Motivation is the thing that gives you the get up and go to get things done. It is important to find out what motivates you. It is part of the idea that you don’t get ready, you stay ready. When you know what motivates you, you can succeed even when you don’t feel like working.
Sometimes you have to motivate yourself to put on your big girl panties and get done what needs doing. It is not easy to do. I cannot count the number of motivational resources that exist. Self-improvement books bombard us everywhere. Each day a new book comes out telling us how to motivate ourselves to do whatever it is we need motivating to do.
There are some people who buy self-help and motivational books and pour through them religiously. They are looking for answers and trying to find the secret to success. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that. Personally, I carry more than 50 of those types of books on my Kindle at any time. However, I encourage you not to endlessly look for motivation, but to find what works and stick with it.
In this blog, I spend a lot of time talking about what motivates me and asking my readers to tell me their motivational secrets. I definitely recognize the need to depend on the advice of others for motivation and inspiration. However, there are times when we find ourselves without our Kindle 3Gs and without our trusty paperback collection of resources.
Sometimes, the motivation has to come from you.
The need for motivation does not stop just because we left our trusted resources at home. At those times you have to use what you have inside you to get the job done. On those days, and today may be one of those days for you, you have to work what you have. If all you have in your arsenal is the fact that you can hold on no matter what the storm, work that. If your strength is that you are an excellent organizer, organize your way out of a bad situation. When it’s just you against the troubles of the world, do you and work what you have.
I am a big believer in the power of music to motivate. One song I use often to motivate myself is “Work That” by Mary J. Blige. Check out this video and then let’s talk about the words and how to use them.
Like the words to the song say, work what you got. You cannot go along with someone else’s plan. This means that you have to take what you have read in all the books and learned at all the seminars and put it to work. You read the books for a reason. There was a purpose behind all those seminars you paid to attend.
I love the way the words encourage people to work what they have. The encouragement not to worry about what other people think is priceless. No matter what you may have to motivate you, you always have you.
Yes, read the books, attend the seminars and participate in the support groups. But eventually, you get to the day where you have to start putting into play what you have learned. So today start to accept the fact that the best motivation is what is inside you.
So the question for you this magnificent day is what are you going to pull out of your pocket and work to motivate yourself?