People often ask how successful people stay motivated month-in-month-out, year-in-year-out. The answer is: they don’t. Zig Ziglar put it aptly. ‘People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.’ Never wait to feel motivated before you do what you should do; do it now, the motivation will come later.
In 1907, a university turned down a PhD dissertation from a young physics student. Yet the student went on to change the scientific world forever. Who was he? It was Albert Einstein.
When a sixteen-year-old student got his report card from his rhetoric teacher in school, the note attached to it said: ‘A conspicuous lack of success. He refused to let it demoralise him. Who was he? Winston Churchill; one of the greatest orators known in history. The same story could be told for many successful people. They were scorned and rejected at the onset of their careers but never allowed this to put them down. They had to encourage themselves and stayed motivated otherwise we would never have heard of them today. Successful people all have one thing in common: they are self-motivated, they have a burning desire to succeed and do not allow setbacks to derail them. Successful people are self-motivated and disciplined to achieve there dreams. Motivation gets you started and self-discipline and the force of habit keeps you going and the more you go, the more motivated you become. Because motivation likes to jump on an already moving bandwagon.
Motivation likes to ride a vehicle already in motion! (Yomi Akinpelu)
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to get someone to motivate us every morning and anytime we were feeling low? However the truth is that that’s not how life works. You have to develop your own inbuilt self-motivation mechanism or machine and then you have to fuel it with self-discipline.
Success can be a slow process but quitting isn’t going to speed it up.
This might sound like a contradiction, but don’t count on motivation. Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning, don’t wait for it, don’t expect it to come suddenly…wham! and sweep you off your feet and carry you on puffy clouds of ease to do that task. Guess what? It’s not coming! Even if it does, it does not stay for long. That is why people attend seminars and conferences; get all fired up and motivated but after about a week or two nothing comes out of it. Motivation is not something that someone else e.g. a coach, teacher, parent, spouse etc. can force or bestow on you. Forget motivation and just do it. Do it without motivation and then – guess what? After you get going and start doing the task or project, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep doing it! When you’re actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it and if you keep going through the force of habit, motivation will also bring along his siblings, mum, dad and even some members of its extended family. Here’s a motivational quote to get you going!
People who wonder whether the glass is half empty or half full are missing the point. The glass is REFILLABLE.
Author: Yomi is a wordsmith, passionate about books, reading, education, healing and health. She has appeared several times on television and radio; speaking about her passion. She has Master’s degree in Medical Immunology from the College of Medicine, University of London and worked at a postgraduate college of medicine in London for over a decade before pursuing her passion for writing. She is the author of four books.
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