Are You Squatting To Rise...?

So… we're well into the new year – how are you doing on your New
Year’s Resolutions…?

If not so great, I have a question for you: How bad are you
going to have to feel to motivate you…?

Isn’t that the way to get your butt in gear - creating a sense of
pain or discontent or something equally unpleasant in order to
get you moving in the right direction…?

Yeah – I don’t care for that method either. In the words of the
immortal Christopher Villa:

“You’ve heard of ‘No pain – no gain’..? Well, I say, ‘No pain = NO PAIN!’”

I prefer to avoid pain, myself. Now, I understand where this theory
comes from, and I know that a lot of people have used it to move
them to great achievement. But while it may work to get some
folks in gear, it seems to me that it adds an unnecessary experience
of discomfort to life. And, call me crazy (many have…), but I’m
just plain opposed to that.

And pain is hardly a universal motivator, given that some people
have a remarkable tolerance for pain.

If your goal is losing weight, how uncomfortable does the weight
need to be before you really get on board with a healthier diet
and better workout routine? I’ve seen plenty of folks who are
clearly suffering as a result of their weight, but still can’t get
motivated to turn it around. It’s hard to say to them, “Well, you
just aren’t feeling enough pain – maybe you should try to be more
upset about your situation.”

And even if they take action based on the pain, working out is
highly unlikely to be a positive experience – it is a disagreeable
task based on a perceived need. Yuck – that’s not much fun.

And if you want more of anything, such as money, does making
yourself feel ungrateful for what you already have lead to having
more for which to feel grateful? Based on what we know about
the Law of Attraction, that certainly doesn’t make sense.

But there are still plenty of folks saying that if you aren’t taking
the action required to get the results you want, then you should
fabricate a sense of discontent to motivate yourself.

This reminds me of a phrase from the great motivator Zig Ziglar:
“Squatting to rise.” It’s the idea of going down as part of the process
to go up – which seems rather counterproductive.

See – what we want is to feel good. The things we wish to achieve –
we want them because we expect to feel good in some way when
we achieve them. Using discontent or pain to motivate us is
like saying, “Hmm… I’d like to feel better than I do right now,
but I don’t feel motivated enough to make change, so I’m going
to make myself worse first.”

Kind of like a high jumper digging a pit in front of the bar, because
when he sees the bar that much higher from the lower vantage point,
he’ll be more motivated to jump that much higher.

Of course – he’ll have higher to jump.

This sort of assumes that the process of jumping (or whatever
the required action might be) is disagreeable, and to overcome
that obstacle the present situation needs to appear more unpleasant.

But what if the jumper is just motivated by seeing how high
he can jump..? By the excitement of seeing what new heights
he can reach…? (Actually, anyone in this sport who doesn’t
think this way might want to consider another line of work…)

Yup – I’m in favor of using joy to motivate us. Because if the
achievement doesn’t inspire joy, then why do you really want it?

Motivation comes when the perceived benefit of doing something
outweighs the perceived cost. So, rather than waiting for the pain
of not taking action to be greater than the pain of taking action,
what if we cleared the pain, and made the joy of taking action
more enticing than the comfort of not taking action…? In fact,
if you need to feel pain to get motivated, there is probably something
there that you’d be better off clearing anyway, rather than trying
to overcome it.

Whether the required action is working out, or making more
calls, or jumping higher, the degree of pain is a perception.
Some people actually enjoy these things – and that is what
makes them more successful in those areas. So, start clearing
your resistance to these things. And if the things you need to
do in your field are impossibly painful, then the ladder of success
you are trying to climb might well be leaning against the wrong
wall, to use the popular cliché.

What do you want? Are you moving towards it? Get more
excited about it. Forget about discontent and pain – create joy
and excitement. See how good you can possibly feel, and before
you know it you will find yourself already in action. Something
slowing you down? Clear it. Then go back to feeling good,
letting it get better and better.

You deserve so much. Let yourself joyfully experience it.