Motivation – the alignment of your inner POWER!

A Google search on the word motivation gives 33,20,00,000 results!

"Motivation – A word for your inner self searched in the outer world."

We want someone to plant motivation in us. Many of us are simply seeking motivation. We have often said… “Once I am motivated, I will do it” “The problem is not in doing it, but I don’t feel motivated enough.”We want motivation in everything we do – work, exercise, cook, business, the list is endless. We want to feel motivated every single day and yet motivation seems to slip from us.

Think of the last time – you used the sentence “I am not feeling motivated enough to do it” – Was it really lack of motivation? Or did you mask impatience, laziness, lack of ownership, responsibility? Let’s take a step back and understand what motivation is.

By definition motivation is – a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.To me particularly, motivation is alignment of inner POWER and consists of 5 factors. When one has the balance of the following 5 factors, motivation comes from “within” and we stop looking for it “outside”.

P – Patience:

Patience is about sticking to a course of action which may involve repetition of same activity for a prolonged period of time without tangible results. In other words, results may not be linear with efforts; therefore every small effort may not result in tangible results. E.g. you may go for a walk everyday for 6 days and not lose weight – do you give up and say you have lost motivation or are you willing to be patient and go for a walk everyday for 3 months? Next time you feel less motivated check if you are feeling a bit impatient?

O – Ownership:

When we don’t own our goals it is difficult for us to have the determination to take steps to accomplish it. If our boss wants us to achieve a rating 1 and we are going to be happy achieving rating 2 – it will be difficult for us to put in the kind of effort required to achieve a rating of 1 as we do not own that goal. Next time you feel less motivated check if you own your goal 100%?

W – Workmanship (skills required):

When we set out to achieve a goal, we need to have certain skills to achieve the goal. Lack of required skills can make us feel overwhelmed about the whole process of achieving the goal. If you are setting up a business and are good at finance but poor at marketing, till you address marketing (whether learn or outsource) the whole idea of running a business will seem daunting and as a result motivation will drop. Next time you are feeling less motivated check if your skills are aligned with the goal? Do you need to address a particular skill to make the goal easier?

E – Energy:

Every goal calls for different levels of physical and mental energy. We can own the goal and have patience to achieve it but simply run out of energy. For example – if you are planning to expand your business – it will involve longer hours of work, involve more traveling – do you have the energy for it? Often lack of motivation can simply be lack of energy. Next time you feel less motivated check if your energy is 100%?

R – Response flexibility:

Every goal tends to be a combination of your efforts and outward circumstances. Sometimes the outward circumstances favor us and sometimes they are challenging – Do you give up or are flexible to accommodate a response outside the realms of the original plan? Achieving a dream requires flexibility in responding as per the demands of a situation. You may start with a plan but due to circumstances beyond your control, your plan may need to change – are you willing to modify your response? Next time you feel less motivated check if you are unwilling to respond as per the demand of the situation?

Imbalance in this inner POWER makes us feel as if we have zero motivation. The truth is as soon as we fix the weakest factor, we start experiencing higher motivation levels.

Be wise – Don’t say your motivation is zero. Simply work on the alignment of your inner POWER!

P - Patience
O - Ownership
W - Workmanship (Skills required)
E - Energy
R - Response Flexibility