Podcast Episode #55
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Extraordinary Life Podcast from the creator of the Extraordinary Life Tribe, Crystal Obregon, the self-development podcast propelling you forward toward your goals, using science backed high performance habits. Reach the next level in your physical and mental health. See new heights in your relationships.
[00:00:18] Gain clarity on your purpose and live your extraordinary life. Welcome your host, writer, speaker and coach Crystal Obregon. Hey there, this is Crystal of Crystal Obregon Coaching with Episode Number 55 of the Extraordinary Life Podcast. We're officially much----- over halfway through the year and whether you made New Year's resolutions or not, you probably started off the year with some formal or informal goals.
[00:00:51] In fact, you may have noticed that you started off with a lot more motivation than you may have right now. [00:01:00] If you've ever noticed that your motivation wains after the initial goal --setting, then this is the series of podcasts for you. The rest of this month, I will be talking about the different parts of motivation.
[00:01:15] And today I'm going to start with talking about what motivation is and why you need it. It might seem obvious, but bear with me here. Motivation is something everyone has inside of them. When you wish to do something, it's simply because you are motivated to do it. People invent, discover, adventure and interact all due to the motivation inside of.
[00:01:46] There are many different things that can motivate you to do something and even to not do something in your life. The only way to really understand motivation is to relate to the situations in which you need [00:02:00] it. And that just so happens to be everywhere. There's no one who can claim they've never been motivated to do something.
[00:02:08] In this series, I'm going to take you on a journey to find ways to make the best of your motivation. So, what is motivation? Going by the dictionary definition, motivation is defined as a reason or set of reasons to accomplish something or behave in a particular manner. It's a form of driving force we all have, which pushes its own pedal
[00:02:36] when it sees an opportunity. It goes hand in hand with the sixth of the high performance habits, raising necessity. To state it simply motivation becomes the driving ambition to have something accomplished in life. This motivation can help you figure out problems when you're stuck, get over overwhelming [00:03:00] emotions and help you aim for new height.
[00:03:03] We all have ambitions, dreams, and aspirations, and the more you allow your motivation to inspire you, the more you can get done. It can also help you overcome habits. Things like drinking and smoking can stop when you're motivated to see the end of it, or even something like not eating foods with gluten in them or not drinking coffee. With motivation, you're driven by feeling of willingness and inspiration
[00:03:32] that makes you a lot more ready to take action for or against yourself. There's little debate that motivation is the key to progress. You must develop your own passions in order to evolve in life. When you want to grow or improve yourself, you have to try new things. Without doing that, you won't achieve things like self recognition and respect, which are vital [00:04:00] aspects in a healthy life.
[00:04:03] You may not realize it, but you motivate yourself every day in many small ways. For instance, if you're listening to this podcast, you've just motivated yourself because chances are you're here because you'd like to better some aspect of your life. On a more generic level, you might go to work because there's the motivation of a paycheck at the end of the month, you work hard so that you can earn appreciation or acknowledgement among your peers, or perhaps you have the ability to do something you love that motivates you to get up every morning and go to work.
[00:04:43] If you have a great boss at work, someone who takes time out to know their employees or appreciates a job, well done, then maybe that's what motivates you to go to work and give it your best. You may also motivate yourself in many other [00:05:00] everyday situations. If you're a giver or someone that wishes to help others, you may be motivated to donate your time or money to a cause.
[00:05:10] If you're driven by a desire for achievement, you may spend hours studying just to get into a prestigious university. Likewise, if self-expression drives you, you may be motivated to become a writer, artist, or musician. If you're an athlete, then perhaps you're driven by the thrill of a sport. The challenge of winning the game, or you're simply driven by playing at your personal best.
[00:05:36] At its simplest, this is what motivation is. It can come from yourself or someone else may push you to do something. Whatever the source, motivation is the initiative to succeed and surpass limits you or anyone else draws for you. There are many situations in which motivation can affect your decisions, [00:06:00] but they don't all come from the same motivator.
[00:06:03] Some things require a big step to take action while others like the above mentioned just need a little shove to get you going. And that's the magic of motivation. There are different motivators that occur in your life to help you get going. Some motivators are big, like quitting a job, or moving from one city to another.
[00:06:26] These motivators, get you on your feet for change almost immediately. You're going to need a job. So you have to work for one as soon as possible. And you can see raising your necessity is popping in again. A smaller motivation could be getting a limited time two for one deal at the mall. You may not realize it, but at that moment, you've been motivated to take that deal and buy the product.
[00:06:54] It may be the typical marketing strategy, but it's the ideal example of [00:07:00] motivation for it gets you to act quickly by setting a time limit on the deal. Other than big and small motivators, they're also positive and negative motivators. Positive motivators are those that inspire you to do something because you know the end result is good.
[00:07:20] An example could be putting together a baby crib. If you're a new parent, it might be a lot of work, especially if this is your first attempt. But you're still ready to do it because you know you're going to need a bed to place your child in or the clean laundry. That's what happened with ours. That proves motivating enough for parents and they willingly assemble the crib for their child.
[00:07:47] Being your own boss may mean working 80 hours a week, but it spares you the hassle of working 40 hours a week for someone else. In other words, it gives you the freedom to make your own [00:08:00] decisions and work with the feeling of self-worth. These are what positive motivators are. Negative motivators are those things in life that encourage you to do something because you know if you don't do them, you'll end up with a bad after taste.
[00:08:18] This doesn't make negative motivators, the alternative of positive motivators. With a positive motivator, you act upon it out of your own free will. However, negative motivators are still very much needed, but you don't do it entirely out of your free will. Deadlines are the best examples for this case.
[00:08:39] When you're given a deadline, it means you have to maybe hand in work or face consequences. You don't want. So the motivator that makes you finish your work on time is to avoid the possible adverse result, which is what makes it a negative motivator. They can be [00:09:00] pesky, but sometimes the only way to get things done is to have those negative motivators.
[00:09:06] For example, I'm motivated to record this podcast by both positive and negative motivators. I want to record a podcast every week because it fuels my mission to help women and men get to know themselves better so that they can create an extraordinary life. I follow a deadline because if I don't meet the deadline, then it means that the person, my husband, that produces the podcast has to rush.
[00:09:38] And it could also mean that my assistant that helps out by writing the podcast notes and puts it into the blog form also has to rush. It would be one thing if I was only putting myself out, but I consider it a negative consequence if I put other people out and, [00:10:00] and affect their lives. Of course, while all of these things motivate, there can also be situations in which they demotivate you like the third law of Newton for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
[00:10:16] Motivation helps you turn an idea into an action and is typically a positive feeling. The feeling of accomplishment and commitment de-motivation is the opposite of this. It's the perception that you can accomplish anything or enable or unfit to, and is the gloomy feeling to carry around like a brick pulling down on your stomach.
[00:10:40] It makes you feel bad and in common cases, lethargic. De-motivation isn't always in your control. A bad day or experience can keep you from doing something about it, making you feel bad about yourself. For example, you may have a horrible experience driving a stick shift on your first [00:11:00] try. And no matter how many times you try to tell yourself it'll be different
[00:11:04] the next time, you succumb to the failure of the previous try and don't try it again. Another example is while one person may feel motivated by a potential promotion, another may be demotivated by it. The first person might see it as an ideal opportunity to achieve a higher position in work among colleagues.
[00:11:29] The second person may feel demotivated because they think their chances at getting their position is less than the first person. This is an example of positive motivation, but at the same time, it's an unintentional method of de-motivating someone else. So while you may feel motivated to bring a delicious crusty apple pie to your picnic, someone else may feel demotivated by your excellent [00:12:00] dessert and not bring one at all.
[00:12:02] Sometimes it's out of your control if you demotivate others, but sometimes it isn't and just takes a little consideration to see. Simply enough, there are times when you'll be demotivated and it never feels good, but demotivated emotions should never keep you down and instead remind you that there's something to get done.
[00:12:26] And if you don't do it, who else will do it for you? So the basic idea here is that de-motivation is the countering effect of motivation. It's a block that prevents you from becoming motivated and it's cure is if anything, motivation. So you can see how complicated motivation can be in the end. It really is a mind game.
[00:12:53] You know how we talked about our thoughts and beliefs and circumstances a few weeks ago, go back and listen to [00:13:00] that because you can see where that if you're feeling demotivated, there's some thought that is causing that feeling of demotivation. Next week, I will talk more about the mind game of motivation.
[00:13:17] In between now and then start noticing what motivates you and what doesn't. Even notice when you're feeling demotivated and what thought might be causing that. Is it when you compare yourself to others that appear to be accomplishing something that you're not, or is it when you realize that the goal you set isn't as easy to accomplish as you thought it would be?
[00:13:44] The first step in creating change is always to notice what's going on inside of your own head. If you want help in learning how to motivate yourself to achieve the goals that make up your extraordinary life, please do reach [00:14:00] out to me and schedule an appointment to chat, to see if we're a good fit to work together.
[00:14:05] I can help. My contact details are also in the show notes. And that's it for now. Have a great rest of your day, and I will see you in here next week. Bye for now.
[00:14:21] Thank you for listening to the Extraordinary Life Podcast with writer and coach, Crystal Obregon. We'd love to connect with you outside of the podcast, too. To find more helpful insights, show notes and more about Crystal,
[00:14:32] go to Crystal Obregon.com that's O B R E G O N, where you'll also find info for the Design Your Decade workshop. This workshop will help you to stop drifting and start creating. Until next time, be extraordinary.