Transforming Inspiration into Motivation and Achievement
When witnessing an event or person that inspires us, we feel uplifted, joyful or moved in some way. Then, our creativity and drive click in.
Inspiration can come from objects, too. For instance, an architecturally unique house, a sleek new car or the latest kitchen gadget may inspire you, motivating you to work towards buying them. Or an inspirational person will fire you up into wanting to improve your skills to achieve more, filling you with enthusiasm.
When you’re inspired, that feeling of motivation comes from wanting something – to get fitter, learn a musical instrument, become the CEO of your workplace, buy that yacht. It’s motivation that prompts you to act. Without action, none of your dreams can come true.
This all begs a crucial question: How do you bring that inspiration inwards and turn it into motivation that you can maintain, allowing you to genuinely achieve the success you need and want?
Definition of Motivation: Derived from ‘motive’, the needs, desires, wants or drives within an individual. A process to stimulate action to accomplish goals.
There are four words wrapped up within the word ‘motivation’: Desire, Need, Want and Drive. When you witness something inspiring, connect that feeling to at least one of those words. That way, you’re continuously motivated into taking the best course of action to achieve whatever it is.
- DESIRE: Why do you want it? I always wanted to be my best. When I started doing judo, aged seven, I wasn’t very good. But once I started to win medals, my desire to gain more kept me motivated to be my best to win Paralympic medals.
- NEED: What do you need? It may ‘simply’ be money to have a comfortable life. For me, when training with the Paralympic team, I still had to eat and pay the bills, so I needed a job to fund that. My motivation to get and keep a job was that need for money to look after my family. Purpose comes into ‘need’, too; I’ll explain how in my next newsletter.
- WANT: This reminds me of Captain Sir Tom Moore, that inspirational man who wanted to help the NHS and others at the beginning of the pandemic. He wanted to help so much that he was motivated to walk 100 miles in his garden.
- DRIVE: What drives you? Are you driven to rise through the ranks and become a Director of the organisation? Or to be a successful business owner, move to another country, become a well-known speaker or actor? One great example is the rugby players who, inspired by Rob Burrow and others, were driven to do the 7 in 7 Challenge to raise much needed funds for MND (Motor Neurone Disease) research.
Keep this equation in mind:
Inspiration + Motivation – Procrastination = ACHIEVEMENT!
Cut the Procrastination
Are you easily distracted by shiny, new things? Do you waste time playing with new software or researching lawnmowers when you should be making sales calls? Then it’s time to remember what your purpose is. Because when you remember your purpose – your ultimate goal – and link it to the task in hand, then you can focus on what needs doing.
So, find your inspiration to fire up your motivation. Then remind yourself of your purpose (more about that in my next newsletter), to become actively focused on achieving what you need, want or desire.
