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motivation
Sep. 28th, 2011 10:18 pmToday at Weight Watchers, the leader Gwen told us about a motivation exercise she had seen done. Someone draws a picture of a river, a forest, and a mountain. They you're asked, what would it take to get you to walk from the river up the mountain?
My first thought was "mosquitoes." To get away from the mosquitoes at the river.
My second thought was "for the view."
Other people said "to help a friend" or "to find a treasure" or some such.
The point is, the answer you make tells you something about your personality, about what motivates you. I am motivated by negative goals. Those are what get me moving. And that's fine--whatever works.
But here's the thing: the negative goals only take you so far. Like, I wouldn't make it all the way up the mountain in that scenario. I would stop when the mosquitoes stopped bugging me or I felt safe from the rising water. There has to be something else pulling me up the mountain. Gwen said something similar, that negative goals are like someone giving you a push on an inflatable float, but you'll make better progress if you have something to pull you.
So, what's my pull? What's the view I want to see?
My mosquitoes are easy. My clothes are too tight and I don't like my profile. Mostly I have so much else going on that I just spray on bug spray and stay where I'm at.
The view could be lots of nice new clothes . . . but I don't have money, and I can buy new clothes when I drop 2 sizes, so that won't carry me all the way. The view could be a long life, but that's hard for me to believe in. Accidents happen, after all. The view could be increased mobility when I'm old--but that's so far away. I'm having trouble with this.
Ultimately at this stage I don't need to find the longterm motivation. I just need to do something about the bugs for now, and then later on I can look for the view.
My first thought was "mosquitoes." To get away from the mosquitoes at the river.
My second thought was "for the view."
Other people said "to help a friend" or "to find a treasure" or some such.
The point is, the answer you make tells you something about your personality, about what motivates you. I am motivated by negative goals. Those are what get me moving. And that's fine--whatever works.
But here's the thing: the negative goals only take you so far. Like, I wouldn't make it all the way up the mountain in that scenario. I would stop when the mosquitoes stopped bugging me or I felt safe from the rising water. There has to be something else pulling me up the mountain. Gwen said something similar, that negative goals are like someone giving you a push on an inflatable float, but you'll make better progress if you have something to pull you.
So, what's my pull? What's the view I want to see?
My mosquitoes are easy. My clothes are too tight and I don't like my profile. Mostly I have so much else going on that I just spray on bug spray and stay where I'm at.
The view could be lots of nice new clothes . . . but I don't have money, and I can buy new clothes when I drop 2 sizes, so that won't carry me all the way. The view could be a long life, but that's hard for me to believe in. Accidents happen, after all. The view could be increased mobility when I'm old--but that's so far away. I'm having trouble with this.
Ultimately at this stage I don't need to find the longterm motivation. I just need to do something about the bugs for now, and then later on I can look for the view.