Motivation For Your Future

Motivation For Your Future

What have you done today that your future self will thank you for?

This is a question I often pose to myself.  Sometimes I can answer with a number of positive, future supporting tasks that I have ticked off my ‘to do’ list for that day.  For example, yesterday I invested time in my business venture, ate reasonably healthy food and took a relaxing walk in the countryside.  Clearly these things will have both long and short term benefits.  My smugness quota for the day was therefore good!

However, like everyone of us, I have days where it’s a struggle to find the positive future-life-enhancing tasks to tick off.  Sometimes, it’s just the basics like cleaning my teeth (yay, maybe I will still be able to chew my own food!) and remembering to put the rubbish out on the right day (I know, very short term, but surprisingly beneficial, particularly during the summer months!).

Of course, the point of looking forward is to appreciate that it is actually ourselves that we are setting up for a better or worse day, week, month or year.  This can be a powerful motivator for not just getting things done, but for focusing on and getting the important things done.

As we know, it’s all too easy to put tasks off for another day, but, when those tasks are the things that will help create a stronger, fitter, wealthier and happier future for ourselves, then it’s high time that we got to it!

Your To Do List

When you prepare your ‘to do’ list for the day, how do you decide what to tackle first?  Will it be the things that other people are haranguing you for?  Will you first deal with the needs of your family?  Will you be tempted to do the little things first just to get them out of your way?

I think this is the way that many of us approach our daily plan.

But what of the things that are quietly waiting to be noticed?

I think we can all be a little too blasé about our future.  You’ll already know that I enjoy the process of setting my goals and working towards their achievement, but I am also guilty of overlooking many things that are just too easy to take for granted.

For example, you’ll know that I have a health and fitness goal, but in reality, these goals are both very short term orientated.  They come from a place of vanity and in the main are focused on how I want to look.  So, whilst my future-this-year self will be very happy if I achieve these goals, my longer-term self will be looking for more commitment to their long term maintenance.  Am I really willing to make the commitment to achieve this?

But, at least it’s a start and of course, there is now self-awareness of the need to really commit to this goal in the long term.

C’est La Vie!

For people who can’t or won’t take this long term view, the outlook could be bleak.  Their lives will tend to just drift along, and with no clear plan will be shaped by the ups and downs of life.  It’s hardly a recipe for maintaining our motivation!  Where’s the excitement and pleasure of anticipation of a goal achieved?  After all, it’s often in the anticipation that we find much of our motivation.

Instead, life pushes them along, until one day they arrive at a place where they may need to rely on others to provide even the basics of life.

If you look around, you can see this happening.  It’ll not only be strangers who you see heading towards a less-than-desirable life, but also friends and family.  These two types of people live side-by-side, they may work in the same place as you, they may live close by or they may be in your ‘local’.

Or, just for a moment, let’s flip the coin…are they looking at you with those concerned eyes?  Perish the thought!

But stop.  Really?  Are you on top of your life?

Do you feel enough daily motivation to keep looking towards your future and to see the future you really want starting to shape up before your eyes?  Most of us look to the future and see what we don’t want…a sure fire way to help that version grow!

And surely this is the problem.  If we keep looking forwards and seeing the things we don’t want, then we’re not going to look, are we?!  But it’s hard, I know.  We’re so programmed with the here and now, that it can be really difficult to engage our imaginations.

I think all of us are looking at the future with yesterday’s eyes.  Dan Burrus

I know of course that we may see the next car or the next beach with relative ease, after all, there are plenty of adverts in the media, cars on the road and friends who’ve been to exotic places to furnish our aspirations to the next level.  But what of those things that are a bit more intangible like great relationships, a healthy body, great eye-sight or financial and time freedom?

A few years ago I ran a workshop (some of you reading this will have attended) to help people see how their life could be in the future.  We talked about goals and plans, but the main part of the workshop was to spend time creating a vision board.  This was so much fun and I believe everyone enjoyed the process and stretched their imaginations.  I’m also aware that a number of the attendees achieved success in the year(s) after the workshop!  So it was all just a matter of thinking ahead in a positive fashion to what we want, rather than what we don’t want!

Achieving Success

Some of you may think that those who achieved success just got lucky or had access to more resources than others.  But this couldn’t be further from the truth.

As I’ve already indicated above, we’re all in this together and whether by luck, chance, a fluke or whatever you want to call it, the reality is that opportunities appear to all of us all the time.  We just need to be willing to take them!  In other words, we need to be motivated enough that we don’t give in to the inevitable unwillingness to act that will surface at exactly the same time as the opportunity appears!

In the end, the choice is yours.  Will you look to have a future you love or look forward with trepidation at all the things that cause you fear?  Which would be more motivational for you?  Which stance will help you take action now that your future self will thank you for?

Staying Motivated

Ah, but motivation doesn’t last!  I’ve heard this said and, unfortunately seen this so many times!  And, frankly, I succumb to the funk now and then too.  Whether it’s tiredness, a bad mood, laziness or a reaction to something someone has said or done, we can all be knocked off course.  But does this need to be the end?  Do we need to totally give in, fall back into our old ways and let our current reality dictate our future outcomes?

No, of course not.  Once again, the choice is ours.

Like it or not, we need to pick ourselves back up, re-focus on our goals and plans and get going again.  Just don’t wait too long to do just that…it gets harder to re-start that wheel every day that passes.

Once again, look around and really see the people who are making the difference in their lives.  They’ve made that promotion, they’re travelling the world, they’re in love, they keep their home in tip top condition.  This is the impact motivation has on peoples’ lives.  Maybe they weren’t always so motivated to get ‘the thing’ done, but, at some point they made a conscious decision to change their attitude to one called ‘motivated’ and as a result, their lives changed for the better.

You’ll also notice those people who think that being motivated is not what it’s cracked up to be.  Their results are mediocre at best.  That’s because for motivation to be effective, it must be consistent.

What we do once in a while will never have the same effect as doing something, however small, on a regular basis.  Consequently, you must commit to being motivated as much as you commit to the goal at hand.

But how do you keep your motivation high, or at least, constant?

Here are a few things to consider if your motivation tends to wax and wane:

Are you really working towards a goal that you love?

I’ve talked about this in previous blogs.  It’s so important that the goal you’re working towards is yours and not ‘on behalf’ of someone else.  You’ll know if this goal is someone else’s because you’ll feel that you should do it, rather than wanting to do it.  Take some time to think about the things that you can’t seem to take constant action on and ask yourself if you’re trying to achieve it to please someone else.

Do you know what to do next?

Nothing kills off motivation quicker than not knowing what to do!  It’s kind of obvious, isn’t it?  But when we’re caught up in the quicksand of procrastination it can be difficult to work out what’s causing the problem.

So ask yourself the question:  What can I do today to get moving?  It might be a fairly simple solution like calling a friend to ask if they want to come for a walk/jog/hike.  In other words, maybe you just need someone along for the accountability that will create.

Alternatively, the answer may not be so clear and may require some research.  Yes, research is a legitimate part of moving your goals forward!  Maybe you need to read a certain book on the subject, perhaps a YouTube video will suffice to show the next step or maybe you’ll need to go talk to someone who has experience of the task.

Do you have a plan?

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with plans!  Because having a plan suggests that you know all the answers, which of course at the outset we don’t.  But, a plan is useful to map out the things we already know, to identify our knowledge and experience gaps and to loosely set time (check-in) milestones.  If you’ve lost your motivation, try drawing up a loose plan to get yourself going again and then refer to it regularly, filling in the blanks and firming up as you go along.

Do you have the resources you need?

Another possible stumbling block is lack of resources.

Are your running shoes comfortable or do they need replacing?  Do you have the right foods in the cupboard to keep to your diet plan?  Do you have the study materials you need for your current module?  Have you set aside enough money for the investment that’s required or do you need to review your spending habits to be able to save more?

Where motivation is concerned, be prepared!  It’s too easy to give up slowly (oh, I’ll just skip it today…) because you haven’t prepared ahead.  One day turns into two and before you know it, a whole week has passed and you haven’t made any progress.

Get Excited!

It’s important to recognise that motivation is fickle!  Consequently, it’s essential to your future self that you do as much as you possibly can to maintain the excitement (motivation) you feel for your goal.  Don’t allow systematic stumbling blocks, ie, those that you can control, to derail your forward momentum.

Working regularly and consistently to create the future you want, rather than the default future which will turn up if you continue on the well-worn path of least resistance, should be a primary life aim.  Spending time working out what you actually want, putting a loose plan together, and obtaining or setting aside the resources will get you excited and as a result you will feel motivated.

To keep your excitement (motivation) high, revisit your plan regularly so you always know what your next action will be.  By doing this you will improve and enrich your future life and your future self will be a happy bunny!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my latest post and you’ll feel inspired to get into action!  If you’ve enjoyed this post (or not!), let me know your thoughts and please do share..!

Photo: Brian Glanz