Get Motivated Stay Motivated

At first, you may ignore procrastinating over small things such as household chores or not so important things.  Because its not really affecting you that much.  Truth is, you just haven’t felt the negative impact of procrastination in your life yet.  You may not even know sometimes that you are actually procrastinating already.

When procrastination is bugging you already, its time you do some action to overcome it.  There are thousands, or maybe millions, of materials such as books, e-books, articles, videos, etc. that offers help in overcoming procrastination.  You seemed to have followed everything that was instructed in it that are mostly similar with each other.  Yet, you are that same old procrastinator who is becoming worse.

Before you try to follow some steps on how to overcome procrastination, do these things first:

• Be serious in overcoming procrastination.
• Learn what procrastination is and make sure to understand it.
• Recognize procrastination everytime you do it so that you’ll know when to avoid or fight it.
• Get yourself motivated in overcoming procrastination.

People often find themselves racing for money. They find all possible means in which they can earn more. Thinking that it would make them happy and successful in life. They’d be able to do and buy anything they like. In that case, who wouldn’t be happy with it?

What they do is keep themselves busy with their career – or maybe careers. Some would do multiple jobs in a day while some would work for their promotions to increase their salaries. This may sound to have no problem at all. But realization comes in the end. The realization that it is not only the money that they need in life to be happy. There are a lot of things besides money that would make a person happy.

The negative part of keeping yourself busy in making money is that you forget the other important things in your life. Things like your family, partner, your relationship with other people, and most importantly your health. People who have multiple jobs are too busy to take care of themselves. Less number of hours of sleep and more job means more stress. For people who strive for higher positions, tendency is that they compete with their co-workers. This often lead to rivalry and damage in their relationship. This is what people meant with “money does not change a person, it unmasks them.”

Happiness cannot be found with money alone. It is true that we need money to survive but not too much. It is just a part of it. We also need to take care of our health and our relationship with our loved ones. Balance is what we need to be happy and successful and not money alone.

Amberism - Saying something positive in the midst of a negative experience.  The term was branded by  Phylameana lila Desy after her Daughter’s name, Amber.

“My daughter Amber is our family’s optimist. She is a natural blonde and has a sunshine personality which matches her exuberant and smiley appearance. Amber won’t allow life’s miseries to drag her down. She is the baby of our family, yet early on as a tot she was always the remarkable one who would say things that would lift all of our spirits during unpleasant moments. Her optimistic remarks as a child were so innocent and refreshing they would help us see things in a brighter light. She could easily turn our sadness and irritations into laughter and calmness. “

Examples of Amberisms

• Spilled milk: At least it wasn’t Kool-Aid, that would be a sticky mess.
• Flunked a test: No one will call you a know-it-all.
• Stubbed your big toe: Aren’t you glad you didn’t break your ankle?

source: www.healing.about.com

I think we should adapt the idea of “Amberism” as well to stay motivated even in the midst of difficulties or any negative situation.  Instead of fussing over a spilled milk, we should think of the positive side of it.  We should think that even if something not so good happened to us, we are still here alive and we have the chance to stand up and succeed.  Amberism is the spirit for us to stay motivated all the time.

Here is a great poem taken from the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

“If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world we find,
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the man WHO THINKS HE CAN!”

Very motivating poem.  He got it right.  As the Law of Attraction states, what we are now is the result of what we have thought we could be.  So you have to think of what you want to be or what you want to happen.  Believe that you can do it and you will achieve whatever your heart desires.

Going for your dreams excites you.  You turn your dreams into goals, motivated to reach it.  Then you set your goals, you visualize it, and start achieving for it.

Then comes the difficult part. Not just difficult but you don’t know where to start as you know nothing about it.  Our goals have many steps to step onto.  There may be steps that are new to us and we do not know how to do it which leads us to give up our goals.

But is that the solution to the problem? You’ve come that far to your goals just to give up on it for a thing you do not know. The logical thing to do if you do not know about it is to learn it.  How do you learn it?  You have to do it.

Come to think of it.  How do you learn to speak?  By speaking.  How do you learn to dance?  By dancing.  You don’t have to give up just because you don’t know what to do. Learn how to do it.  You just need to lift your foot to step on that stepping stone.  You have to do it.

I just watched the movie, Kung Fu Panda.  You may think that the movie isn’t appropriate in this blog.  But I just got a good and inspiring lesson from the movie:

“There is no secret ingredient”

That is the secret of Po’s father in his family’s popular secret ingredient noodle soup. The secret has been passed from generations and as he believes that it is Po’s destiny as well, he told him the secret when Po was depressed after finding out that the Dragon Scroll has nothing written on it. He was just chosen as the Dragon Warrior who will defend the Valley of Peace from Tai Lung who wants to get hold of the Dragon Scroll.

The secret of the noodle soup, which is “there is no secret,” has given Po the realization that things become special because people believe them to be special. Just like the popular noodle soup ingredient of his family, people believed it to be special that is why it became special. Po then thought that this is the very essence of the Dragon Scroll. As he sees his reflection in the scroll, he thought that the power of the Dragon Scroll is within him.  So he went back to help Shifu.

Believing in his own power, he used his strengths against Tai Lung.  Yes he is fat, but he used it to defeat Tai Lung. He attacked Tai Lung with his own improvised combat style using his hugeness to absorb and deflect the force from Tai Lung’s attacks.

Po is right that things become special because people believe them to be special.   Believing  that you are special will make you become real special.  Just like Po, believe in the power within you and you will succeed.

Working alone could sometimes feel boring or weak.  There could also be times when you feel lonely, bearing all the hardships and pressure of your tasks.

Working with a team or with someone can really help us feel motivated with our work.  I’m not saying that you quit your current job just because you don’t have a team.  Instead, if you couldn’t find someone to work with you, or it is impractical or impossible to hire someone to help you with your job, just find someone whom you can keep company at work.  Even if you have different specialties, reach out to them so that you’ll have someone whom you can talk to and express your emotions, ideas, etc. with your work.

It is also fine if you seek help with other people about your job.  Don’t bear the burden all by yourself.  Ask ideas, advice, or tips from other people whom you think have knowledge and expertise on the thing that you do.

Working with a team or with someone feels motivating because you feel like you have a shoulder to lean on.  You wouldn’t feel bored anymore because you can chat with them or you can look forward for a nice lunch break with them.

In leadership, motivation skill is a very important factor.  Just by being a leader, you need tons of motivation in leading your people, company, organization, etc.  There lies a big responsibility in being a leader and there might be a lot of trouble to encounter not only with the external forces but also within the team itself.  The leader needs to deal with each of the members to develop a strong team.

Members need to cooperate with each other for the team to succeed.  Each of them has an important role in achieving the team’s goals; Each has their own specific tasks in the team that needs to be done.  That is why it is important for everyone to be motivated in doing their work.  The leader should at least motivate the team to work harder.  Here are a few things he could do:

• Develop a good relationship among the members.  If your team are like strangers to each other, there might be inconsistencies in their works and they might lose motivation.
• Make sure that each of the members understand and identify with the purpose of the team and their  how they take part in it as well.
• Ensure an effective flow of communication within the team.
• Motivate your team by appreciating their efforts.
• Hear them out.  Do listen to your team’s ideas and feedbacks.

A leader should remember that they are a team.  He might be the leader, but it doesn’t mean he alone operates the team.