What motivates you? Is it the fear of what will happen if you don’t do something? If that’s the case, you may find yourself feeling a little… well, miserable. I propose you make an effort to switch gears. Here’s how you can do that.
Ever heard the term negative motivation?
It’s a self-management tool that many people use.
What it means is that you are motivated to do things in order to avoid having a negative consequence.
While this certainly makes sense in a lot of ways (since we all want to avoid negative consequences), it, ironically, sets us up to be pretty unhappy.
Being negatively motivated has the potential to create dissatisfaction because it gives us nothing to look forward to.
It also increases the likelihood of procrastination, because we procrastinate about doing things that are not exciting or stimulating to us.
Pretty interesting, huh?
If you’re someone who is negatively motivated (chances are good that you are, because most people are), I suggest you make a valiant effort to find some positive ways of motivating yourself.
People who are positively motivated do things for the reward, i.e., the “gold star.”
So, even though you may accomplish things by doing them to avoid negative consequences, try this the next time you have a big project to get done. This can be a personal project or a work project.
Rather than putting the whole project off because of that one thing you don’t want to do, determine what parts of the project you would enjoy doing.
And do those things first.
In essence, you will be doing something because you WANT to do it and not because you SHOULD do it.
As I always say, “Don’t ‘should’ on yourself!” It’s never a fun way to motivate yourself.
The idea is that, by doing the fun part first, you will get yourself over the hump of resistance that causes procrastination. Once you’re over that hump, the thing you were avoiding won’t seem so big and formidable. And then you can pat yourself on the back and reap the rewards of positive motivation!
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And if you know a friend or neighbor who could use hearing the advice in this article or needs The Job I Love Toolkit, please forward this to them.