I am asked these 2 questions quite often, the simple answer is, apart from a short lived rousing speech,or some kind of temporary incentive or fear, wait for it, you or I cannot motivate them.

They must be assisted to motivate themselves to have any long lasting benefit. The other side to the coin is that it is very hard to do this with people who do not want to be motivated. You have probably all heard the saying ” You can take a horse to water, but you can`t make it drink.” The same rule works for motivation.

Because each and every person has different needs, dreams, wishes, aspirations, passions and desires. What will motivate one person will not motivate the next, there may be some overlap or similarities, but it boils down to having to motivate everyone in a personally unique way. This obviously would take a long time if you have a lot of people to work with.

Goal setting is the key here. The word motivation can be split into 2 smaller easier to define words: Motive and Action.

Motive = Reason, Purpose, Goal.

Action = Do, Go, Act.

So motivation can be described as a movement towards a goal or a goal directed action.

Self motivation is achieved by inciting the desire and passion to complete something by previously working out the ” Whats in it for me ” puzzle.

By writing down and recording all the things you would wish to achieve or possess in your life that you believe will make you happy and working through the list by setting small goals to each step required in your life to achieve each one. Final goals must be timed to coincide with when you are at a point in your life to be able to take the final step to acquiring them. Of course the happiness will not have to wait until you have achieved each one it can be gained by knowing that each day your efforts have moved you one step closer to where you would like to be in your life when you will be able to consider yourself successful.

A journey of 1,000 miles can only be completed one step at a time, by taking each step you become closer to reaching the destination of your journey. This applies to successful goal setting as well. Take small easily achievable steps and it will never become too arduous as you make your way along the path to the final destination, or goal.

By writing down as many things as you can of how will personally benefit by completing each task or job that you are asked to undertake, the skill development you will need to do, the learning and educating yourself that will be required,  having to give up some of the less important parts to your life, doing things that you don`t really enjoy but know are necessary, the physical or mentally hard work required, will all get done with ease because you know that the final benefit will easily outweigh the short term hardship of achieving everything you set out to do each day. The sense of achievement that will feel as you write down each days accomplishments and also the benefits you have gained will also improve your belief, enthusiasm, self-worth, self-image and most importantly your self-motivation to achieve more the next day and the next and so on.

I previously mentioned incentive and fear as motivators. These are only temporary and don`t usually work if they are from an external source, but if you use them internally as a part of your self-motivation then they can have a more lasting benefit. E.G if you really desire to have something you can promise yourself you will get it ( holiday, car, house, etc or more time with the family each day, more relexation time, etc ) when you have completed the next particularly difficult step to another desire, rather than rush out to get it once it is within your reach. Or fear can be used by not wanting to be seen to fail, by telling significant people who have real meaning in your life, what you would like to achieve by a certain date, you will more likely motivate yourself to achieve it so as not to lose face, those people that you have told will also be able to give you the feedback and sometimes the help you may need at times, to reach your goal. Again these will all be personal to each different person as to how they use them.

Each small goal must be set as a SMART goal : Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and tangible.

If you wish to learn a bit more about this process and how it can work for you then please contact me and I will be able to give you the dates and locations of my goal setting workshops.

1. Integrity.

2. A servants heart.

3. Stewardship

These essential values form the foundation of the 5 pillars of leadership and must be ingrained in you to become your natural habit. You will soon be found out if you try to put them on artificially. When the pressure is on people revert to natural behaviours, if there is a chink in your values it will show and destroy everything you have built, people will have the perception that you don`t really mean what you say or do and it is all for show. That perception will be almost impossible to erase.

When you have the foundations in place you can build the pillars of your leadership bridge.

1. Crystallized thinking.

2. Developing a written plan of action.

3. Creating desire and passion.

4. Developing confidence and trust.

5. Fostering commitment and responsibility.

These again take a lot of time and effort to get right and must become ingrained in the way that you operate as a leader. This can take years in some skill areas, persistence is the key to achieving them.

Begin now don`t procrastinate, they will then all be in place for when you most need them.

This is taken from the book by Paul J. Meyer & Randy Slechta Titled: The 5 pillars of leadership. How to bridge the leadership gap. 

Most people without an exterior influence would consider quitting. It is easy to do and it hurts no-one except you so why bother carrying on.

Because if you quit you will have a low opinion of yourself  and your motivation to achieve other goals will evaporate. Sometimes it is just nice to know that someone is there to help you get through the tough times and push to get to the end and complete the job.

 The example on the video, ( click you tube box to watch, ) is a bit harsh for the corporate world but this is what everyone who wants to achieve on a regular basis should be like to themselves. The ecstasy and joy found in achieving difficult tasks lifts self-esteem, self-image, self-motivation, confidence and belief to new found levels and the next time it is a lot easier to carry on for longer. The more times we achieve things that make us feel happy , more of the good feeling hormones and endorphins are released and we are ready to go again quicker and to look for harder things to achieve.

Look for a coach who is there to serve you and not in it to look good for their own benefit, by helping you to achieve your goals.

1. Noble warrior attitude.
2. Correct thinking under pressure.
3. Skill refinement.
4. Constant analasis and de-briefing.

Noble warriors are, figuratively speaking, fighters who will always face and overcome any difficulty placed in their way.  Forever beating back self-doubt and negative thoughts that affect us all from time to time. The warrior has the spirit, discipline and inner strength to work through the mental and physical pain barrier and finds the necessary persistence needed to achieve his ultimate goal of success. Without this foundation in place all the other elements disintegrate and sink into insignificance.

Correct thinking under pressure is the next level. Most people can make good decisions when not under pressure, but the key to winning is making good decisions quickly and putting them into action before your opponent, thereby shifting the pressure on to them to make the correct call to counter your`s. There are a number of elements to this level which i will cover in future Blogs. This level is where knowing what works for you and performing the basics exceptionally well in competition pay massive dividends.

The top of the model is refinement of your skills. This is where the hours and hours of practice and hard work pay off for you, when you can perform a technique under severe pressure it is a skill that will live with you forever. The old saying of ” practice makes perfect “ is nearly correct , “ perfect practice makes perfect “ is more accurate. Of course everyone can always improve and a 1% improvement can sometimes be the slight edge needed to make you the winner, most things are won by very small margins in the modern world we live in today.

All these levels are backed up by constant analysis and de-briefing ( by yourself and others. ) This is where when you win you will know why and be able to repeat it the next time, but be slightly better at it, increasing the frequency of success and decreasing the frequency of failure. Continuous evaluation comes naturally to winners and they have a fundamental, self-driven desire to be constantly improving. In the heat of battle winners know what skills they can perform successfully a high % of the time. They follow the mantra of ” experiment in practice, deliver in performance. ”  If you fall behind the leaders by getting this part wrong, you will probably have to work at least twice as hard as them to make up the ground you have lost, this can sometimes prove to be the critical mistake. 

” Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”  Aristotle.

The winning model can equally apply in all areas of life.