Today's blog is going to be about Motivation, Pain and Pleasure. Without motivation to do something, you will not realise your potential to accomplish great things in business or life in general.
Today's blog is going to be about Motivation, Pain and Pleasure.
Without motivation to do something, you will not realise your potential to accomplish great things in business or life in general.
I have concluded that motivation is dependent on three things:
- Potential Pain vs Potential Pleasure
- The belief that it is possible
- The incorporation of all three brains – emotional, Logical and physical brain
Ok, before we get into things in a little more detail, it's essential to understand that motivating yourself to take action is just as important as self-belief. These things are all interlinked. For example, you may have the belief that you can do something, but you don't have the drive to actually do it.
For example, I attended a friend's wedding in Barbados not too long ago, and I was relaxing on the beach. And I was laying on the sand staring at the sea. I know I would have enjoyed having a swim and having fun in the sea. However, I didn't do it because of the so-called pain of getting in the water, getting cold, getting saltwater into my eyes, the un-comfortability of getting sand in my bathing suit, and I wasn't keen on getting sandy and driving back to the hotel etc.
In short, because of the pain that I associated with getting into the water, I wasn't motivated enough to get the pleasure of having an enjoyable time in the water. The pain, if you like, was more motivating than the pleasure in this example in my mind.
Therefore, even if you have the belief to do something, you still need to be able to motivate yourself to get yourself to actually do it.
In fact, I would go as far as to say the only reason you're not doing something is because you associate more pain to doing it than the perceived pleasure you'll get out of it.
Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of attending a UPW(Unleash the power within) Seminar by Tony Robbins. During the seminar, he really drilled down on this idea.
'The secret of success is learning to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you are in control of your life. If you don't life controls you' – Tony Robbins
Everything in life basically has two realms – pain and pleasure.
Another for example, by going to the gym, you get the pleasure of feeling better, looking better, living a healthier lifestyle. However, at times there's also the pain of having to get into your car to drive down there, or maybe missing your favourite show, or boredom working out, tiredness etc. If this applies to you and you are not going to the gym as regularly as you would like or working out, it's usually because you are associating more pain to the activity than you perceive that you will get pleasure from. But how do we change this?
The action itself must become more pleasurable. What I mean is until you have tasted the "carrot", you can only motivate yourself by making the perceived "risk" more enjoyable. You must change the association. You must change the meaning you give to the risk itself… and not just the result. You place the focus on the meaning you give to the experience of attaining the goal. Make it fun.
I am going to share five ideas on how you can make that work for you:
1. Play a role – When you focus on playing a role, you focus on being the type of person you need to be to accomplish the result. Almost like play-acting. For example, imagine what someone you admire would do in that situation and act as if you were them. Imitate. Get back into that childlike mindset of playing a role.
2. Be a detective - Instead of focussing on the outcome, focus on figuring things out, be your own personal scientist, Do experiments, test stuff out to figure stuff out. It can be a powerful way to motivate yourself as some of us are motivated by learning new thing and solving mysteries. This helps detach yourself from the meaning or outcome and become more in tune with results/journey.
3. Be uncool - Learn to do things that might not make you look as cool. Relax and just be open to be you. When you focus on just amusing yourself and enjoying the process, you will be surprised by how much you can accomplish.
4. Make a bold declaration in front of loads of people who will surely keep you accountable. Shame yourself into taking action?
5. Imagine your death – It may say sound morbid, but a lot of the time the reasons why we are not motivated to take action is due to procrastination and fear. The idea that we have a whole lifetime to achieve our goals. BUT sometimes, we have to create a sense of urgency, and this is done by putting life into real perspective. That day we no longer exist will come. It's scary to think about, but it will. As humans, we have an infinite ability to block this out of our minds.
Imagine and project your life into the future and see your death. Think about all the things you missed out on in life because of fear holding you back, or due to procrastination, and not taking action. How does that make you feel?
If you can really hit home that you are not going to be here at some point, you will realise that what you did or didn't do is somewhat irrelevant. You might come to the realisation and ask yourself what are you going to regret more; the action you didn't take, or are you going to regret the action you did take. Really think about it. You don't have all the time in the world. Take action and make it happen.
There is a powerful quote from the late great Steve Jobs: "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart." – Steve Jobs
Whatever motivates you to take action, use it. Go for what you want. You only have one life to live, but if you live it right, once is enough!