I recently saw a video clip of a heavy set young woman running behind a car.
The car’s trunk is open, and a young man is sitting in the car’s trunk facing the running woman. In the man’s hand is a stack of one dollar bills, and as the woman chases the car, the man repeatedly hands the woman a one dollar bill. If she keeps running, she gets more dollars. If she can’t keep up with the car, she gets no more money.
Crazy? Maybe.
Effective? Only in the short term.
Is it realistic to do this every time she goes running? Probably not.
Which raises two questions:
First, what will motivate you in the short term to just get started on your next project? What will get you moving right now?
And what will keep you moving in the right direction over the long haul?
For example, if your goal is to write a book, then maybe treating yourself to a night out once you have your outline completed will get you started. But you can’t treat yourself to a night out for each milestone, can you? Maybe you can. But more likely this won’t continue to motivate you.
So what will keep you moving over the long haul to achieve your big goals? If you’re like most people, it’s focusing on the reason WHY you’re doing what you’re doing.
Take a moment and see your future once you’ve completed the goal. Is the picture motivating? Good.
Now keep replaying that ‘reason why’ in your head over and over and over again until you reach your goal.
This is what motivates people to do great things – focusing on that big reason of WHY they are doing it.
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