Two weeks into the New Year, and I suspect many peoples’
New Year’s Resolutions will already be beginning to flounder or indeed, already
have gotten lost …
It can be difficult to maintain the motivation to
continue with these kinds of resolutions or plans to change. It’s a topic I often work with with my
clients. It’s easy to come up with
things to do to improve yourself, your situation or your life; what’s not so
easy is maintaining the effort it takes to put these plans into practice.
As humans, we seem too ready to give up on things that
take effort. Any big change requires
effort; it doesn’t often happen spontaneously.
It’s too easy to focus on the sacrifices or effort required in the here
and now & not think about the long term gain. It’s too easy to procrastinate and put off
until ‘tomorrow’ what could have been done today; but tomorrow never comes
& suddenly years have passed and the person is still stuck in the original position. It’s too easy to find easier or more enjoyable
things to do & put off the task that requires the effort.
But then you don’t achieve the goals you made and you’re
left with a personal sense of dissatisfaction, frustration and often failure. And you’re left in the same place as where
you started …
This topic is on my mind right now because 2013 is the
year in which I intend to write up my PhD thesis; all 100,000 words of it! If I need to, I could allow it to take me
into 2014 and even the first half of 2015.
But I don’t want it to drag on that long; I want to get all of my
research written up and disseminated as soon as possible. I’ve been working on it since 2008 and it’s
been a huge part of my life since then.
It’s become part of me! It’s
always there at the side of my mind, no
matter what I’m doing or who I’m with.
And it’s time to begin the process of letting it go; as in a pregnancy, I’ve
fed and nurtured it with vast amounts of data, this is the year in which I finally
give birth to the baby which is the thesis, allowing it to begin its own
journey out there in the world …
I know that the write up is going to be, at times, hugely
frustrating and I’m going to want to give up, or find something ‘easier’ or
more pleasurable to do. But I need to
keep focused, to organise myself so that my thesis does take priority this
year; no matter what those sacrifices entail.
I will ensure that I plan fun things and relaxation time, but the thesis,
and its’ completion must remain my number one focus.
Because of the extra time I could add on to the end of
this year, I’m aware that my completion date has the potential to drift. But to ensure that I remain focused and to
have something to look forward to at the end of it, I’ve decided on my ‘reward.’
As human beings, we like rewards! And if you’ve got something to do which
requires a lot of time and effort, or something which you don’t really like the
idea of doing, but know that you have to do it, having a ‘reward’ in mind at
the end of it can be a useful strategy. It’s
good to have something positive or exciting to focus on when the task is
becoming tedious or difficult. The end
reward has to be worth the sacrifice it feels you’re making, otherwise it’s too
easy to just give it up.
And in my case, I know the sense of achievement I’ll feel
when the thesis is written up and I have that fully bound book in my hand will
be reward in itself. But, that’s an
intangible outcome, which is sometimes difficult to focus on. As with the kinds of issues I work on with
clients, their outcome in itself (overcoming an eating disorder, changing their
communication style, overcoming anxiety, etc. etc) will be a huge achievement;
but that’s often not enough to maintain the motivation needed to put in the
required effort. A sense of achievement,
personal change, etc, are all intangible.
Motivation can sometimes be better maintained when there
is something concrete there to work towards.
A specific reward that will be given when the outcome has been achieved. Something tangible that can be easily seen or
imagined … it can be useful to have a physical picture or something that
symbolises the reward at hand to look at when motivation is beginning to
slip. The more valuable the reward is to
you, the more likely it is to reinforce your motivation.
So … what’s my reward to myself going to be? Other than becoming a Doctor of Philosophy!?
A two week trip to South Africa, living on a Big Cat
sanctuary, feeding, taking care of, and playing with the big cats …
http://www.i-to-i.com/volunteer-projects/live-with-lion-cubs-in-south-africa.html
http://www.khayavolunteer.com/hands-on-volunteer-with-lions-and-big-cats-in-south-africa.html
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Thank you everyone who has read posts on this blog over the 3 years or so it's been up and running.
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