Month: August 2015

What is this thing called Motivation and How do I find it?

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As noted by the illustrations above, the depiction of motivation is a central theme. What is this thing called motivation? Motivation encourages us to achieve our goals and generates the energy to reach those goals. Daniel Goleman,the author of books on Emotional Intelligence, identified four aspects of motivation;

1. Personal drive to achieve, the desire to improve and meet certain
standards.
2. Commitment to personal goals.
3. Initiative and the readiness to act on opportunities.
4. Optimism or the ability to keep going and pursue goals in the face
of setbacks.

According to research, people who are self-motivated tend to be highly organized, possess time management skills and exhibit high self esteem and confidence. There are two kinds of motivations, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation causes one to perform due to internal feelings such as love, pleasure and personal challenge. For example, gaining much satisfaction and self- fulfilment in a profession. Extrinsic motivation is associated with the need to attain a reward such as money or power. An example of this is one who works at a job that is not fulfilling just to pay off a mortgage.

How do we find the motivation that is needed to reach our goals? Setting high but realistic goals is most relevant.You must have the ability and the skills to achieve your dream. Seeking constant feedback in order to improve your performance is most important. One should not be ashamed to seek the support of a mentor in the search for success. Be acutely aware of opportunities and grasping them when they appear.Knowledge is power and always keeping up on what is happening around you is important also. Most importantly, NEVER GIVE UP, a motto that I have always followed and the topic of a recent posting on my blog. You need to have the strength to accept setbacks and to learn from your mistakes. Assess the obstacles in your path on the journey to success.Your self esteem and trust in yourself is so important and a relevant variable in the equation of motivation.

I, personally, have experienced significant setbacks and disappointments in my life but I did find the strength to “pick myself up and start all over again.”
Never give up on yourself and your goals and miraculously you will be celebrating your achievements in life.

Please do let us hear your voice and your feelings about this topic.

Never Give Up

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This posting will be a tribute to the motto, NEVER GIVE UP, a concept that was instilled to all of the children in my Character Counts, national character building program. These next posts that I will be presenting are far more meaningful to me than my other topics of racism, bully and illness. These words are meaningful and do come from my heart.

I needed to abide by those words, “never give up” in order to overcome three bouts of cancer, the writing, publishing and marketing of my first book and the motivation to keep publishing these blogs in spite of the fact that I do not have a large following. I recently responded to the blog on the topic of jealousy that was written by Danielle Steel, a very successful author. I did model my book, FAMILY SECRETS: A JOURNEY OF GOOD AND EVIL,on her writing style and genre.My motivation in responding to her blog was to capture her attention in hopes of having her visit my website, familysecrets:tateauthor.com and by some miracle , read my book. I never give up! In this response , I did acknowledge her theory on jealousy and provided my own issues with jealousy for other authors that I do know personally who have reached much success in the marketing of their books.

What is the correlation between Danielle Steel’s blog on “jealousy” and my blog on motivation and never giving up? As noted in Steel’s blog, jealousy is a negative reaction and such negativity does diminish any motivation to succeed since this emotion does impact upon the ability to never give up. We assume that another’s success indicates that you lack the ability to perform and to achieve your goal.Jealousy does impair our belief in ourself and instills a negative belief that we are not good enough and causes one to give up.

Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb. He is said to have failed trying many, many thousands of times before he finally got it right. He is a great example of how determination will keep one going in spite of their perception of failure. Instead of giving up after all of his failures, he kept trying until he succeeded. His persistence did light up the world! Edison stated, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” He never gave up!

It is one’s attitude and responses to life situations which dictate how you feel. Difficulties are a normal part of life and we all have to face them daily and sometimes these problems are very overwhelming to overcome. If you can change your attitude towards these problems and perceive them as challenges, you will then become motivated not downcast in effecting change in your life. A challenge is an opportunity to succeed. Life is a learning experience, positive or negative and we must never give up. In order to live in this world, I had to look upon cancer as a challenge and I never gave up fighting or living. I will continue to market my book and write my blogs and never give up!

In my next post, I will continue to discuss strategies on the topic of never giving up on your goals and challenges in life.

Please do let us hear your voice and tell us how you feel about this topic.