No doubt that motivation is the engine behind success. If you are not motivated to do something, it’ll be impossible to see any results. But the question is: where can you get your motivation? and a lot of it.
You may hear a lot of tips and advice about how to get motivated. Some work and some don’t. And some are only feel-good nonsense. What I am going to tell you is a practical solution to any motivation problem. Something that works.
But before I show you what that is, I am going to tell you about the mechanism of motivation creation. Once you know how the mechanism works, then you can mint your own motivation at will.
Motivation is a Catch-22
Catch-22? What the hell does that mean? Let me explain… I am going to start off by a short but invaluable principle:
You are motivated only when you see results
That principle may disappoint you at the first glance, because you may say: well, to get results, I’d have to take action. To take action I would need motivation. So this is a closed loop. This is like saying to get motivated, you need motivation! Sounds like total nonsense, right? but wait…
Here’s how the loop works. You start with a tiny bit of motivation. That tiny bit of motivation prompts you to take a tiny action, which gets you tiny results. When you see that little result, you will be more motivated. Now this higher motivation, prompts you to take bigger action, which gets you bigger results, which in turn, becomes the fuel for more motivation… and the cycle continues.
So now you know what I mean by the closed loop or catch-22… It’s very much like a car engine when the movement of the car, generates electricity for spark plugs to fire and pump the pistons to create more movement which again helps firing the spark plugs and the cycle continues…
Now the big question is: where can you get that tiny bit of motivation to start the cycle? Where can you get that initial ignition to fire up the spark plugs?
How to Start the Motivation Cycle
That’s where the principle that I mentioned above will come into play – “You are motivated only when you see results”. There are 2 ways that you can see results:
Approach 1:
The principle says “see results”, but it doesn’t say that seeing results means seeing with your eyes. You can see the results in your mind. That’s when visualization comes in handy. Remember that your brain is incapable of telling the difference between fantasy and reality. When you relax, meditate, and visualize achieving results, your subconscious mind is impacted as if you have seen the results in the real world, and so it generates that initial motivation that you need.
Approach 2:
Since all you need in the beginning is a little bit of motivation to fuel the cycle, you can break down the path to your success into tiny little tasks. Then only focus on that first small step. Once you achieve that small step, you get enough motivation to jump-start the cycle.
The Bottom Line
In summary, the relationship between motivation and results is a two-way street or a cycle. One feeds the other. You can use various approaches to kick-start this cycle, as explained above. You could use mental visualizations or you could celebrate small results. There’s an old saying that “motion creates emotion”. Sometimes all you need is a small step to get your cycle of success going.
