Welcome to Motivational Mondays with Mark Kent your weekly Proactive Empowerment Performance (PEP) talk with Mark Kent.
Have you felt empowered this week? Have you implemented some of the techniques, skills, and philosophies presented in Motivational Mondays?
Even rather minor and subtle changes in your behaviour and thoughts can have a huge impact upon your sense of control over daily challenges.
In fact one of the fundamental building blocks for empowerment evolves out of the sense we can make decisions that alter our environment towards our best interest.
Remember we talked last week that the rational brain's ultimate goal is to effectuate outcomes to our best interest.
The more you involve rational decision making in completing tasks the more consistent and task specific you will become rather than being reactive to randomness and external events.
Last week I stated that seeing is believing is doing.
This concept fits into the realm of the rational brain for many reasons.Just look at the proliferation of electronic gadgetry designed specifically for visual memory ie. computers cell phones palm pilots and blackberries.
We know that if our tasks and objectives are not visual they tend to get lost in short term memory and the clutter of more imposing and immediate tasks quickly take their place. Lacking motivation to finish projects can simply be an error in omission that has the same consequences as one of commission.
There is a Chinese proverb that says the faintest ink is better than the most retentive memory. As brilliant Einstein was, he was known for not remembering his phone number. Upon being asked why he replied 'don't clutter your mind with trivial information that is already written down - it's in the phone book, look it up.'
The utility of writing down tasks is necessary to maintaining consistent effort over time as visual memory tends to be retained into long term memory and is processed by the reasoning portion of the brain.
So just writing down tasks allows us to be more objective thus reducing emotional interference associated with procrastination and confusion.
Making an intent visual allows us to consistently ourselves of our intended obligations.
Research on performance clearly indicates that just by writing a task or plan down has a dramatic impact on increasing the probability the task will be completed regardless of how significant the task is.
For you to improve and maintain your motivation in completing your objectives, consider these suggestions:
1) Daily (preferably in the evening) review your list of priorities for the next day.
2) Write them down in planner or some electronic device that you can carry with you and update as the day evolves.
3) Set up a white board, list your major objectives for the week that you will constantly see in your environment. Check off your completions,erase, then add new ones on a weekly basis.
Your proficiency at completing tasks will dramatically increase as a result of the visual cues and perceived accountability.
Remember - Killing time is murdering opportunities.
Next week I will discuss how closure is crucial to motivation and performance .
What he three types of closure are and how you can improve your closure rate.
If you know a friend that you believe would enjoy Motivational Mondays just enter their email address from my site and they will automatically receive this free information. How awesome is that?
Once again it has been a privilege to serve you and share some ideas on motivation.
To your empowerment, prosperity, and motivation.
Mark Kent
