In the last post we talked about how well you actually know yourself by examining certain motivational strategies…

Whether you move toward a much desired goal – or away from a terrible pain.

Either strategy will work as long as you have a clear end point.

By that I mean if you have a clear goal you’re trying to achieve, or a definite pain you’re trying to avoid.

The problem arises – with the move away strategy, at least – when you become comfortable with where you are. There are a couple ways you can address this.

One thing you could do, is figure out how to make yourself disappointed or dissatisfied or disgusted with what you currently have now. But that’s not an ideal solution. While it might work in the short term, I believe that that wouldn’t be an effective strategy for your overall level of happiness.

A more positive way would be to paint a detailed vision of what you want, and then think through very carefully all the downsides, the regrets, what have you, if I never achieve it. What would not having it feel like? What regrets would you have? How would you think about yourself? Really identify all the negatives of not achieving, so that you could move away from those negatives by achieving.

If you move away from, then it’s about getting very clear about why you must move away from whatever. Why it is so bad and what you want to create? And if you move towards, it’s about making that “towards” so powerful that you are anxious to get there and do the little things each day that take you closer and closer.

I call that direction. Which direction motivates you?

Two More Major Motivators

The next point to think about is whether your motivation is internal or external.

Think of it this way. Q: How do you know when you’ve done a good job? Think about that for a second.

Generally people have one of two answers. Either they “just know,” or they say “people tell me.” If you “just know,” that’s an internal frame of reference. If it’s “people tell me,” that’s an external frame of reference.

A parallel question is how do you know what you should be focusing on? And the two most common answers I get are: “I just know. This is what feels right. This is what I should be focusing on.” Or, “This is what others are focusing on.” Once again, internal or external.

A good leader has to have an internal frame of reference.

Ideally, you should have an internal frame of reference. However, knowing which frame of reference you have allows you to better leverage who you are. If you “just know” and have an internal frame of reference, then you can more easily focus in on the right things for you to be doing; when should you get them done, etc.

If you have an external frame of reference, then you’re going to need to set up your life in such a way where you get that external feedback. You have to engineer that into your activities.

Next, do you do things out of possibility – what’s possible – or do you think out of necessity? What’s necessary, what you must do?

Let’s say you have your concept for growing your business. Are you thinking about growing it so that you can pay your bills – out of necessity? Or are you thinking about growing it to a much bigger level than that – based on what’s possible?

One Final Motivating Thought

Lastly, think about: Q: What turns you on?

When you think about your dream life – the life you’ll have once your business is much more profitable than it is today or once you start your business and are earning more than you’re making now – what turns you on?

Is it the people that you’ll be associating with? The place that you’ll be living? The environments that you’ll create for yourself; your office; your home life, etc.?

Are there things that you can envision having that you don’t have now? Are there experiences that you’d be experiencing that you don’t have now? Or is there information that you would know that you don’t know now?

So when you think about what turns you on, obviously all of these probably play a role. But what is key is being able to discern if there is one that is stronger than others – people, place, things, experiences, information?

With that knowledge about yourself, you should be able to tap into a greater level of motivation because you’ll know how you approach any goal. You’ll know what motivates you.

You know how you need to think to get motivated.

The more that you get clear about this, the easier it is to dial in and get motivated because you’ve figured out your personal recipe for getting motivated.

I believe a lot about maturity and succeeding in life is understanding yourself better. Developing systems and processes for yourself to thrive. And being able to know how you do the things that you do in ideal circumstances, so you can engineer them more.

So that’s motivation.

In the next post, I’m going to cover a couple more things you need to know about yourself that will make you more effective at anything you do.

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