I have a statement about motivation that I like to keep on the wall in my office. It reads,
Motivation and Self-Esteem are the natural results of earned achievement and personal effort
That simple one-line statement encompasses a lot of meaning. Two of the biggest factors that personal success depends upon is motivation and self-esteem.
Motivation Is Required For Personal Achievement
Without the motivation to try the effort, there will simply be no personal achievement. Yet the statement says that motivation is a result of the effort. That is the point, that with continued effort one will be more motivated to put forth more effort. It is like a self-replicating virus that soon takes on a life of its own. But in this case, it is a virus that you want to catch.
If Motivation is the engine that fuels the endeavor, then Self-Esteem is what guides the endeavor and gives it character. An effort without some quality of self-esteem and self-respect from the creator is bound to be lacking in the finished product, and it will be apparent.
Become Inspired
Imagine a stonework of art in which the artist had no motivation to create. The finished work would have the same meaning as the original block, minus a few pounds here or there. Yet our own personal success, which is as much an art as it is a process, is too often a mechanical action that is done by rote, not inspiration.
You have to allow your surroundings to challenge you and apply yourself to the tasks at hand. When you apply yourself, the resulting success gives you a strong sense of earned achievement. This, again as the statement above reads, feeds you more self-esteem and motivation, which fuels the next challenge’s rewards. And so it goes.
Find Your Spark
The initial spark can be as simple as a desire for tangible goods. It can also be something intangible, such as time to spend with loved ones or a change to something you enjoy doing. But if you are having trouble getting the motivation to achieve, then perhaps you are simply not ready to tackle the whole enchilada.
Take your tasks at hand and break them down into manageable pieces. The goal at this point is not to solve the problem at hand, but rather to solve smaller parts of the problem. Starting with the smallest part, each small accomplishment we get a feeling of earned achievement.
With this nudge of earned achievement from our personal efforts, we gain self-esteem and, consequently, a bit more motivation. Now that we have slightly more motivation and personal achievement under our belt than we did at first, we can tackle the next biggest part, and with that success, we grow again.
In time, and with continued application of breaking apart tasks when motivation is lacking, you will find that taking a task in its entirety is an achievable goal. Before long, you will be building towards your own personal success quickly, but the important change is not in your task structure or approach, but in your own personal growth. That is something you can take to the bank every time.