Fading Motivation

Motivation is the drive to achieve goals. It is the driving and compelling force that sets us in motion to achieve our goals. It is the key ingredient in our success. If you compare a successful person and an ordinary person, you are likely to find that one main difference between them is their motivation levels. Our way of working and our results reveal our motivation level. A motivated person achieves more than the person with ordinary or no motivation. Having optimum motivation is a must to achieve our goals.

But most of us find it very difficult to maintain it. Our motivation goes down by and by. And a time comes when we don’t feel motivated at all. This is the one of the major problems faced by most of us. A lot has been said about motivation but hardly anybody speaks about ‘Why does our motivation fade’. In this article you will find hows & whys of fading motivation. We face this problem due to following points:

A. Vague /poor goal: Most of us do not have any goal or have vague goals. Or we do not know how to set goals. The very first thing we need to do is to know how to set goals. For setting your goals you need to follow PPF-SMART. Here:
• P - Positive – Focus on what do you want, not what you don’t want. For example Say ‘I want to be/become/have…..’. Not ‘I don’t want to be/become/have…..’.
• P – Personal- Your goals must be maintained and controlled by you. For example if you say ‘I want to start my business if my father gives me the money.’
• F – Forwarding- think what you want to be/become/have in future. Do not waste your time and energy in thinking what could you have done in the past.
• S – Specific- What exactly you want. Suppose you want to buy your dream car then think about its colour, make, etc.
• M – Measurable- You must be able to measure your goals.
• A – Achievable- Your goal must be realistic. For example, if an overweight person wants to reduce his 20 Kg. fat and he wants to do it within a day. Now this is not achievable.
• R – Rewarding- Think about the rewards you will get when you would have achieved your goals.
• T – Time bound- When do you want to achieve your goals. You need to set approximate time for the completion of your goals. For example you have set a time of five years for your goals. Now think backward i.e. to have this goal in five years what you need to accomplish within three years. To accomplish this goal in three your what you need to do every year and to achieve one year target what you need to achieve in a month.

After setting your goals you need to write them down and review it regularly.

B. Inaction: This is the biggest obstacle in our goals. We decide a lot but fail to take action and by and by our motivation fades away. Whenever you set any goal make sure you take action within 24 hours. For example, if you want to improve your physique then do go to a gym to have more detail about it.

C. Boring or tiring process: We want to achieve a lot of things in our life but we find that the process of achieving our goal is very boring and tiring. And finally we give up. In this case you need to focus on the end result. Ask yourself how you would feel if you achieve your goal. For example, a student might feel bored of his study. He may not want to keep working hard. In that case he need to focus on the end result i.e. A+ in his report cards.

D. Inconsistency in approach: Most of the time our motivation fades away just because we are not consistent or regular. For example if a person goes to gym and work out for 4 hours and then he does not go for a week, go again & work out for five hours then again does not go for ten days. Is it an effective way to work out? Not really. If he goes for half an hour regularly then it will be more effective. You need to think how regular or consistent you are. If you are not then find a way to be consistent.

E. Uncertainty and self doubt: Our self-doubts and uncertainty about our own potential cause low motivation. We attempt to do certain thing but fail. We often tend to form negative beliefs about ourselves. We must remember that everybody fails initially. Instead of doubting ourselves we must analyze the situation or task.

F. Not motivating regularly: We motivate ourselves once and think that it is sufficient. It is not sufficient. for example, if take lunch today, will it be enough for rest of our life. No, not at all. We need to take regularly. Same way we need to motivate ourselves regularly. You need to visualize vividly as if you have achieved your goals. For this sit in calm place where you will not be disturbed. Imagine you are seeing your goal on a big white screen. See what you want to see when you will achieve your goal. Listen what you want to listen. Feel what you want to feel. Use all your senses to visualize your goals. You can also imagine that you have a remote in your hand and you can manipulate the scene. for example you can increase the lights, colour, brightness, size, sound etc. with the help of remote. Make the picture of your goal very bright, colourful, clear, big, good sound. Not down the feelings you have when you see your goal. This is your world you can do any change you want. After doing necessary changes in the picture you must visualize it daily. the best times to do that are early morning when you get up because the very first thought of the day works throughout the day. and second time is just before your sleep because the last thought of the day works throughout the night.

The points mentioned above are the effective solutions for the fading motivation. You need to find out about which point is more applicable to you and then do what has been suggested in that particular point. If you follow these guidelines then you can have unshakable motivation.

With the best wishes.

Suresh Kumar
sureshthekumar@rediffmail.com
www.utkarsha.net
9971658134