The Navigator Series: Coaching Self

Motivation and Change Motivation has been nicely defined by academia as: Your general willingness to do something. It is the set of psychological forces that compel you to take action. So feeling motivated now? My guess is, probably not. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in a storm of excitement about achieving the new goal you have set yourself. Then after one or two steps towards completion, life takes over, and out come the excuses. I would like to say to you, dear reader, that, having read my books, you will now be motivated to achieve anything you set your mind to. Unfortunately, I can’t do that because it would be one of the biggest myths about motivation. So here is a list of the three biggest fables about motivation. Just Write Down Your Goals, and Success Is Guaranteed! There is a story that motivational speakers/authors love to tell about the Yale class of 1953. (Google it. It’s everywhere.) Researchers, as the story goes, asked graduating Yale seniors if they had specific goals they wanted to achieve in the future that they had written down. Twenty years later, the researchers found that the mere 3 per cent of students who had specific written goals were wealthier than the other 97 per cent combined. Isn’t that amazing? It would be if it were true—but it isn’t. I wish it were that simple. To be fair, there is evidence that getting specific about what you want to achieve is really important. It’s not a guaranteed road to fabulous wealth, but still important. In other words, specificity is necessary, but it’s not nearly sufficient. Writing goals down is actually neither. It can’t hurt, but there’s also no hard evidence that writing per se does anything to help in isolation, which is why I am advocating numerous strategies—i.e. not just writing your goals down but understanding your strengths, creating a vision statement, making clear your values, and finally, regularly reviewing your written goals. Just Try to Do Your Best! Telling someone, or yourself, to just ‘do your best’ is believed to be a great motivator. It isn’t. Theoretically, it encourages without putting on too much pressure. In reality, and rather ironically, it is more-or-less permission to be mediocre. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, two renowned organisational psychologists, have spent several decades studying the difference between ‘do your best’ goals and their antithesis: specific and difficult goals. Evidence from more than a thousand studies conducted by researchers across the globe shows that goals that not only spell out exactly what needs to be accomplished but also set the bar for achievement high result in far superior performance than simply trying to ‘do your best’. That’s because more difficult goals cause you to, often unconsciously, increase your effort, focus, and commitment to the goal; persist longer; and make better use of the most effective strategies. Just visualise success! Advocates of positive thinking are particularly fond of this piece of advice. But visualising success, particularly effortless success, is not just unhelpful; it’s a great way to set yourself up for failure. Few motivational gurus understand that there’s an awfully big difference between believing you will succeed and believing you will succeed easily. Realistic optimists believe they will succeed but also believe they have to make success happen through things like effort, careful planning, persistence, and choosing the right strategies. They don’t shy away from thinking ‘negative’ thoughts, like what obstacles they will face and how they will deal with them. Unrealistic optimists, on the other hand, believe that success will happen to them if they do lots and lots of visualising. Recent research shows that this actually (and once again, ironically) serves to drain the very energy we need to reach our goals. People who spend too much time fantasising about the wonderful future that awaits them don’t have enough gas left in the tank to actually get there. You can cultivate a more realistically optimistic outlook by combining confidence in your ability to succeed with an honest assessment of the challenges that await you. Don’t visualise success. Visualise the steps you will take in order to make success happen. Lasting Motivation Motivation, for most of us, will not strike like a thunderbolt from the heavens, so we have to utilise more mundane methods to achieve that thunderbolt effect. One particular method would be to schedule your motivation. Setting a schedule for yourself seems simple, but it puts your decision-making on autopilot by giving your goals a time and a place to live. It makes it more likely that you will follow through regardless of your motivation levels. And there are plenty of research studies on willpower and motivation to back up that statement. This is the difference between success and failure. Successful people set a schedule and stick to it. Those of a less successful nature wait until they feel inspired or motivated. Making Motivation a Habit There are three simple steps you can take to make motivation a habit. Step 1. A Good Preroutine This starts by being so easy that you can’t say no to it. You shouldn’t need motivation to start your preroutine. For example, my gym preroutine starts with the making and consumption of a protein shake. These tasks are so easy I can’t say no to them. The most important part of any task is starting. If you can’t get motivated in the beginning, then you’ll find that motivation often comes after starting. That’s why your preroutine needs to be incredibly easy to start. Step 2: Movement towards Your End Goal A lack of mental motivation is often linked to a lack of physical movement. Just imagine your physical state when you’re feeling depressed, bored, or unmotivated. If you’re physically moving and engaged, then it’s far more likely that you’ll feel mentally engaged and energised. For example, it’s almost impossible to not feel vibrant, awake, and energised when you’re dancing on the treadmill or pumping iron. While your preroutine should be as easy as possible to start, it should gradually transition into more and more physical movement. Your mind and your motivation will follow your physical movement. It is worth noting that physical movement doesn’t have to mean exercise. For example, if your goal is to write, then your routine should bring you closer to the physical act of writing. Step 3: Follow the Same Pattern Every Single Time The primary purpose of your preroutine is to create a series of events that you always perform before doing a specific task. Your preroutine tells your mind, ‘This is what happens before I do . . .’ Eventually, this routine becomes so tied to your performance that, by simply doing the routine, you are pulled into a mental state that is primed to perform. You don’t need to know how to find motivation; you just need to start your routine.