Motivation

If you are, or have ever been, in a position of responsibility within an organisation, you may have had to ask yourself the question: how do I motivate people? Sometimes I even come across forum posts asking: how do I motivate myself? If you have ever thought about this type of question, or contemplated the question yourself, you may have concluded that the subject of motivation, and how to go about to motivating people, is a funny old business.

In the One-Minute Manager, a classic by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, the authors state that motivation comes from within; and, that, I think, is absolutely true. We are all motivated by something and if you can't find the necessary drive to get off your backside and start putting in the appropriate amount of effort to ensure you to achieve your goals, then no amount of listening to motivational messages (perhaps, even this is a form of procrastination) will get you going. The bottom line is: if you can't motivate yourself, then nobody else can do it for you.

In the classics of New Thought, the thinking to which many people round here seem to subscribe - Think and Grow Rich, Science of Getting Rich, Master Key System etc - quite a lot is made of the importance of 'desire' in achieving goals. Well, desire, of course, is the root of motivation ...

Desire: 'the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state'
Motivation: 'the internal condition that activates behaviour and gives it direction'

You either want something or you don't. If you really want something, you have the necessary 'desire' and that is where the motivation to achieve that goal will come from. You want it badly enough to do 'whatever it takes' in order to achieve it.

Understanding your inner desires is an important key to achievement.