OH MY GOODNESS! MY EYES!!! Must FOCUS!!!
I’ve really been hammering the motivation and focus tips here lately… hmmm… probably something to that. :) Unconscious mind doing its thing no doubt. Oh and a nod to the LifeHacker article that threw a bunch of these types of articles together. I recommend subscribing to the LifeHacker RSS feed… pretty good stuff. Oh yeah, and want to know your top 3 motivators? Take the free Self-Motivation Test.
9 Ways to Motivational Focus Happy-Sauce:
1. Consequences – Never use threats. They’ll turn people against you. But making people aware of the negative consequences of not getting results (for everyone involved) can have a big impact. This one is also big for self motivation. If you don’t get your act together, will you ever get what you want?
6. Kindness – Get people on your side and they’ll want to help you. Piss them off and they’ll do everything they can to screw you over. [good old golden rule / “flies and honey”]
7. Deadlines – Many people are most productive right before a big deadline. They also have a hard time focusing until that deadline is looming overhead. Use this to your advantage by setting up a series of mini-deadlines building up to an end result. [don’t forget to add ‘startlines’, too! Procrastinators like me really get whipped into shape with a definite start and end date in mind]
10. Recognize achievement – Make a point to recognize achievements one-on-one and also in group settings. People like to see that their work isn’t being ignored. [this can’t be emphasized enough… especially if the audience is someone really close to you (like a spouse or child) – cummulative time together is not justification for diminished praise]
11. Personal stake – Think about the personal stake of others. What do they need? By understanding this you’ll be able to keep people happy and productive. [A general awareness of all sides of the table is always a good idea.]
13. Trust and Respect – Give people the trust and respect they deserve and they’ll respond to requests much more favorably.
15. Let people be creative – Don’t expect everyone to do things your way. Allowing people to be creative creates a more optimistic environment and can lead to awesome new ideas.
16. Constructive criticism – Often people don’t realize what they’re doing wrong. Let them know. Most people want to improve and will make an effort once they know how to do it.
18. Make it fun – Work is most enjoyable when it doesn’t feel like work at all. Let people have fun and the positive environment will lead to better results.
20. Communication – Keep the communication channels open. By being aware of potential problems you can fix them before a serious dispute arises.
Holes filled in over at this site.
Applying Motivations Driven Focus – Study *and* Do:
This bit of motivational goodness is especially useful to run through before your do your next round of resume / social network profile review. Remember the days of long ago when you did ‘pre-writing’ before your essay for English class? That wasn’t just for fun (ha!)… you were supposed to pick up the methods and skills involved. So do this, know thyself, and they will know you, too!
1. Write down five strengths: Physically write down five of the best elements of the work you do, including your skills and talents. Doing this will confirm how competent you are and will get you motivated to build on your current successes.
2. What are your reasons: Think about your reasons for wanting to promote yourself. Really focus on things that excite you here. This could be landing a huge client, supporting your family, selling more of your creations, or gaining renown in your industry. Now write down five of the primary reasons.
3. Define a single self-marketing goal: Think of the one thing you would like to achieve, in either the short-term or long-term, that is in line with your marketing reasons as above. This can be to book a new client, or to contribute a piece of work to an upcoming exhibition, for example.
Having a realistic goal written down in your calendar in this way will put your brain to work on seeking ways to achieve it, motivating you in the process.
4. Write down the self-promotional activities that will lead to success: For a self-marketing goal, identify all the activities likely to help you get there. Use past successes to help determine the most fruitful and necessary tasks. Write these out in a brief step-by-step list.
5. Define your rewards: Next to each major action step on the list you just made, as well as next to your self-marketing goal, write down a reward that you will give yourself on completing the step. Make the reward proportionate to the size of the step.
6. Tell others about your commitments: Announce your goals to your friends and family or through an online announcement, such as a blog post or tweet, for example. Sharing your goals will add a little supportive pressure to your marketing commitments.
7. Just get started: I’ll leave it to leadership guru John C. Maxwell’s quote to explain the value of this:
“The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it.”
Make and write a goal to perform this exercise… the power of writing something down (and assigning ‘startlines’ and deadlines) and following through is phenomenal. If you’re hungry for some more information, then pop on over here.
Looking for some free resources instead? Check out This Free Library of Books on Personal Development, Self Growth, and Motivation.