bythemethod.com blog

This is the last part of the self motivation posts (at least it is for now).  One of the great keys to being self motivated is knowing what you are trying to achieve and why you are doing it. In essence we find ourselves back at the beginning.

You have to be able to describe what you are trying to do and you have to do this in as few words as possible and yet make sure that the words are meaningful. If you don’t know what you are trying to do then you will never do it.

Do you have a clear idea of what you are going to do? If you don’t then set yourself some time to think this through.

Then you need to have a why. You can’t get motivated about something if you don’t know why you are doing it.

This is why teenagers often walk around dragging their feet – they fail to understand “why” and adults can’t usually be bothered to tell them. We all need to know why we are doing something and the usual parental response of “because I said so” fails to get the point across for many young people who are trying hard to find their place in the world.

Yet this applies to much of what we do. A good employer will spell out for you the why of a project if they want you to be motivated. Of course the less interesting the job is the more important the why becomes.

So make sure you know what you are doing and why you are doing it.