INeedMotivation.com Blog

The Puzzle of Motivation

@INeedMotivation — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:17:09 PST

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.

Copyright 2013. INeedMotivation.com. All Rights Reserved.
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4 Tips to Accomplishing Your Goals and Objectives Effectively

@INeedMotivation — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 15:38:29 PDT

Single-minded focus
Most things that you need to get done are multi layered, as in they require multiple steps and/or processes to be completed. This is why for many people, they give up before they start because it is too overwhelming for your mind to process. Humans, as complex as our brains have evolved, still require to have things fully simplified in order to go ahead. By dumbing everything down to simple steps, you can now proceed to focus on one at a time. That’s what you should do, one step at a time, without thinking too far ahead. Make it super easy for you to concentrate on one particular aspect of the job and only shift your focus to something else once that step is fully completed. If you need more help with your focusing, read the ultimate guide to improving your focus

Jump in!
If you linger on and on, you will delay everything so much that you will either fail by default because you will be late in doing it, or you will just never do it. Just start doing. The hardest step is to actually get going. Once you get going, things get easier. You will build momentum, and you will start feeling better. Think about when you are about to jump into a pool. The longer it takes you to go in, the more likely you are to never fully go in it. However, if you just jump in right away, you break the ice, getting over the tricks your mind plays on you and now you can fully enjoy your swim!

Know your end
Every task and goal has a beginning and eventually an end. You need to know what your end is. What is the end result? By knowing that this whole process has an end, you are more likely to feel less intimidated or scared to do it. What scares your mind is doing something hard with no end in sight. Your mind will just shut down and not make you do it. So make sure you are completely aware of what the finished result should be. Ideally, you should also set a timeframe, so that you also have a date in your mind, which will help rationalize to yourself that this isn’t forever. By knowing your end, you can move forward with a sense of stability and knowingness that is necessary to eventually reach your end.

Track your progress
Since your steps are fully broken down and you are focusing on one at a time, you should create a checklist where you cross off each step as they are completed. This will provide you with a sense of worthiness and accomplishment as you are inching closer and closer to your goal. Make this checklist highly visible, such as displaying it on your fridge or on your desk in the office. We can interpret images and diagrams better than words, so by seeing how many tasks you did and how many are left, your mind can process this more easily, which leads to less confusion or likeliness to detract from the goal or task at hand.

Copyright 2011. INeedMotivation.com. All Rights Reserved.
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Try Something New For 30 Days

@INeedMotivation — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:50:31 PDT

Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just … haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk offers a neat way to think about setting and achieving goals. It’s a really interesting concept, what would YOU try for 30 days?

7 Secrets To A Peaceful & Successful Life

@INeedMotivation — Tue, 10 May 2011 05:07:27 PDT

Be open to everything, and attached to nothing
The best way to experience a fulfilling life is to have very few barriers. Leave nothing off your table, and embrace every potential idea, experience, person, and thought. Sticking to one concept or one line of thinking too harshly creates nothing but negative energy in the end. Instead of defending your stance, allow yourself the opportunity to see what it might be like on the other side of the coin. Be open to hear other perspectives than your own…you never know what can end up inspiring you. Don’t box yourself in, jump out of the box completely!

Don’t let your talents go to waste
Whatever it is that you are good at, make sure that you let it shine. There is nothing more crippling or saddening to your soul than to watch your talents sit on the sidelines of your life. To feel successful, your talents need to be utilized in some capacity. It is crucial to making you feel whole and purpose-driven. What you are good at is irrelevant, it could be anything really, as long as it makes you smile and brings joy to others. Don’t allow yourself to live with any regret. Go out there and give a voice to your talents. Start however small you may have to, it’s not about the magnitude, it’s about putting the wheels in motion to leading a more fulfilled existence.

Silence is golden
We live in such a fast paced world. Seems like there is never a moment to just “be”. 24/7/365 everything nowadays. It’s no surprise that our thoughts are non stop either. Some of us can barely sleep because our thoughts are so consuming. So much to think about, so much information to process. This is why, to lead a truly peaceful life, you must welcome and appreciate moments of silence. Give yourself the gift of meditation. If you want some convincing as to why you should be meditating, take a look at these benefits of meditation. On top of meditation, wherever you may find yourself, waiting at the bus stop, stuck in traffic in your car, or waiting in line at the bank perhaps…tune everything out for a moment, and just “be”.

Let go of your history
We tend to give too much weight to what our personal history means to our lives. Why should the past dictate what the future is going to be? Just because you failed a few things in the past, does not make you a failure, and guarantee that you will fail at other things in the future. Just because something negative happened in your past, does not mean your future can’t be rosy and beautiful. Just allow yourself to let go of your history…it is what it is. Take lessons from it but end the never ending dwelling. Your identity, your soul, was shining long before any of that history ever happened. Don’t let it block you from succeeding any longer. You owe yourself a fresh start.

Act as if you are already “there”
Have you ever seen an Olympic athlete or a high level professional sports athlete train? They will go through the motions as if they are winning, all the way up to stepping on a fake podium and pretend to receive a medal or trophy. The reason they do this is that to actually make something, anything, happen, you first must visualize extremely clearly. It must be so clear, that it is undeniable. Learn from this, and whatever it is that you want to accomplish, act as if you have already accomplished it. What would you act like and do if you finished what you have always wanted to do? Think about how that would be and become this exactly.

Evaporate resentments
There is absolutely no valuable reason to hold any resentment. This is YOUR life…why would you allow anything to make you feel as such? Remember, you can decide what affects you and gets to you. There is no room for such debilitating feelings within your existence. Learn to let go of such animosity or ill will. Allowing it into your life gives it strength and justifies it. Letting it go destroys it completely, without it ever seeing the light of day to begin with. Choose to feel positive, productive feelings and thoughts instead, and watch how more successful your life becomes.

Avoid all thoughts that weaken you
While resentment is usually a feeling towards an outward source, it is also important to rid yourself of any inner feeling that hinders who you are as a person. Never allow yourself to feel that you are too weak, not smart enough, not pretty enough, or not capable enough to become who you want to become. You need to play up your strengths and those should be the focus on your attention. It is important to recognize the difference between understanding a weakness and working towards improving it, and believing a weakness is insurmountable. There’s a big difference there; one is positive and one is negative. Don’t give credit to any thought that makes you feel less than who you truly are and who you ultimately want to become.

Teaching Design For Change

@INeedMotivation — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:05:30 PST

Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation. She’s teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers’ minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state. Have a look at this interesting video below, it’s quite inspiring:

7 Efficient Ways To Double Your Productivity

@INeedMotivation — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 12:44:59 PDT

Do you find yourself struggling to do all the tasks that you need to do every day? Do you want to learn simple, effective methods to increase your productivity in ways you never thought possible? It’s time that you learn how to properly double or triple your productivity! Here are 7 tips that can get you started on the right track:

Work at your energy peaks
We all have our own time of the day where we feel at our very best. Some people are more energized in the morning, while others in the evening. Figure out what part of the day you are at your very best mentally and physically, and this is the time that you should be doing your most important and demanding task. Also, by keeping a healthy lifestyle, you will make your energy peak periods last longer, which is to your advantage in becoming more productive.

Prioritize your to-do list
Separate your to-do list into different parts, depending on their level of importance. For example, break down your list in parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. In part 1, list all your most important tasks. Then in 2, list the second most important tasks, and so on. Then, ONLY work on part 2 items when ALL part 1 items are completed. This will not only help you organize your to-do list into a more practical manner, it will also make you focus only on the most important tasks at hand. Imagine how productive you get if you always work on the most crucial task at any given moment!

Do worst thing first
Stop procrastinating the task that you don’t want to do. Get it done, and get it out of the way as soon as possible. You will feel better, trust me! If you linger around, doing other things, you will never get that harder task done. Usually, the harder tasks are the more important tasks, so if you can master this rule, you will witness your productivity skyrocket. Take the habit of doing the things you feel less like doing first, as this is the key to self discipline, which will boost your efficiency.

Organize your work area
Many people tend to work in a cluttered environment, with all kinds of papers and documents lying all over their desk. They claim that they can “find themselves” throughout all that mess. This is a common occurrence. Truth is, a clean desk equals clean work. So stop telling yourself that “this is how I work”, because you are fooling yourself into accepting less than optimal conditions to increase your productivity and success. Develop the habit of always filing away what you don’t need right away, and throw away things that you do not use. Keep your desk and work area clean, and in order. Your productivity can only be maximized within such an environment. You might want to read 10 Tips For Productive Desk Work for more information on this.

Use commute time effectively
Most people spend over an hour per day commuting to work and back home. Think of the most effective way that you can use this hour of your day to enhance your productivity. You can take that time to read a book, or go over important documents or notes. If you are driving, you can listen to motivational audiotapes, or audiobooks. In any event, there are many ways that you can use this commute time more appropriately so that you can benefit as much as possible from it.

Optimize your work processes
In many of our tasks, there are steps that can be fixed, skipped, or optimized. This can save us a tremendous amount of time, as research has shown that up to 30% of processes can be optimized. Take a look at the processes involved in your tasks, and see if you can optimize them as much as possible. Work requiring less steps is also more likely to be of better quality, as well as a huge time saver. See if you can do your work in batches for example. Remember that there is always a more efficient way of doing what you do, so keep that in mind and let it motivate you to improve your work processes.

Balance out your life
Keep in mind that while we live in a success and achievement driven society, most of our happiness comes from our relationships with one another. So make it your duty to spend time with your loved ones and cultivate your friendships. Happier people work better and more efficiently. This leads to more success and more free time for your relationships, so you can see how this comes full circle. Boosting your productivity will end up making you a happier, more successful person as a whole!

image by ohskylab (license)

Keep Your Goals To Yourself

@INeedMotivation — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:52:11 PDT

After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone — but Derek Sivers says it’s better to keep goals secret. He presents research stretching as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them. Check out this interesting video below:

5 Ways To Live A More Exceptional Life

@INeedMotivation — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:00:36 PDT

Right now, in the very moment that you are reading this article, you can start doing what is necessary to completely transform the quality of your life. It’s nothing complicated, the key is in the understanding of the principles. How do you get the ball rolling? Here are 5 ways that can help you start living a truly exceptional life:

Don’t demand, become
Don’t wait for the world to give you something. Go out there and make it happen. Don’t be a person that reacts to a situation, be the one that made the situation happen. Let me give you an example. Lottery is a pretty popular activity in most countries, especially in North America, where people spend up to hundreds of dollars a month in hopes of winning. I’m sure you all know the odds of winning the lottery, let’s just say you have a better chance of being bitten by a shark without even swimming! If those people were to take their money and do something productive like investing it or building a business for example, their chances of becoming financially rich skyrockets! So remember, don’t wait for things to happen to you, make it happen for you.

Work harder on yourself
Most people spend more time focusing on their work than they do on themselves. You are the foundation to all that you do and become. Without a proper, well kept foundation, anything built upon it is prone to be flawed. Make it your mantra to improve who you are as a human being. How about learning to be a nicer person, instead of worrying about what others think of you? How about doing some good deed for someone else, instead of thinking about what else you can buy yourself? How about learning to relax, instead of agonizing about your schedule for tomorrow? Think in terms of “quality”, become a better person, take care of yourself more, learn to prioritize your personal growth, and watch how it affects all other areas of your life. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!

Associate with winners
Negative energy is like a virus. It spreads very easily, and it is very contagious. Losers have a tendency to relish within their own misery, as if they’ve gone mad from this “negativity plague”, and if they can bring anyone down to their level, all the better for them. Learn to stay away from losers and their negative energy. There is nothing for you to gain. You won’t change them by trying, as a matter of fact, they are trying to rip you apart from your own positivity. We tend to become a product of our environment, and this includes our circle of acquaintances. Keep company with successful, happy people, and let it rub off on you. You will feed off from each other’s energy and build it up, instead of down.

Greatness is an art form
Happiness and greatness is not having more or doing more. The secret is all in the style. Living well is like a beautiful piece of art. Imagine a stunning painting, with exquisite details, and attention to even the slightest, most obscure areas of the canvas. View your life and your striving for a better life in the same manner. Be the person that leaves a healthy tip. Be the one that takes time to read a book with your kids. Be the person that raises the bar for quality. You are the artist, and it is up to you to create the most unique, most exceptional piece of art that there is: your life.

Do your part, God will do his
My mom always used to say the following saying in French when I was a kid, “aide toi et le ciel t’aidera”. To lead an exceptional life, it is crucial that you do what you are supposed to do. Don’t wait for others to bail you out and do it for you. Don’t wait for God to lay a helping hand. Miracles are probably more rare than winning the lottery! Help yourself. Do your part. Do what’s right. Follow your heart. Then, and only then, will you have aligned yourself enough with the helping hands of your God that if not miracles, then at least magic, will take place

Image by thefost (license)

The Art of Choosing

@INeedMotivation — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:17:33 PDT

Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices — and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions. This is one of my favorite presentations. Very eye-opening in the examples the speaker shares, especially the ones across different cultures. Interesting to see the perspectives of very few choices and very many choices. Great video, check it out below:

3 Steps to Self Improvement – the Childish Way

Guest Writer — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:20:05 PDT

It’s something all of us aspire to achieve, but unless we consciously choose to get rid of our weaknesses and promote our strengths, there is no way to self improvement. Improving the self is an exercise that is sporadic at best – to make it work on a continuous basis, you must be constantly aware of your thoughts and actions and be able to steer them towards a more positive direction. Self improvement starts with self awareness, and that’s one of the reasons why it’s possible to observe much from the world of children in taking your first steps towards improving yourself:

If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again: If you’ve seen a child trying to take their first steps, you’ll know what I mean. They may fall on their butt an awful lot, but then, they’re always up and at the attempt to walk again. Soon enough, walking becomes second nature rather than a conscious attempt. This instinctive attitude of kids is a lesson in self improvement to keep trying again and again even if you fail at first. For example, if you’re trying to quit an addiction, don’t be upset by setbacks or relapses; just keep trying until you’re able to rid yourself of the habit for good. Sooner or later, staying free of your addiction becomes the norm rather than an anomaly.
Once bitten, twice shy: When a child touches an electrical socket or falls off the edge of a bed once too often, they’re wary of getting too close to a switch or the foot of the bed again. They learn through experience that certain things are dangerous and so must be avoided. Similarly, when trying to improve yourself, it’s important to remember that you must learn from negative experiences if you want to achieve progress. For example, if you’ve suffered because of an abusive or otherwise unhealthy relationship, don’t go right back into another one simply because you’re too weak and have no self-control. Remember the hurt you suffered – it’s going to happen again if you repeat your mistakes instead of learning from them.
Beauty is on the inside: You don’t see children complaining about the way they look or worrying that they’re too fat or too skinny or just not right. They look in the mirror just to make faces at themselves; they choose their clothes based on the bright colors and funny pictures – they don’t care that they don’t match; and they look beyond the outside appearance of people and focus on what’s inside. So in your attempt to improve yourself, look not at the way you look, but on how you treat people and yourself. Focus on improving your inner beauty rather than boosting your outward appearance. When you’re a truly warm, kind and caring person, your external looks don’t matter.

Self improvement is a process that must be consciously done and continuously adhered to if it is to work. So know what you need to improve, and strive to achieve the necessary improvement.

This article is contributed by Susan White, who regularly writes on the subject of surgical technician schools. She invites your questions, comments at her email address: susan.white33@gmail.com.

INeedMotivation.com Blog

The Puzzle of Motivation

Other Articles:

4 Tips to Accomplishing Your Goals and Objectives Effectively

Other Articles:

Try Something New For 30 Days

Other Articles:

7 Secrets To A Peaceful & Successful Life

Other Articles:

Teaching Design For Change

Other Articles:

7 Efficient Ways To Double Your Productivity

Other Articles:

Keep Your Goals To Yourself

Other Articles:

5 Ways To Live A More Exceptional Life

Other Articles:

The Art of Choosing

Other Articles:

3 Steps to Self Improvement – the Childish Way

Other Articles: