Self-motivation is essential in all facets of life. We can't wait to find the right group of people to have fun, the ideal partner to act with commitment, the profession of our dreams to achieve our goals, or the perfect business to generate great results.
All this must come from within, from sufficient self-motivation to achieve enjoyment, personal and professional development that lead us to feel full. Today we will see what it is, and what we can do to increase self-motivation, thus making it easier for us to fulfill our commitment.
Self motivation
Self-motivation is the key to starting a task and completing it, according to Weisinger. It is: «Need-Motive-Stimulus-Action-Results».
It is personal motivation, commitment to ourselves that moves us to achieve our goals. It allows us to find the strength to overcome the obstacles we encounter along the way.
On many occasions we act according to the wishes or needs of others. This is good when it is done for love and once in a while. The problem arises when we do it to please and it becomes a way of life, since we are relegated to a second term with all that that entails.
Commitment
The word commitment is used to describe an obligation that has been contracted or a word already given. Sometimes a commitment is a promise or a statement of principle. On the other hand, the concept of commitment also sometimes refers to a difficulty in doing something.
Regarding self-motivation, the commitment is with ourselves. The obligation is self-contracted, and the fact of not having been written or verbalized does not diminish the importance of the obligation contracted. However, it is usual that we give more importance to commitment to others than to self-acquired with ourselves, a fact that lowers our self-esteem and increases our frustration.
How to increase our self-motivation and commitment
According to Weisinger, the four sources of self-motivation that we can turn to are:
- Ourselves: Our thoughts, our moral response, our past experiences, our behavior. Others: Sympathetic friends, family and colleagues who are called “our A team.” An “emotional mentor”: A real or fictional person to take as an example., inspiration, or model. It can be a coach. Our environment: air, light, sounds, light and other stimuli.
It also tells us that the way in which we decide to use different sources of self-motivation and face adversities, should include:
- Confidence, which gives us the security of having the capacity to achieve our goals. Optimism, gives us hope that the results will be positive. Tenacity, which keeps us focused on the task at hand. Enthusiasm, which allows us to enjoy the process. Resistance, which allows us to start again, from scratch.
The key is in the objectives that we set ourselves. Depending on how much we care about those goals, and how realistic the expected results are, it will be more or less easy to fulfill our commitment and maintain self-motivation. So be very clear about your ideas before making the decision to commit to yourself.
There are things we can do to increase our self-motivation by making it easier to fulfill our commitment.
"The true seeker grows and learns, and discovers that he is always the main responsible for what happens." Jorge Bucay
