 | Don't fall into the habit of finding excuses not to take action |
| Sometimes it's good not to take action. It's just not called for under some circumstances and can actually make things worse. I've written about this before. |
| Understand some of the roots of poor motivation |
| I was in a gym class today lifting barbells, when I looked around. You could see everyone was having a hard time of it. I attend that same class regularly, and it's common to get people who turn up a couple of times and then never come back. If you just look at the obesity epidemic, it's clear a lot of people don't get as much exercise as they should. |
| Make the unknown known |
| What prevents us from doing what we know we should? What is the root cause of procrastination? Why is it that even when we can clearly see what needs to be done, still we're paralysed? These are difficult questions. And of course, there's no simple answer. |
| Don't let your problems be because of laziness |
| We all have problems. Something is missing from each of our lives. And that may be driving you a little bit crazy. Perhaps you have difficulty finding love. Perhaps your financial situation isn't so good. Maybe you're unhappy in your work. Maybe you have some kind of health problem. |
| Face some moments of truth |
| What leads us to want to improve ourselves? Where is it that we can even find out how such an improvement can occur? The answer, generally is in moments of truth. |
| The responsibility for learning lies with the student |
| We are all too used to having things served up for us on a silver platter these days. If our coffee order takes more than a few minutes, we feel it's unacceptable. If our train is slightly late, it ruins our day. If we have to wait more than a few seconds for a website to load, we click somewhere else. |
| Fill your life up with interesting stuff |
| We all feel a bit down sometimes. "To be or not to be, that is the question;" Shakespeare's Hamlet famously said. "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer, The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing, end them." |
| Improvement usually requires suffering |
| We all want to be better people. We want to be smarter, wiser, stronger and more beautiful. Look at any magazine rack in any supermarket, and you'll see that self-improvement is on a lot of people's minds. |
| Be willing to crash and burn sometimes |
| We all have trouble dealing with failure. We play so many mental tricks on ourselves in order to pretend we aren't avoiding it, that they can sometimes become all consuming. At night, while asleep, we have terrible nightmares of others disapproval, or the world rejecting us. |
| Learn how to say "What the heck" |
| We all worry needlessly. We stress and grind our teeth over stuff that never happens. Every move, at times, can seem like it will cause it all to come crashing down around us. No wonder we find it so hard to motivate ourselves when there's so much at stake. |
| Play out in the real world, not imaginary ones |
| One of the blessings and the curses of modern life is the endless potential for us to get lost in imaginary worlds. Television, books, games, the internet, magazines and many other fantasy environments beckon us from every direction. |
| It's not going to just fall into your lap |
| I meet a lot of people who are dissatisfied with their lives. They feel they don't have enough money, enough love or enough recognition. They see others around them getting all the rewards while they're passed by for the good things in life. |
| The world is filled with opportunity |
| A few years back, I was doing some computer contracting for one of the biggest banks in the world. One day, an email was sent around by management requesting the entire information technology department attend a meeting in the conference room. |
| Put a little bit of effort towards improving your situation every day |
| The world, as I'm sure you've already noticed, can sometimes be a very tough place. Achieving things you thought would be easy can turn out to be ridiculously difficult. Problems you never foresaw can appear suddenly and take over your life. |
| If you're not falling over sometimes, you're not trying hard enough |
| When I was a kid, my family used to go skiing a lot. We lived only a few hours drive from the ski-fields, and my parents belonged to a club that had a lodge there. My brother and I used to love going out onto the slopes and racing each other to the bottom. |
| Don't get too easily discouraged |
| Occasionally, you may come across someone who appears as if they were born an expert in something. Perhaps it's sport, meeting people, business or family. Some of us just seem to be stars, while others are common. |
| A good trick for maintaining an open mind |
| Few people in today's world would admit that they don't have an open mind. Of course, everyone has a different definition of what an open mind entails. There are some behaviours I'm sure you would find totally unacceptable, that others may think are okay. And vica-versa. |
| You're alive! Isn't it a bloody miracle? |
| Sometimes we all get so caught up in our day-to-day routine, that we forget what a miracle it is that we're here at all. Take a moment to look up from these words and look around you. Take in the smells, the sounds, the detail of the scene. You're alive, for God's sake. Right here, right now you exist. |
| Always be improving the quality of your rules of thumb |
| When I was at university, I remember attending a really interesting lecture about maps and what they tell us about how we think. Maps are something I'd never spent a lot of time thinking about before. After all, they just seemed like a type of tool - useful but boring. |
| Work on breaking down the walls in your mind |
| When I was younger, I used to be terrible at starting conversations with strangers. This was true even when they were reasonably familiar. There might be somebody who sat next to me every day in class and who I thought looked interesting, but I just couldn't bring myself to talk to them. |