Motivation gets you going, but consistency keeps you growing. Consistency is the key. Motivation doesn’t always last. Motivation is absolutely important; it’s important to be inspired and encouraged: it’s critical. Most people, though, maybe motivated and then lose the momentum to keep doing whatever the action is that they were motivated to do in the first place. Motivation needs to be consistent. In our performance, we need to be more disciplined and consistent. How do you do that? By knowing what, how, why, and when.
There are four questions we can consider for helping us be more consistent in our personal growth.
Knowing the what
Knowing the how
Knowing the why
Knowing the when
What?
Do you know what you need to improve? You must be able to develop yourself to be successful. Often, or most of the time, we see people with purpose who are inconsistent with their progress. When you ask why, you realize they have the ambition to succeed and they show an aptitude for their job, yet they do not move forward. So why is that? Because they think they can master their job and they don’t need to master themselves: that’s very common. What a big mistake. Your future is dependent on your personal growth. Improving yourself daily guarantees you have a future full of possibilities. When you expand yourself, you expand yourself, your opportunities, and your potential. If you spend all your time perfecting your ability to do your job, and your technical skills, you may not grow as a person. If you just focus on improving yourself, you will grow from taking care of people to leading people. Growing yourself opens up your future, it will allow you to achieve much more than you believe is possible. A successful person does things a failure person does not like to do. A successful person doesn’t like those same things either but her dislike is subordinated to the strength of her purpose. She’s willing to do the things she doesn’t like because she knows it’s critical to take her to the next level.
How?
Do you know how you’re supposed to improve? Many times when we hear motivational speakers we were excited; we leave the conference all motivated to do something. Within a week or two we have forgotten what it is we wanted to do. Maybe we didn’t know how we are supposed to go about improving. So, rather than being a motivational speaker, I like to consider myself a motivational teacher. When I’m speaking to people, I want people to walk away from my teaching sessions inspired by the knowledge of how to proceed. To grow, most people need knowledge, experience and coaching. Do you have a handle on how to improve yourself?
Here are four simple ways to get started.
1. Match your motivation to your personality type. Not everyone is motivated the same way, learn how you’re hardwired in your personality, and leverage your personality type to get yourself going. If you want to know how you’re hardwired, reach out to me and I can share with you a test that you can take to identify your strengths.
- The first personality type is the Stable & Steady personality, the strength is they are easy-going and likeable. Their weakness is inertia. How can you motivate yourself? By finding the value in what you need to do. When phlegmatics see the value in doing something, it can be one of the most tenacious, and stubborn of all personality types.
- Dominant, Driver personalities or flourish is the second we’ll look at. Their strengths are they take charge and make decisions quickly. Their weakness is that if they are not in charge, they refuse to participate. How can you tap into internal motivation? By focusing on the choices you can make, every person is in charge of his or her own growth. Choose how you will grow and stick with it.
- The most fun-loving of all personality types is the Influencing, Inspiring personality. Often the life of every party, their weakness is their lack of focus. How can you motivate yourself to grow? By making a game of it, if that seems impossible then give yourself awards for incremental successes.
- “Compliant and Correct” is the fourth category of personalities: who are life’s perfectionists. Attention to detail is their strength. Because they desire to do everything perfectly, they are afraid of making mistakes. How do you motivate yourself beyond that fear? By focusing on the joy of learning details and the potential for developing a level of mastery over your subject matter.
As you can see, every personality type has its strengths. You just need to tap into your strengths to set yourself up for success when it comes to motivation.
2. Start with the simple stuff. What’s the number one mistake of people who are starting as gardeners? It’s the same mistake that many people make when they approach personal growth. They attempt to do too much. The result is discouragement. It’s important in management to not ask people to accomplish goals that they cannot accept. So set goals that are worthwhile and highly achievable. Master the basics, and practise daily without fail. We must have small disciplines repeated with consistency every day. It’s the small wins that make a difference. You might be reading a book or some other procedures or steps that you can take. You might want to break it into smaller pieces; do one topic a week and get really good at it. Simple incremental progress is where to begin.
3. Be patient. Of course, I’m speaking to myself here as well with patience. We must be realistic with our expectations, and realize that everything that we want usually takes longer than we anticipate. Every endeavour we take on is usually more difficult than it would be. Every project costs more than we expected. Have patience, all things are difficult before they are easy. Most people don’t realize how close they are to achieving significant things because they give up too soon. The people who achieve the most, are the ones who harness the power of patience and persistence.
4. Value the process. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to learn to value and love the process of growth. Enjoy the journey. Life and business are a marathon, it’s not a sprint. Enjoy the journey. Life goals are reached by setting annual goals. Annual goals are reached through daily goals. Daily goals are reached by doing things that may be uncomfortable at first but eventually become habits. Habits are powerful things. Habits turn actions into attitudes and attitudes into lifestyles.
Why?
Do you know why you want to keep improving? Knowing you’re why is critical because when you run into difficult things and difficult times, the why is going to keep you motivated. The how and what only take you so far. When you run up against those obstacles, it’s the why that’s going to keep you motivated long after the rush of energy and enthusiasm wears off. One of the ways to judge the way you’ve tapped into your why is to take a test. Your answer to the following seven questions will let you know if your why is solid enough to motivate you to consistently grow.
- Do you constantly procrastinate on important tasks?
- Do you require coaxing to do small chores?
- Do you perform duties just to get by?
- Do you constantly talk negatively about your work?
- Do the efforts of friends to encourage you, irritate you instead?
- Do you start small projects and abandon them?
- Do you avoid self-improvement opportunities?
If you answered yes to any of these questions you have not tapped into a strong enough why to keep growing.
When?
Do you know when you’re supposed to improve? The final piece of the puzzle is the question of when. The obvious answer is right now, today. You need to get started if you haven’t yet gotten started. More importantly, you need today to be every day. You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily, which means developing great habits. Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments, and that bridge must be crossed every day. Over time that daily crossing becomes a habit. Ultimately, people do not decide their futures, they decide their habits. Their habits decide their future. What are you willing to change today to change what you will be doing tomorrow? If you make the small right choice each day, day after day, consistently you will see results.
Earnest Newman says “The great composer is not set to work because he is inspired, but comes inspired because he is working.”
Anyone who does what he must, only when he’s in the mood or when it’s convenient isn’t going to be successful, the secret is following through. A lifetime of self-discipline and self-perseverance. If you develop the habit of success, you’ll make success a habit. Never forget motivation keeps you going, but discipline keeps you growing.
This is what John Maxwell calls the Law of Consistency.
I’m available for coaching. I’m available to help you with your personality testing so you’ll know your motivators, communication and behaviour style. You must know yourself to grow yourself!
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