Lately I’ve noticed numerous postings regarding ways to motivate oneself. There’s apathy among many people. And I see many people answer these posts by advising to write down how they want to see their lives. I’ve always felt, that’s not good enough.
A movie/book that really displays intense desire and motivation is ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’. Here is, Chris Gardner, a man with a child who became homeless on the San Francisco streets. Because of his situation he was highly motivated. So much so that his determination and resourcefulness
Chris’s actions in the movie/book demonstrate intense motivation. Sometimes you really have to feel something is at stake. Maybe it’s the lives of your family or the thought of being homeless. If you don’t have that, it’s easy to be complacent.
How do you guys motivate yourselves? Can you think of good examples of someone who had to dig deep to motivate himself or herself in order to accomplish a specific task? Please share.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Joseph // Oct 30, 2007 at 9:19 am
Family is definitely a source of motivation for me. When I was a college student I couldn’t motivate myself out of bed sometimes. When I think about it life was too easy. So, I see your point. It’s one way to motivate yourself. It helps too if you have a partner that backs you up instead of weighing you down.
2 Richard // Oct 30, 2007 at 3:53 pm
I’ve spent so much time thinking about personal development that I now think quite differently to how I did a few years ago.
These days I feel restless, anxious and dissatisfied if I DON’T further my development or my life itself each day.
I realise now that by procrastinating, not attempting things and slacking off I’m just going to make myself miserable - far more so than if I just do those x and y activities today.
3 marvin // Oct 30, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Richard,
I was going to include a bit of what you’re talking about into this post. But it was late at night and decided to save it for another time.
Basically, I was going to say there are 2 factors to be aware of 1) the pain of being in your situation 2) the pain of getting out of your situation. If factor 1 is greater than factor 2 you will be motivated to get out of your situation, but if factor 2 is greater than factor 1 then you will not be motivated to get out.
Looks like you’ve trained yourself to always make factor 1 greater than factor 2.
Thanks for commenting! I hope to see more!
4 Richard // Oct 31, 2007 at 4:45 pm
The factors explanation hits the nail on the head. Specifically, my ’situation’ in that analogy would be having finished the day and realising that I’ve lived it badly - by not getting much done because of procrastination and laziness - because of my actions, essentially, no-one else’s.
That’s more painful for me now than factor 2.
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