My mother was rubbish at finances, she had no business sense whatsoever, she couldn’t understand spreadsheets, profit and loss accounts, or marketing principles, she couldn’t even work a mobile phone, let alone a computer. I don’t think I ever saw her read a book during the 46 years I knew her. She didn’t obsess about personal development, or being a better person, none of that stuff.
But she was pure of heart, she was always there for anyone without judgement. She was an extraordinary person, probably the most extraordinary person I’ve ever known. She listened, loved, and was deeply loved by those around her. She is sadly missed by all who knew her. The world is not the place it once was, when she was in it. The definition of success that I learned from her comes from the ability of positively answering these questions at the end of your life, when you look back at how you lived it.
DID I LIVE?
DID I LOVE?
DID I MATTER?
If you can answer yes to these questions you have been incredibly successful x
Get results: Productivity – focus on being productive instead of busy
Productivity is one of the most important pillars of getting results, it involves being effective with productive effort, and measures the rate of output per unit of input. To put it another way, it’s about getting the most out of your time and effort, by aiming for the most effective use of your resources.
Get Results: Productivity requires doing the one thing… (click on the poster for more info)Get Results: Productivity requires time blocking your one thingGet Results: Productivity requires being organisedGet Results: Productivity requires minimising dead spaceGet Results: Productivity requires focusing on present moment behaviour and actionGet Results: Productivity requires measuring outcomes over activitiesGet Results: Productivity requires better decision making and problem solving (click on the poster for more info)Get Results: Productivity requires exploiting your innate talentsGet Results: Productivity requires having a defined goal (click on the poster for more info)Get Results: Productivity requires using – goal, plan, action, measure, tweak approachGet Results: Productivity requires knowledge and skill (click on poster for more info)Get Results: Productivity requires effective techniques and systemsGet Results: Productivity requires effective tools, equipment, and resourcesGet Results: Productivity requires quality inputs, raw materialsGet Results: Productivity requires control mechanisms
Productivity Quotes
“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” – Tim Ferriss
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
“I don’t have time is the grown-up version of the dog ate my homework.”
“If we boost productivity, we can improve economic growth.” – Tony Abbott
“Success is not a miracle, but a product of productivity, positivity and persistent thinking.” – Lawrence Mudau
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine de saint-Exupery
“It’s not about being the best, it’s about being better than you were yesterday.”
“Time you spent thinking about doing something takes away the time you have to actually do it.”
“A smooth sea never made a skilful sailor.”
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer
“Don’t wait for opportunity. Create it.”
“Nothing will work unless you do.” – John Wooden
“We all have the same number of hours in a day, make them count.”
“The man who makes no mistakes doesn’t usually make anything.” – Edward Phelps
“I like things to happen, and if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen. ”
“Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” – Franz Kafka
“There is no substitute for hard work.”
“Nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute.”
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
“When things aren’t adding up in your life, start subtracting.” – Anon
“if you wait to be perfect, you’ll never get anything done.”
“Perform the dreaded take now and the unpleasant activity is soon over. Delayed action will nag at you infinitely.”
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” – Alan Kay
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Sir Winston Churchill
“The secret to getting ahead … is to get started.”
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.”
“It’s not always that we need to be more, but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris
“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” – Peter Drucker
“Don’t confuse activity with productivity. Many people are simply busy being busy.” – Robin Sharma
It’s all too easy for people to say they are committed 110% or 1000% to see something through to conclusion, it’s often a different matter actually executing on that promise. For a start you can’t give more than 100%, so let’s get that out of the way first. We all know the promise of giving it 1000% is designed to communicate your determination to see whatever it is through, but it’s ridiculous, so please don’t do it, you’re likely to diminish any credibility you might otherwise have.
So being committed to achieving a goal, or getting a certain result is necessary if you’re going to succeed, but what does it involve?
Commitment consists of dedication, determination, enthusiasm, purposefulness, passion, desire, dedication and focus, it also requires some level of accountability.
Purposefulness
If you’re purposeful, you have some sort of goal in mind, something you want to achieve. You’re focused on the attainment of that goal, no matter what. It’s like having a burning desire that won’t go away. It’s not having something you’d rather like to do, if the opportunity presented itself, or something you would rather, kind of like to do. If you’re wishy washy about your goal, you aren’t going to have the necessary endurance to apply yourself anywhere near enough to make it a reality.
Purposefulness is better if your purpose is meaningful to you. If you perceive it to be important, a cause that’s bigger than yourself, that will make a difference to other people or society at large. These are examples of the usual inspirational purposes that many people aspire to, and why not, they show you are making a noticeable contribution, even leaving a legacy, and that’s no bad thing. However purpose doesn’t have to be so big and meaningful, it can be a matter of getting out of debt, or making enough money for your next vacation, as long as it means something to you, and you really want it, that’s what counts.
Purposefulness has two sides, enthusiasm and determination.
Determination
When the going is tough, when you lack the motivation, or inspiration to take effective action, when you come face to face with a seemingly impassable road block, or a glass ceiling that’s difficult to break through, what you need at those times, is determination. You need a can-do attitude, you need grit and resilience, and it helps if you have a burning purpose behind you.
If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, you’re likely to prematurely throw in the towel at the first sign of difficulty. It will be just too hard to overcome and too easy to make up excuses why it’s not worth the effort, discomfort, or trouble. You’ll have no staying power, when you need it most.
The other face of purposefulness, is enthusiasm
Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm should exist when the road is clear, and the going is good. If you can’t enjoy those moments of flow, you’re doing something incongruent with who you are and your deeper self. If you don’t feel excited, joyful, engrossed when you think about your purpose than it isn’t a purpose you really believe in. Would you do it for no monetary gain? Would you do it just for the joy of doing it? If you answer a resounding yes to these two questions, you’re on the right path.
Dedication and focus
When you’re committed to something, you’re dedicated to it, and that means you’re focused or even fixated on it. You would rather be doing whatever it is, than anything else. Now I don’t advocate losing yourself in anything 100%, because I’m a firm believer that you should live partially in “the moment”, and outside what you are doing, check out my wellbeing guide for more about this. You should however be excited, dedicated and focused in doing whatever it is you’re committed to doing, and be as productive as possible in making progress.
I could say things like “don’t be half pregnant”, “be all-in”, or “burn your bridges”, so that you can’t go back or deviate. If you do this you have to make it work, you either sink or swim as the saying goes. I wouldn’t recommend this without knowing your particular circumstances or tolerance for risk, but it is a way to really focus your attention and solidifying your commitment and dedication to your cause.
Avoid distractions and temptations
Avoid distractions and temptations, they will only lead you astray. as they are often difficult to resist. It often takes a great deal of will-power, which is finite. The best of us will struggle, if our willpower is not fully charged, even with the best intentions. So try to avoid situations that present distractions and/or temptations altogether.
Be accountable for your actions and results
Sometimes we need a push from some outside influence, or we need the help of someone else to encourage us, or chastise us. Looming deadlines often do the trick, we have a project or assignment that needs to be done by a particular date, so we cram to get it done, at the last minute and just in time. If we fail we are held to account by our poor results.
Make use of someone close to you, someone you respect a great deal, and whose opinion you value, and who you want to have a good opinion of you. Get them to hold you to account for your progress and results. Promise them you’re going to do X by Y date, and have them hold you to account for your results. If you fail, they will know and you will feel bad. If they don’t instil that kind of reaction in you, find someone who will. This is one reason why social groups like slimmer’s world and the likes, are so successful, slimmer’s are held to account, by regular public weigh-ins. Nobody wants to look like a failure in front of others. It’s often the extra motivational push you need to get you over the line.
Formulate a plan, take action.
Whatever your goal is, you have to have some idea how you’re going to achieve it. You need some sort of plan of action, even if it’s quite loose in its construction. No plan should be so rigid that you can’t make adjustments as you progress, but it shouldn’t be so loose that you find yourself backtracking so much that you’re barely making progress. Take some time to work it through, step-by-step as if you were there actually doing it. What needs to be in place for each stage, visualise it, be there, if you do it correctly you’ll be surprised what details come to mind. This will make execution that little bit easier later.
After formulating a plan, the critical stage comes next, taking action. Without it you’re going nowhere. Don’t procrastinate, or over-plan. Your actions will provide feedback and insight as you go. Learn from them and keep taking action. Look at failure along the way as part of the feedback loop, and keep going, be committed and make it happen.
For more about motivational influences, check out our Motivation guide.
If you would like to read more articles focused on COMMITMENT, click here.
Being Committed Quotes
“You must be committed and do what it takes, then you will have what you want.”
“Most people fail, not because of lack of desire, but because of lack of commitment.” – Vince Lombardi
“Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.” – Abraham Lincoln
“Commitment leads to action. Action brings your dreams closer.” – Marcia Wieder
“We become whatever we are committed to.”
“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re commited to something, you accept no excuses, only results.” – kenneth Blanchard
“Stay committed to your decisions. But stay flexible in your approach.” – Tony Robbins
“Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you.”
“You need to make a commitment, and once you make it, then life will give you some answers.”
“There’s no abiding success without commitment.” – Tony Robbins
“When you’re committed, you do whatever it takes.”
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
“Commitment. This is my favorite word because in some way, people who are committed are always much more interesting and much more reliable, and much more, I would say, deep than people who are not.” – Carlos Ghosn
“Without commitment, you will throw in the towel when the going gets tough enough. With it, there is nothing that can stop you from trying.” – getresults.org.uk
There’s two types of knowledge you can have, the first is knowledge that’s wide and shallow, like general knowledge. The person with this type of knowledge, knows a reasonable amount about a lot of things. They might include diverse topics or be more closely related, something like the knowledge held by a GP doctor is an example of this type of knowledge set.
Then there’s knowledge that’s narrow and deep. This is specialist knowledge that is obtained by studying a specific topic for many years. These people might not know much else other than their area of expertise. And given enough knowledge about a particular subject, this is were expertise resides.
There are arguments for gaining both types of knowledge. Business owners, particularly small business owners are usually better with a reasonable knowledge about a lot of business related functions. They can, after all employ experts to do particular functions that require more specialised knowledge.
You could argue that running a business is a specific skill in itself and can be developed into expertise, but I guess it’s all relative. You have a finite amount of time to learn an infinite amount of possible things. The fun, I guess is deciding what best fits in with your long term plans.
If you want to be a business person, you need to learn what’s needed to be a successful business person, and focus on that until you’re as good as you can be. Maybe learning to be a good recruiter (of labour and freelancers) is more valuable than acquiring the knowledge to be able to do those particular functions yourself.
Should you spend your limited time, acquiring the knowledge for implementing an effective marketing strategy, understanding the principles that drive human psychology, so you know an effective advert and offer when you see one. Or should you spend your time gathering the knowledge and perfecting the skill to be able to create great visuals for your adverts, and write amazingly persuasive copy that entices your audience to your offer, for yourself, so you can be self sufficient.
These are the kind of choices you need to make in your pursuit of knowledge. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve, I guess. It’s all about prioritising, which is dependant on what you’re trying to achieve as part of your end game (goal).
This article is about taking back responsibility for your actions and results. Without this your results will be limited, based on someone else’s agenda and out of your hands.
Before we talk about why taking responsibility is important, I thought I’d describe what people are doing instead of taking responsibility.
Not even trying
When people try to do something important they have to feel it is within their power and capability to get the job done. If they don’t feel confident they can see it though, they are much less likely to even make a start at it. It becomes a pipe dream with little chance of realisation.
Sure some things can be delegated to experts to do for you, and that’s fine if that’s the case, but the responsibility for finding that expert is still yours, and if that expert turns out to be a failure, it’s your fault.
Complaining
People are quick to make judgements about how external influences impact their lives. They like to complain about all sorts of things, such as what the government is doing to them, what their local councils are doing to them, what their neighbours, their boss. their work colleagues, their friends and family are doing to them. They complain about the weather, the traffic, suppliers, customers, big business, other voters, the car, the train service providers, other motorists, the list goes on. We like to complain, particularly in Britain, where we’re a nation of complainers. The recent EU referendum has perfectly illustrated the fact that we like to complain about others for the mess we find ourselves in now. “It was the leave campaign that got us into this mess”. “They lied to us”.
Blaming
People are always blaming external elements for making their lives more difficult. They use all sorts of excuses why they didn’t achieve something, or to blame failure on some external event, person or thing. They didn’t have enough support, didn’t get the breaks, got let down by a supplier, bank bailed on them, weather ruined the day, lacked the time, money, knowledge, resources, got duped, were mis-sold.
We resist change
Many of us push against change because we hate uncertainty and ambiguity. We like to think we are safe in our comfort zone, we’re familiar with our surroundings and what is expected of us. There is a perception of stability in the status quo. In reality this is an illusion, particularly with the way technology is impacting all our lives. Things are moving faster, and we have to be prepared to move with them, otherwise we’re going to be left behind.
Relying on others
People generally like to rely on others for guidance, help and support. Many people like to be followers rather than being leaders, partly because if the proverbial s**t hits the fan, they can blame someone else for the failure. Lots of people don’t like to lift their head above the parapet for fear of being shot down, criticised, rejected. The result is they play it safe and fail to make progress.
Take back Responsibility
Change brings Opportunity
If we don’t push beyond our existing capabilities we’re confined to the world we currently inhabit. Our comfort zone becomes our limit, but as technology impacts our lives more and more that world is going to get a lot smaller over a short amount of time. To push beyond our little bubble, we have to break through our boundaries. This can be scary, because we are conditioned for self-preservation, and part of this means we prefer certainty and the status quo over change and uncertainty which brings with it, risk. We as human beings hate risk, and the unknown because risk equals danger. Instead see change as opportunity. There will always be winners and losers in any given situation. mentally position yourself to be on the winning side, by looking to take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves. Be predator of opportunity rather than a victim of circumstance.
Complaining and Blaming are pointless
What good does blaming someone or something else for a failing do anyway? It might temporarily make you feel better about yourself because someone else messed up, it wasn’t you, phew. But after that initial relief, where does that leave you. You still haven’t achieved your aim. Instead you’ve tricked yourself into staying put and accepted the failure, instead of learning from and moving beyond it.
Abdicating control of the situation, and believing your life is subject to some unalterable master plan is also dis-empowering. Burying your head in the sand, might fool you, but the reality of the situation is unchanged. Having a victim mentality, blaming external circumstances for your problems, believing it’s not within your power to change, is the surest way to avoid improving your life.
Failing to take responsibility only delegates control, responsibility for your life still resides within you (whether you like it or not).
When you complain about or blame others or something else, you’re trying to pass responsibility to that same thing. In doing so you also pass power. The very power you need to be able to deal with it.
Eckart Tolle rounded it perfectly when he said “When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation, or accept it. All else is madness.”
Be determined to win
When you say to yourself, whatever goes wrong is down to me, you allow yourself to take ownership. Instead of fearing failure, embrace it, learn from it and make it the fuel to power through and find a way to succeed.
Instead of allowing glass ceilings, plateaus, and obstacle to defeat you, accept the challenge and find a solution to overcome them. If you fail again, come at it from a different angle, keep going, don’t use external elements as an excuse to give up.
Conclusion
It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s what you do about it that counts. Stop blaming circumstances, it’s not circumstances, it’s you. Really, it’s you. Things won’t improve unless you do. You know, the truth is liberating because you can have more than you’ve got because you can become more than you are. The other side of the coin, unless you change what you are, you’ll always have what you’ve got. It’s not a lack of resources (money, time, experience, support, skills, opportunities, connections) that’s the problem, it’s a lack of resourcefulness, by you, to find a way through. The only way to make progress is to take back responsibility for your actions and results. Rely on one person to take charge of your destiny, and that has to be you.
It’s fine to get outside help from experts, but know that it’s your responsibility to make sure they are up for the challenge. If they fail, it’s because of you. You didn’t get the right person for the right price. You have to take responsibility for your life, after all it’s yours, nobody else’s. Don’t fear the challenge, embrace it, be excited by it.
Get Results: take responsibility
For more about motivational influences, check out our Motivation guide.
If you would like to read more articles focused on TAKING RESPONSIBILITY, click here.
“There are winners and losers in every situation. Instead of complaining and blaming, make sure you’re mentally and emotionally positioned to win. Be a PREDATOR of CHANCE rather than a VICTIM of CIRCUMSTANCE.”
Get Results: be a predator of chance
“BLAMING and COMPLAINING are excuses not to TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. They are COPING STRATEGIES for failure, they are a CHOICE to play the role of victim. Without them you have the power you need to TAKE ACTION and SUCCEED.”
Get Results: Take Responsibility
“Make Things happen by doing what matters.”
Get Results: Make things happen by doing what matters
Take Responsibility Quotes
“Placing the blame or judgement on some else leaves you powerless to change your experience: TAKING RESPONSIBILITY for your beliefs and judgements give you the power to change them.”
“Passing blame passes power to do something about it. Take responsibility.”
“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busying denying them.”
“The moment you take responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life.” – Hal Elrod
“It can be a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and one one else has made it. But not admitting it, doesn’t change the fact. Instead own it, learn from it and move forward.”
“Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.”
“You’re free to do whatever you want, but you should always take responsibility for the consequences of your choices in life.”
“There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.” – Dr Denis Waitley
“The more you take responsibility for your past and present, the more you are able to create the future you seek.”
“Your attention please: No one is coming to save you. This life of yours is 100% your responsibility, whether you accept it or not.”
“Responsibility is the price of freedom.” – Elbert Hubbard
“When you choose your behaviour, you choose your consequences.” – Dr Phil
“Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go. No one else.”
“Part of getting a second change is taking responsibility for what you did wrong in the first place.”
“There are valuable lessons to learn from failure, but in order to learn them, you have to take responsibility for them.”
“Responsibility shouldn’t be considered a burden, it’s a consequence of your freedom.”
“With freedom, comes responsibility.”
“Responsibility: the ability to choose your response.”
When people say they can’t do something because they don’t have the time, don’t know enough, lack experience, lack money, support, or don’t have the right manager etc what they are really saying is they don’t have the necessary resources. In truth, what they really lack is resourcefulness. They lack the resourcefulness to find a way to get where they want to go in spite of the obstacles and difficulties that stand in their way.
Resourcefulness is the ability to overcome challenges by creatively finding ways to make progress in spite of challenges. It means solving problems with the resources you have at your disposal, making the best of what you have and doing more with less.
Take responsibility
In order to put yourself in the right frame of mind, you should take full responsibility for finding a solution. If you pass responsibility to someone else, you also pass the power to do something about it. You then find you’re waiting around for them to come up with answers and you’re inevitably likely to be disappointed. Even if they do come through for you, relying on someone else to find the answers for you means that you’re not developing your own “resourcefulness”.
The more you practice being resourceful, the better you’ll get at it. It’s a skill, that improves the more you use it. So take ownership of it and start to build a new, and very worthwhile skill. People are paid a lot of money for being resourceful, think trouble-shooters and business turn-around managers. It’s a highly demanded commercial skill, as well as an invaluable skill for your own life.
Be Proactive
Be on the front foot, rather than waiting for things to drop in your lap. This relates to taking responsibility (covered above). When you’re actively taking the initiative, you’ll be surprised how ideas and solutions come to you.
Be creative
Creativity requires you to be open minded and able to stand back and see things from a different perspective. Use your strengths, abilities, knowledge, tools, networks and other resources to approach and tackle the situation from a variety of angles, such as using unconventional approaches and/or reapplying other experience, to the present situation. Using a variety of problems solving techniques such as brainstorming may also help, check some out here.
Be Driven
When you’re inspired to see things through, you’ll find a way. Drive carries with it the courage, passion, commitment, persistence, determination and tenacity that you’ll need to overcome difficult challenges. If it has been done before, it can be done again.
Use your Connections
We can’t be expected to know it all, and that’s were other people can help. Use your existing connections for assistance, such as friends, family and colleagues, ask them for help and advice, you might be surprised what hidden connections, skills and resources people you thought you knew, might have. Also try to forge new connections where possible, sometimes reaching out to strangers can be surprisingly productive.
Summary
Improving your results comes down to many factors including the acquisition of knowledge, being motivated enough to power through any challenges you inevitably meet on your journey and being super productive, so that you’re doing the important things to ensure you get where you want to be. A big part of motivation and productivity is being resourceful. Without resourcefulness, you’re likely to be defeated by the the inevitable obstacles and challenges that come your way. However if you can harness your resourcefulness, you can overcome most anything. First take responsibility, then look for creative approaches to problem solving. Be proactive and driven to get the job done to a positive conclusion.
I’ll finish this article off with an example from my own experience using resourcefulness. When I was in the process of needing a new car, some years ago, I discovered that personal loans were running at 12% APR and for the car I wanted, the monthly repayments would be running at £250 a month, which at the time, was too much for me. So I looked around for alternatives.
I discovered a credit card that had 5.6% APR for the life of the balance, which was applicable for balance transfers only. The only problem was, I could only enjoy the deal if I purchased the car on another card, then transferred it to the 5.6% card.
None of my other cards had a big enough credit limit to buy the car on. So I explained the situation to a good friend of mine who offered to buy the car on their card. I checked, and it was okay to transfer off his card, so that’s what I did.
I then used the 5.6% balance card like a loan and paid a set amount each month, paying just £150, which was more within my means at the time. After a few years I transferred the remaining balance onto an interest free for 2 years card, until it was fully paid. In doing it this way, I saved massively on the amount of interest I paid, I managed to pay a monthly amount that I could afford, and I used credit in a positive way.
I hope this article has shed some light on resourcefulness for you. Please share it with your friends and family if you have found it informative.
For more about motivational influences, check out our Motivation guide.
Finding, increasing and maintaining motivation is vital if you’re going to GET RESULTS. Motivation comes out of a psychological process, made up of two opposing forces, which either push you towards your goal or hold you back from pursuing it. You have largely fear based emotions on the one hand, designed to keep you from harm, but which often hold you back. On the other hand, you have motivational forces that help you take the necessary steps for realising your goals, and getting the results you desire.
Most people find it difficult to overcome the internal struggle that is fought between these opposing forces. We fear too much, so we don’t take action. We want something with all our heart, but we don’t take action, because we’re having to move away from our comfort zone.
When you start to break down the components of motivation, it becomes clear why it is so difficult. We have things like fear, conflict, self-doubt, discomfort, distraction, and temptation fighting against things like commitment, effort, resourcefulness, purpose, desire and determination.
Get Results: opposing motivationsGet Results: force field analysis
TAKING ACTION towards a goal is a must if you’re going to be successful. Knowing what to do and when to do it, is also vitally important. Being effective rather than efficient makes you as productive as possible, but motivation is the key, without it, nothing else is possible or gets done. You have to be motivated to learn what needs to be learned, to spend the hours, weeks, days, months, even years acquiring knowledge, building skill, perfecting talent. You will not take action without motivation. It is the fuel in your tank.
Motivation is made up of a number of ingredients, which will need to be mastered if you’re to move closer to your goal, check them out below …
Some of the posters below, link to more in-depth articles (still on this website) that drill into the subject matter of that poster, in much more detail.
Additionally by subscribing to our email list, we will send our step-by-step process, which will help you get results, and covers motivation and its role in the goal attainment process, among other things. It’s a big picture overview of the process, and is easy to unsubscribe from, whenever you want, so what have you got to lose? Jump on board.
Great giveaway
Additionally and for a limited time only, we are offering our “Get Results Quotes jpeg”, which presents some great inspirational quotes, covering the categories listed below, and is a great motivational reference you can keep with you on your phone. [thrive_2step id=’2645′] CLICK HERE [/thrive_2step] to sign up for it, so we can email the link to you.
Get Results: Motivation requires…being self aware (click poster for more info)
Self awareness is essential in effectively planning the road ahead, gaining insight into why you do what you do, and don’t do what you don’t do. What you’re good at and not so good and and why. For more information about self awareness click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…being resourceful (click on poster for more info)
Being resourceful is about putting the excuses like “I don’t have the money, or the time, or the experience to do this” to one side and getting the job done, regardless of the difficulties you face. Resourcefulness is about getting results no matter what. For more information about resourcefulness, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…taking full responsibility (click poster for more info)
Taking responsibility is about not blaming others or complaining that this or that is getting in your way. It’s about being accountable for your own results. When you make the psychological shift away from playing the role of victim, you empower yourself to get results. For more about taking responsibility, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…being committed (click poster for more info)
Being committed is about burning your bridges, taking a focused, determined path forward, without wavering and second guessing yourself. For more about being committed, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…having a strong work ethic (click on the poster for more info)
Having a strong work ethic is essential if you’re going to cover the ground from where you are now to where you want to be. For more about having a strong work ethic, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…being tuned into intuition (click on poster for more info)
Accessing your intuition is a skill which can be developed over time. Your subconscious knowledge pool is always at work, without your conscious awareness, it’s collecting information, scanning your environment, looking for inconsistencies and abnormalities. Learning to quiet your mind so that you can distinguish between intuition and fear response is something you will get better at over time. For more about intuition, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…being able to initiate momentum (click poster for more information)
Getting started is often the hardest part about making change, because over time habit kicks in and makes the behaviour/ action more automatic, check out more about initiating momentum, here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…replacing bad habits with good ones
The easiest way of getting rid of a bad habit is establishing a new good habit. Habits are hard to break because we often don’t think about doing them, they are by their nature, automatic. Most people complain that they struggle with filling the gap left by a habit, so fill the space with a new, more empowering habit, and over time it too will become automatic.
Get Results: Motivation requires… being purposeful
Having purpose requires having a direction, a goal. It gives us a reason to take action, to establish new behaviours, and develop new habits. Without purpose we are like a rudderless boat floating helplessly. Without purpose, there is no motivation to move from the current status quo.
Get Results: Motivation requires…ability to embrace change and risk. (Click on the poster for more information)
To move from where you are now to where you want to be, requires change, and change is often feared because of the uncertainty, risk and danger it is perceived as bringing with it. Learning how to embrace change and risk is key to helping you move forwards. For more about embracing change and risk, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires… gratitude for your blessings (click on the poster for more info)
No matter where you are in life, whether you are where you ultimately want to be, you have many things to be grateful for, and appreciation shouldn’t be far from the top of your mind. For more about gratitude, click here.
Get Results: motivation requires… being brave to overcome fear (click poster for more info)
Fear is THE dream killer. If you can master fear, the world is your playground. For more about overcoming fear, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…freedom from inner conflict (click for more info)
Inner conflict can occur on both a subconscious level as well as a conscious level, which makes it difficult to identify and move beyond. For instance, fearing success or the consequences of success, while at the same time craving success, can cause chaos with internal motivational drives and subsequently attempting to unpick the underlying causes can clarify irrational beliefs. For more information about inner conflicts, click here.
Get Results: Motivation requires…avoiding temptations and distractions
Avoiding temptations and distractions is key to getting things done in a meaningful and effective way. We are often surrounded by these things and learning how to hack a way around them, or avoid them completely, so that we don’t sidetracked, is a must.
Get Results: motivation requires overcoming discomfort
Even the thought of having to deal with discomfort, can be an ambition killer. Putting yourself in harms way, psychologically speaking, is a tough one to overcome, but with practice, you can become a master of it, rather than a victim to it.
Get Results: Motivation requires use of negative emotions to drive action (click on the poster for more info)
Emotions are a vital component in driving behaviour and instigating action-taking. Emotions are what stir you, make you overcome situations, where you would not ordinarily take action. Anger, fear, regret, disappointment can be used to move you closer to your goal or keep you stuck where you are. Figuring out how to use emotions as useful tools rather than annoying obstacle is what will get you to where you want to be.
Get Results: Motivation requires a shift of perspective (click poster for more info)
Shifting of perspective is about opening your mind and seeing things in a different way. Rigid beliefs, are often the major cause of keeping you stuck and preventing you seeing things, people, ideas and situations in a completely different light and from a completely different perspective. For more about shifting perspective, click here.
Get Results: overcome blocking coping strategies (click on poster for more info)
Overcoming coping strategies is about stopping yourself rationalising the thoughts, actions and behaviours that are preventing you pursuing your dreams and goals. Blocking coping strategies are a psychological way of feeling okay about your failure to take the necessary actions that are required to get you to your goals. For more about blocking coping strategies, click here.
Questions and answers about motivation
I recently did some keyword research on the search terms inputted into Google around the word “motivation” and came up with a list of questions people want answered about motivation, which I’ve listed below, along with some of the more important answers. I’m not going to answer question by question, but rather gather the general gist of the questions into a few important answers. I’ve grouped them around, questions about 1. the definition of motivation, 2. self motivation, 3. motivating others and 4. more general motivational questions.
Keyword research is a great insightful tool for getting down to the nuts and bolts of what people want to know, and are actively searching for.
1. Definition of motivation
Search Terms inputted into search engines
what is motivation,
define motivate,
definition of motivate,
what is the definition of motivation,
external motivation definition,
emotional motive definition,
the definition of motivation,
extrinsic motivation definition psychology,
what is the meaning of motivation,
what does the word motivation mean,
what is a motivation,
define the term motivation,
the meaning of motivation,
Questions (condensed)
What is motivation?
Emotional motive behind motivation?
Definition of motivation?
What is the meaning of motivation?
What does the word motivation mean?
Answer
Motivation is defined as a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way. Motivation can be intensified by using EMOTIONS, driving the NEED or WANT to take action, instead of maintaining a state of INDIFFERENCE in the STATUS QUO.
2. Self motivation
SEARCH TERMS INPUTTED INTO SEARCH ENGINES
intrinsic motivation,
stay motivated,
internal motivation,
positive motivation,
motivate yourself,
motivational thoughts,
need motivation,
personal motivation,
job motivation,
career motivation,
develop yourself,
intrisic motivation,
Questions
How to stay motivated?
How to increase motivation internally?
How to use positive motivation?
How to motivate yourself?
What thoughts can be used to increase motivation?
How to increase personal motivation?
How to increase job or career motivation?
How to develop motivation?
Answer
Motivation has two opposing forces, the first is the motivation to achieve some goal, to improve, get better, to succeed. All those things that you wish for, dream of or have desire to do or be.
On the flip side are the blocking motivations, which are driven by self-preservation and fear. The little voice in your head that tells you not to take risk, or pursue change because you might fail, be embarrassed, lose something important.
Both these forces fight over every decision you have to make, and only one can ever win.
If you’re not where you want to be, then the blocking motivations are the cause. It’s your job to recondition your thinking so that the blocking motivations are defeated. You can do it!
Clicking on the posters above, will walk you through the important considerations of motivation, including improving self-awareness, taking responsibility, being committed, overcoming fear, breaking inner conflicts and self sabotage.
With respect to using motivation for work, career or fitness, it works the same way in all aspects of life. Hacking motivation will support you in all aspects of life.
3. Motivating others
SEARCH TERMS INPUTTED INTO SEARCH ENGINES
extrinsic motivation,
motivational people,
how to motivate staff,
motivating staff,
staff motivation,
leadership motivation,
motivation in business,
extrinsic motivation psychology definition,
employee motivation techniques,
motivation of employees,
worker motivation,
motivation definition,
achievement motivation,
motivation techniques,
creative development,
business motivation,
Questions
How to get motivated?
How to increase staff and worker motivation?
How to increase leadership motivation?
How to increase motivation in other people?
How to increase business motivation?
Ideas for creative motivation?
Answer
Once you truly understand how motivation works, you will be better placed to motivate others.
Understand that DESIRE and FEAR are the basic drivers of human behaviour. People always act with positive intent, and will respond to a potential improvement in their situation, or sense of self, as long as the risk and uncertainty, which they fear, is reduced. If the reward is greater than the risk, they will act, but you have to make a good enough argument to convince them that the rewards do indeed outweigh the risks.
If you can align employees goals with your business goals, you will win. This is why some businesses run profit sharing schemes.
But to understand people’s motivations you have to develop your emotional intelligence, so that you have more empathy for how that person models the world. We all have the same psychological structures of thought that influence behaviour, we all feel anger, sadness, happiness in the same way, but our triggers and perceptions can vary significantly. What is important to you, is not necessarily important to me, but you will react in the same way to something that is important to you, as I would to something that was important to me.
Don’t worry if you don’t get it at the moment, we will be revisiting it in future posts. I would also advise subscribing to our newsletter for exclusive content, not available on the website, which covers this subject in more detail.
4. Motivation general
SEARCH TERMS INPUTTED INTO SEARCH ENGINES
Motivating,
intrinsic and extrinsic motivation,
achievement motivation,
types of motivation,
motivation techniques,
business motivation,
motivational activities,
maslow motivation,
motivational strategies,
motivation and emotion,
psychology motivation,
increase motivation,
motivation model,
importance of motivation,
goal motivation,
motivation process,
motivational ideas,
models of motivation,
motivation help,
Questions
What is the importance of motivation?
Where to find help for increasing motivation?
What is intrinsic and extrinsic motivation?
What are the types of motivation?
What is business motivation?
What are some motivational activities?
What is Maslow’s pyramid of motivation?
What are some motivational strategies?
What emotions are used in motivation?
What is a model for motivation?
What is a process for motivation?
What are ideas for motivation?
Answer
Without motivation, nothing gets done, so it is an essential part of taking action and getting results.
Intrinsic motivation refers to doing something for the enjoyment of doing it, for its own sake, rather than any external rewards. Think of things like hobbies or passions that you may engage in, which are done simply for the enjoyment of doing them. Extrinsic motivation refers to doing something to earn a reward, such as money, fame or praise, or to avoid a punishment such as being chastised, or beaten, or made to feel embarrassed. You would not engage in this behaviour if it wasn’t for the consequences. Many people’s jobs are an example of extrinsic motivation, because they wouldn’t do it if they weren’t getting paid.
Many different emotions can be entangled in motivation. Desire for something else, frustration, discontentment, dissatisfaction with the way things currently are, yearning for more, for better, or a desperate sense of needing, are good examples of supporting emotions (emotions that drive you closer to your goal). Fear is largely responsible for blocking progress (stopping you reaching your goal). I recommend checking out the posters above, for all the supporting and blocking internal and external motivations.
Maslow’s (1943, 1954) hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid. It can be described as a model for motivation.
Get Results: Mazlows hierarchy of needs
Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival (bottom of triangle), and this will be the first thing that motivates our behaviour. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what then motivates us, and so on, until we eventually reach self-actualisation, at the top of the pyramid.
As far as establishing a process for motivation, the first and probably most important thing to do is increase SELF-AWARENESS, so to improve understanding as to what creates motivation within us as individuals, finding out what our particular triggers are. Then use these motivations to drive us towards our goal, while hacking those that get in the way. Again I would recommend reading the posters above and following the links for more in-depth information.
We will be detailing some clever motivation hacks in future articles, so please subscribe to our newsletter for content updates, as well as unique content, not available on the website.
Motivation is one of the building blocks for getting results, subscribe to our newsletter to get a walk through of our GET RESULTS methodology, as well as other content not available on the website. Email is a great way for us to provide information for you.
Are you frustrated that you’re not getting the results you want?
Are you working hard producing content but nobody’s paying attention? Are you wanting to get out of the nine to five rat race and liberate yourself with a location independent online business, but just can’t get any traction?
This article is based around “getting results” from an internet business perspective, but many of the points can apply to such diverse goals as losing weight and becoming wealthy.
You’re not getting the results you want because of one or more of the following:
You have no defined goal – you don’t know what you want, in this circumstance you need to decide on a clear goal.
You’re doing something wrong but you don’t know it’s wrong (assuming you wouldn’t knowingly be doing something wrong). If you’re not getting the results you strive for then you can be sure something is missing, something in your understanding. You need to find what this is to make any further progress.
You don’t know what to do or how to do something that is important, you may not even know you need to know or do it. This is a difficult one but ideally you want to look to role models – people who have trodden your path before you and got the results you are looking for.
You’re knowingly not doing something that’s important, Got to take action here, simple as.
or a combination of some these.
There are two components required to getting the results you want these are:
knowing what to do
Doing what needs to be done
Looking for relevant information to help you
If you don’t know what to do to get the results you’re looking for, it will be nothing more than a matter of luck if you achieve them. If you’re looking for online success you need to know the options open to you and the best practices in doing them in an effective manner. So for instance, if you’re at the start of your online journey, some of the options open to you are:
Affiliate Marketing
Running an eCommerce store selling physical products
Blogging free information (monetise with ads)
Running an Amazon store
So lets take affiliate marketing as an example. If you want to know how to go about getting results as an affiliate marketer you can search for a book on the subject, check out any reviews about it and buy. The problem with books on the subject of affiliate marketing is they quickly go out of date. The internet is evolving at such a pace, printed books can be old hat as soon as they hit the shelves, this is why self published kindle books or ebooks are very popular because they contain more timely information.
Alternatively you can start searching the major search engines for “becoming an affiliate marketer”, or similar searches. Then you have to start sifting through the vast amount of results which come in the form of blog posts, video tutorials, podcasts etc. In fact I have just done such a search and found nearly 300,000 results.
The explosion of the internet has resulted in us having access to unparalleled amounts of information about any topic we turn our attention to. The problem with this situation is not all the information has been created equal. Some of it contains gold nuggets while some of it can only be described as mis-information and trash.
If marketers are motivated to get you to buy their latest product, they will frame the information in such a way as to encourage you to buy that product rather than giving you balance or accurate information.
But let’s be fair, you ain’t ever going to go through all of these 300,000 results, probably just a few on the first page. So lets look at the criteria you need to use to find the golden nuggets of information that will help you get the results you are looking for.
First thing is to make sure you are only taking advice from people that know what they’re talking about. Look at the business models, systems, and habits and relationships they use and try them out yourself. It isn’t guaranteed you will get the same results they have, but until you try them out you will never know. Look at what they sell, how they sell it, who they sell it to, how they find their customers, how they drive traffic to their sales funnel etc. Then try to use their system as the basis for of your own. Don’t just duplicate them, but try to understand why they do what they do and use this as a guide. Check out a few models and see what they have in common. This will most certainly help you understand the process more clearly.
With affiliate marketing specifically you need to find a product to sell, ideally one you use yourself, that you like, find valuable and would be happy to recommend to someone else, then offer it to your audience. Find your own angle, don’t just blindly follow others, but think about what value you can bring to your audience and build a brand around this point of difference..
Get to know the right people
It’s not always about what you know, often who you know can help move mountains. So whatever area you want to get results in, look for people in the know, the influencer’s, and the thought leaders. Join relevant network groups, Facebook groups, and forums and get involved in the conversations and make contacts. If you aren’t getting results and are already in some groups and forums, leave and join others. Check out other blogs, listen to different podcasts, read more books. If you’re not already getting the results, then make a change, but don’t give up.
Make sure you have set yourself a Goal(s)
If you want to get results you need to start with a goal in mind, otherwise how do you know if you’re making progress. If you’re not heading somewhere specific then you’re like a rudderless boat, at the mercy of the tide.
Make your goals big and specific, check out my post all about goal setting for more information on the topic. In a nutshell. Have smaller goals which lead to your bigger overall goal, lined up like domino’s. Smaller goals can be daily, weekly, monthly. Keep your overall goal in mind at all times, and don’t be scared of thinking too big. Ask yourself, “If I couldn’t fail what would I want to do”. It’s okay to have big goals, but be realistic about how difficult they are going to be to achieve, don’t let the difficulty aspect de-motivate you. Use your success in the smaller goals to build momentum towards your overall goal.
Have a sound plan and take action
Your plan is “how” you get the results you want. It’s how you get to achieve your goal. When you’re formulating your plan you need to think about what gets done and when. Start with a basic framework and fill in the details. I find it easier to start with my goal and work backwards to the present time. A simple reverse framework might look like this:
Sell £x worth of X product
Email sequence – demonstrate the value I can bring and allow visitors to get to know me before I try to sell them something. To sell £x of product I need Y number of email subscribers
Lead Magnet in exchange for opt-in
Lead Generation – my customers spend most time on Facebook so use Facebook ads to get leads. It’s important to think about who your customers are, and how to best reach them.
Remember this is currently in reverse order because I find it easier to think things through in this way, but do what works best for you. I’m not going too much into the details about planning in this article, I just wanted to mention a few points and to stress the importance of actually making one, which I’ve now done.
If you find you’re not following your plan then find out why. If you’re:
procrastination
burying head in the sand/denial/ignoring/making excuses/keeping busy doing something else and justifying it
doubting your own ability
being indecisive
feeling overwhelmed
or anxious – perceived imbalance of “ability” and “necessary requirements/skills”
these are usually a manifestation of some fear you have
Avoiding fear of…
Failure
Ask “what’s the worst that could happen?” you’ll realise the consequences of failure are not as scary as you might have first thought. Each failure is a learning experience, and with each failure we take out another obstacle. Ask yourself “What would I do if I could not fail for next 24 hours.” This will help you focus on what needs doing immediately to achieve your goal(s) with the fear of failure removed.
You can not fail until you give up. “Winners never quit and a quitters never win”. Winning often follows losing, remember everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die. For winners, losing inspires them, for losers, losing defeats them, winning means being unafraid to lose.
Don’t let failure put you off, failure is a great teacher and helps you become more focused on what is needed. Your plan is the journey that you intend to take to reach your destination, and sometimes your way might be blocked, but reassess your options and take a detour. Just make sure you don’t forget that you need to get back on track at the earliest opportunity.
Don’t fear:
Rejection – if others say “no thanks” they are rejecting your proposal not you personally and are just protecting themselves. You need to convince them of your reliability and trustworthiness. “Profit from criticism”
Disappointment – each hurdle is a step closer to the finishing line, learn from each disappointment, change your mindset and learn from any disappointment.
Doing the important things productively
When you’re taking action, make sure you are doing the important high value tasks rather than keeping busy shuffling paper around your desk. It’s not about working hard or slaving away for long hours, its about working smart and effectively and making your work matter. You should make doing the important things a priority and doing them in a productive manner. In his book “The One Thing” Gary Keller advocates living with:
Purpose (determines who we are. It sets our priorities.)
Priority is our focus
Productivity are our actions
If you align your purpose (goal), your priority and productivity should easily fall into place, and motivation should be easy, because you’re doing something that really matters to you.
Get an accountability buddy
If you’re finding it difficult to maintain motivation, then look for help from someone else as an accountability buddy. Make your progress reportable to them and have them give you honest feedback and push you to hit your deadlines.
Avoid Distractions and Temptation
Many people love social platforms, but they can be a real “time drain”. Enticing headlines can easily encourage you away from the task-in-hand and off at tangents, usually on to pointless trivia sites, if you’re anything like me. Avoid such distractions, generally avoid anywhere where you will be distracted, they are killing your productivity.
Temptation is another goal killer, particularly with regards to weight loss and dieting. The same applies here, avoid being in situations and places were temptations exist, unless you have an incredible amount of will-power, and most of us just don’t.
It doesn’t have to be perfect
If you’re bringing a product to market then the best thing to do is get it out into the marketplace. It doesn’t have to be perfect, get the minimal viable product out there and use customer feedback to help you improve it. That way it evolves into what the customer wants and is likely to be more successful in the long term.
Taking Risks
We have come to something that is greatly variable from person to person and is heavily dependant on financial circumstances and pre-disposed tolerance to risk. The bottom line is every new action you take has some element of risk connected to it. You’re moving from the known to the unknown and usually outside your comfort zone, which feels scary.
However to get more in life you need to grow, and to grow, you need to do new things that you haven’t done or tried before. Self-belief is also a big component of risk taking. If you feel you have the skills necessary, you are more likely to take action. Fear will hold you back, re-read the section about fear, above.
Risk taking requires a mind-shift, and unless you make it, you will find yourself stuck in the same situation. However don’t be reckless. Don’t invest thousands of pounds in something that you know nothing about. Any idiot can lose money. Build up your knowledge first and only take calculated risks. (“Risk benefit analysis” is a useful tool for this).
Embrace Change
Taking risk feeds directly into the ability to accept change. Being open to new experiences or new ways of doing things is a crucial skill in a rapidly changing world. If you fail to adapt you will almost certainly get left behind. The days of learning a skill that would see you through to retirement has long gone, think of the steel industry, and mining industry to name just two. Whole towns lay derelict in the USA as testimony to the necessity to accept change as a part of life. Aim for skills that will always be needed, such as the skill of “selling”, businesses will always need to sell products and to employ people that are good at it.
Learn and never stop learning, be a master of what you know and an apprentice of what you don’t know. Don’t be satisfied with doing things the best you can do them, but the best that they can be done. We talked about it earlier, but use role models, and the systems, models, habits and relationships they have developed to get their results.
Additional Points
Just a few additional points to consider:
Have drive, be consistent and adopt good habits, if you think you lack the mental strength to lead others, then you will need to toughen up.
Don’t use failure as an excuse to fail bigger, be critical of yourself and strive for better results.
keep it simple, if you don’t understanding it you can’t control it,
Never give up, persevere and do whatever it takes.
Summary
You’re not getting the results you want because:
You have no defined goal – you don’t know what you want,
You’re doing something wrong but you don’t know it’s wrong,
You don’t know what to do or how to do something that is important, you may not even know you need to know or do it,
You’re knowingly not doing something that’s important,
or a combination of some these.
You must:
know what to do
Do what needs to be done
Sounds simple when it’s put like this but of course the devil is in the detail. However I am all for simplifying complex issues wherever possible. It allows me to go back to basics and helps me understand the underlying key issues with all the surrounding noise removed. This structure of analysis can be used for all goals, such as losing weight, getting fit, earning more money, finding success online, or in your career.
Hopefully you have found this article of use, if so, please share it with your friends, family and colleagues.
Yesterday is consigned to history, there’s nothing that can be done to change or affect it anymore.
Tomorrow is simply a construct of the mind and is always in the future. You can never directly interact with it and it can only be influenced by what you do in the here and now.
What you do in THIS MOMENT shapes all your tomorrow’s, so it’s important you make it count. If you’re the type of person that says “I’ll make a fresh start …..” whether it be next Monday, next week, next month or January 1st (via a New Years resolution), understand that you’re simply procrastinating. Procrastination usually occurs because of some underlying fear.
THIS MOMENT is the only time that exists. By the time Monday comes round, it will be the now, no different to the now you face in THIS MOMENT.
I like to keep a “THIS MOMENT” focus, it helps me make better decisions that support my goals. It’s a no tolerance approach to life.
Passing responsibility is passing power
If you pass the responsibility for taking action into tomorrow and beyond you are also passing the power to take action into tomorrow, and are essentially living a “wishful life”, Wishing and dreaming things will change for you, instead of taking charge and making it happen through consistent action. Action is required to drive you into the arms of your goal, and there is no other time to make a start than “NOW”.
Get Results: what you do in this moment shapes all your tomorrows. make it count
This is a piece I posted in 2015 on a different website, I thought I would include it here. I lost 3 stone within a few months, and continue to maintain the same weight today, so I consider that a success.
Originally posted 18th June 2015
Are you feeling frustrated that you’re not getting the results you crave? Disappointed with your poor results? Ongoing failure can lead to chronic anger, where you become difficult to be around in other areas of your life, snapping at others for the least thing. Often this state of being causes many to give up with a deep feeling of failure remaining in the background of their mind.
Wouldn’t life be so much better if you could take control of your destiny, without feelings and other things getting in your way. We all want to be high achievers, successful and consistently able to get results even if we fool ourselves into thinking otherwise.
Knowledge
I recently decided to lose weight and knew that a combination of exercise and diet would be critically important. knowing what I should be eating, and when, as well as knowing the best type of exercise to be most effective for my weight loss being key to success. I want to lose a lot of weight in fact. I’m currently 19 stone, which is the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life, and I’ve decided it has to go, I’m aiming to get down to 15 stone over the next 12 months or sooner if possible. Below is what I think I need to do to lose weight
Exercise
Build muscle – resistance exercise rather than cardio
High intensity exercise, with low impact on joints
Don’t sit so much at my computer and have regular breaks in between, walking around and standing more
Burn more calories than consume on a daily basis
Diet
Low calorie intake
Regular intake throughout the day rather than binge eating late at night
More calories early in day and less at night
Less snacking of fatty foods, instead fruit and veg snacks if at all
Drink less fizzy drinks and consume more water
This is only a brief overview of my plan of action based on the little bit of research I’ve done so far, I won’t bore you with the details, the important thing to know is it’s vitally important you find a good source of accurate up-to-date information to enable you to succeed in your endeavour. There is so much conflicting information out there about subjects such as weight loss, fitness, business, on-line business and the like, it can be really difficult to know for sure that you have the right information you need. Most of the time I go with the view, if it makes sense give it a go, but if I’m honest I’m forever reading and improving my knowledge bank and searching out more information. knowledge is power or the potential for power, but without action it’s useless.
Motivation
Well for me, this is a biggie particularly when considering the subject of losing weight. I don’t need to work on my motivation levels for business because it just comes easily to me, but cutting down calories and exercising are not my favourite things to do. I have an inner conflict which stops me doing what I should be doing and keeps me doing what I shouldn’t (cognitive dissonance)
What I mean by that is I eat too much fatty foods because I love the taste of it (doing what I shouldn’t be doing) and don’t do what I should be doing (eating healthier and restricting my calorie intake). This is double negative. When it comes to the exercise part of the equation, I’m just as bad, not exercising, instead sitting watching the TV or working on my laptop.
So what’s going on here. I want to do something I shouldn’t be and don’t really want to do something I should. The end result is I pile on more weight and move ever further from my goal of losing weight.
This is what’s going on in a lot of us I suspect. Lack of motivation and cognitive dissonance (inner conflict) is not just killing us but killing our chances of getting the results we crave.
There is no silver bullet I’m afraid. Gonna have to make a change mentally and physically if I wanna achieve my goal.
Get Results – Make the changes
I recently came across this quote or similar but I remember like this:
“What you do in this moment shapes all your tomorrows – make it count”
Get Results: what you do in this moment shapes all your tomorrows. make it count
It helps me to think from a “this moment perspective”. If I eat something fatty it’s not okay, cause I’m sewing the seeds of failure for all my tomorrows. It’s a zero tolerance approach. All we have is this moment, nothing else really exists, so aligning my now with what I want tomorrow is the only way to do it in my eyes and even though it’s early days…it seems to be working for me.
You might find taking a longer term view works best for you – the point is, you do what works for you and the way your mind works by default.
Alternatively you have to break bad habits and destructive thought patterns and replace with more empowering ones. This is harder to do than the previous option, requiring a great deal of “will power” but is greatly rewarding and can certainly be achieved with purpose, determination and perseverance.
The important thing is to get results, and that brings me back onto the purpose of this post, to help you get results, not just in weight loss but whatever you are trying to do.
So you’re here at the beginning – frustrated, disappointed, angry and ready to give up, right?
You want to be there (your goal) – achieving, successful, consistently getting results?
To get from here to there, you need to know:
What to do – this is the knowledge bit – What to do, How to do it, When to do it – this is all about doing your research and answering these questions. Find good sources of reliable information, study it and understand it thoroughly. Secondly
Do what needs to be done – this is mainly about motivation – doing what needs doing, and not doing what’s counter productive. This is often the hardest part of the equation. Most of us have inner conflicts where we find ourselves wanting to do something that is counter productive to our goal. Using the example I used early where I find myself enjoying eating tasty fatty foods while also wanting to lose weight. I find that changing the way I frame the situation in my mind helps, so focussing on eating well rather than the discomfort of not eating junk (re-framing the issue). Also I would suggest getting yourself an accountability buddy who will hold you to task if you don’t follow through on your plan. I am kind of doing this with you, my audience because if I haven’t lost weight within 12 months of writing this article, than you will know I have failed to practice what I preach, and with that, I’ll lose any credibility on the subject.
Fear is a big de-motivator that can trap you in your current situation and prevent you following your goals. Fear of failure, rejection, disappointment, change, embarrassment, of the unknown can all be dream killers. Often such fears manifest themselves in the excuses we give ourselves for not taking action, procrastination, buying your head in the sand, denial, avoidance, keeping busy doing other things, over-complicating situations, insisting on perfection before taking action, giving up without a fight. Facing fear head on and moving past it, although scary to think about, is often easier to overcome than our imagination would have us believe. Jim Carey said it best “Know the difference between a dog that is going to eat you in your mind, and an actual dog that is going to eat you”.
Use as much help as you can elicit from others especially people who have experience doing what you’re trying to achieve. From a knowledge perspective, consider hiring expertise where appropriate and look towards friends and family for motivation purposes to help keep you on track. Look for tools which will help you succeed with your goal, including things like phone Apps that you will have with you all the time..
Just going back to my plan of losing weight, I came up with the following list of additional things I could use/do to help me in my pursuit, should I need to:
Use fitness Apps – to keep me motivated
Listen to Audio books – to prevent boredom during repetitive workouts
Watch TV while working out doing cardio exercises (treadmill) – aimed to prevent boredom
Undertake what I consider to be enjoyable exercises such as bike riding, and 5 a side football with mates to make it more fun
Join a club and exercise with others possible down my local gym
Find an accountability buddy or exercise partner
Undertake Shorter exercise routines – high intensity in short bursts
Remember I don’t have to increase intensity if I’m just wanting to maintain fitness at a certain level
Have equipment set up all the time so there’s no time setting up and packing away, or use minimal equipment (ideas for exercises without equipment)
Investigate tasty, healthy recipe choices
Drink more water to fill stomach – avoid fizzy pop – drink flavoured water if I get fed up of plain water
Keep mind occupied to prevent snacking due to boredom in evenings
Eat health snacks – fruit or veg instead of crisps and sweets
Use recipe apps for healthy eating advice
Put X’s on calendar every time I follow plan. Don’t break the row of X’s
Read motivational quotes, watch motivational videos to help inspire me
