Sunday 13 January 2013

Inspired Motivation ...


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

No comments:

Post a Comment