is having a successful end result that you can look back on and be proud of. Also, my friends and family motivate me to succeed and benefit from all of my results…good or bad.
I thought I would check back on this one . . .
Many seem to be commenting on self motivation (easy by comparison), but it is the motivating of others that counts. To that point, I use one of the following:
1) Appeal to their laziness– do this and it will save you time and work later
2) Appeal to their greed– do this and it will save or make you money
Those are the two strongest ways I know to motivate others . . .
1. My ten year vision plan definitely motivates me.
2. My dreamboard, which has pictures symbolizing the end results motivates me.
3. My Best Year Yet 2009 plan inspires me.
4. I look at all three of these at least once a day, and it keeps me going!
1. Seeing your peers achieve sucess in their ventures is a good motivator. Being reminded what sucess looks like first-hand has re-motivated me. I got a little side-tracked last year, but seeing your sucess has inspired me again.
2. It is much easier to stay motivated when you have loved ones cheering for you to succeed.
* Financial Independence
* Drive to be innovative
* Steering clear of boredom.
* My daughter
Those are probably the top 4. I work a lot and I work hard but I’m hoping it pays off in the long run. I am fortunate to work from home which means more time with my daughter. I like being involved in more than one project to avoid boredom and to increase the path to success. This year is going to be THE YEAR!
My motivation lately has been my income goals.
I met my first income goal of $1,000 a month from passive/ residual sources nearly a year ago, and that was a great milestone for me as a work at home mom. My current goal is to build my passive income to $4,000 a month. I’m not there yet, but watching my progress and reminding myself of my goal really helps.
I have a progress bar to track my earnings, and I can’t wait till it reaches 100%!
Like you, my family motivates me.
I want to inspire my children to live outside the box. I want to spend ridiculous amounts of time with them while they’re young, rather than living at an office and seeing them only when completely exhausted. I want to take the financial stress of supporting our family off of my extraordinarily hard-working husband.
Five years from now, I envision freedom for my family to pursue our dreams, without the burden of jobs that prevent us from living fully. Yay!
CT
Hmm, what motivates me… I guess that varies according to the objective…
Sometimes I love the sense of accomplishment, sometimes I crave the results, sometimes I enjoy the process, sometimes a promise myself a reward. Sometimes I want to avoid the shame of failure…
I try to find and rotate the right motivations to always keep me going.
Reading about other successful people motivates me.
Being a filmmaker/entrepreneur I constantly read up on how certain entrepreneurs and filmmakers got to your level of success. Learning about their journeys gives me the faith and belief that I too can achieve my goals.
Also, you motivate me Pat. It’s because of your success that I’m now working on selling an ebook.
Thank you for creating this website. It’s truly motivational.
Hey there,
im a student and i was terribly unmotivated during the hols but when i read this post – its actually quite interesting how everyone has different motivations and it kind of made me study.
So, thanks to all.
Pat,
Interesting you mentioned a quote to motivate one’s self in your blog. This past week, I actually had a very motivating quote tattooed on me as a continually reminder and motivator in my life. Additionally, when I wake up and don’t feel like working on my businesses I put on some music that talks about success (Jay-Z – U Don’t Know as an example if you like hip-hop) that gets my mental passions going.
Keep up the good work.
Pat, nice post, you’ve got some really good feedback. One thing i realized about motivation is that it tends to go hand in hand with procrastination. a friend of mine once told me; there’s no such as thing as procrastination, its just you haven’t realized the value of said task. once u associate a value (whether it be a $ amount or some other attribute that is important to you) then the procrastination goes away.
here are some examples of what keeps me motivated;
i recently lost 18lbs in a month! why? my doctor told me my cholesterol (ldl) was way too high (176, it should be at 100). my motivation was that i didn’t want to go on pills. i considered going on pills to mean that i was too weak to discipline my eating, so i adopted a new lifestyle – i stopped sugar, soda, candy, coffee/tea/caffeine, dairy, red-meat, & breads; and instead substituted with veggies, fruits and exercise. do i feel better? sure do! the weight loss was a side effect of the new lifestyle, i’ll go back in a few months to see if my ldl number came down.
how do i motivate myself at work? i keep a list of things i need to get done. i enjoy crossing them off the list.
how do i stay motivated long-term, by setting goals; monthly and yearly.
Looking back every once in a while at what you have achieved so far, especially when the goal seems so far away and you’re just in the beginning. This is something I am starting to understand now through my mountain/trail running activity: when you have still 10 miles ahead (out of a 26 miles run on the mountain), look back at what you have achieved already, be proud of it and enjoy the rest to come.
In general: while the challenge seems aweful before you start it, know that whenever you have achieved it, you will look back at it with a smile, saying: now that wasn’t that bad after all, was it?