And so the rollercoaster starts – motivated by fear, you spring into action. Fear goes
away, you lose motivation. Fear comes back, and you’re back in action, etc., etc.
Fear may motivate but it’s not the best way to create success in your life.
Myth 4: I am not motivated
Not true! (Unless you are severely clinically depressed.) Everyone is motivated about
something – even if it’s to lie in bed on a Sunday morning. Ever “desperately”
wanted that glass of wine at the end of the day? That’s motivation. You believe you
aren’t motivated when you don’t want to do the things that you feel you SHOULD be
doing. When you feel like doing something that you believe you SHOULD be doing
then you say you’re motivated.
Motivation is merely a strong desire to do something (whether you feel you should
or shouldn’t). You ARE experiencing that feeling on a regular basis.
Myth 5: Motivation is only for work tasks
Not true! People are motivated to do all sorts of different things: play sport, build
strong relationships, to be more spiritual, to sleep on the couch on a Sunday
afternoon, to climb mountains and swim in freezing rivers..... The list is endless.
Motivation is merely a strong desire to do something.
Myth 6: Giving rewards motivates people
Not entirely true! Like fear, it can result in getting people to do things that they may
not really want to do. This way of motivating is called extrinsic motivation.
The problem with this method of motivating people is that they’ll focus on getting
the task done as quickly and effortlessly as possible because their eye is on the
reward and not on the task. They’re motivated to get the reward. They’re not
motivated to do the task well – simply to get it finished.
For example, when I’m filing papers (which is something I hate doing), I set a timer
for half an hour. I file furiously and when the half hour is done, I sit down with a nice
cup of tea and do something that I enjoy (like writing this book). The problem is that
sometimes I file documents in the wrong place because all I want is to get it over
with and have my tea. I don’t intend changing my way of getting the filing done
because most of the time this method works for me. However, this may not be a
useful method to motivate myself when I am coaching someone. “Let’s get this done