Tell Me Why!

Its quite funny how motivation works,  there have been countless books written about it, and studies carried out.   So to give you an example, I recall a few years ago, while I was still working in corporate, I used to find it really difficult to wake up as early as I wanted to, and found I had to set multiple alarms.  All I wanted to do was to snooze it and delay getting up, as long as it was logically and practically possible.

During the same period, I spent a night over at a friend’s place as we were going to drive her son to his school, really early like at about 5am we had to get here for, and my friend could not drive as she had an operation on her eyes. Now I woke up, and not only did I wake up, I sprung out of bed and really and truly was well awake and ready to go. No desire to snooze. why was this second scenario easier, it was my motivation,

I was doing something I loved, ok it was not the waking up ultra early that I loved, it was helping out my friend, who is very dear to me, more like my sister.  I did not have that sense of joy when I was waking up to go to work early.   I remember thinking at the time, that if only I felt this good when I woke up for work, and therein awakened the seeds of discontent. That though is a story for another blog post, I just wanted to stay with motivation here.

Do you make new year’s resolutions? What is it that makes you set them, are they a resolve to do things you want to do, or things you feel you should do?  Which ones do you follow through on?  Don’t tell me, let me guess, its not the ones that you feel you should right, those ones tend to feel a bit like hard work, not worth the effort all too obligatory, I am sure you understand what I mean.

Why you want something is just as important as the what, sometimes it can be more important. The reason for this is that’s where your drive to go after those things is going to come from.  They are likely to be part of a wider purpose.

Let me give you an other example.  Suppose I have a burning desire to help people,  with a medical condition because of losing someone to that condition. I may choose to do this by becoming a doctor.  So my lofty why is that I want to help people with this condition.  In order to do this, I decide to become a Doctor.  To become a doctor I have to go to medical school. Medical school with have its challenges, and I may at times feel like dropping out. However I am more likely to persevere, when I recall why I wanted to become a Doctor in the first place.  The why is not likely to change although sometimes the how can change. So if I failed at medical school, I may persevere, or change onto a nursing degree which will still entail helping people.  Does this make sense?

I encourage you to set goals, to create your life, but if you do this without reason, then whenever there is a set back, and believe me there will be setbacks, then your path will be difficult and you may find it easier to quit.  Therefore is really important that you decide what you want to do and why, then  set your goals around that.

What motivates you?  Let me know in the comments below or email me at nike@nikeakiti.com I’d really love to hear about it.

Whatever you are doing, smile, be kind to yourself and have a lovely day.

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