Welcome to Motivational Mondays, your weekly PEP, (Proactive, Empowered, Performance), talk with Mark Kent.
How was your week? Have you found the power of accountability? Did you notice increased productivity when you promoted responsibility and accountability as a method of sustaining motivation?
Yes, you can leverage the need to be accepted and liked as a powerful motivator towards completing tasks. And, as you become more familiar with this technique you will notice a significant improvement in your ability to stay task focused.
Last week I discussed the advantages of giving others the power to remind us and make us accountable for our stated plans and endevours as an effective way to stay motivated.
From my previous Motivational Mondays you would realize this technique as the power of controlling external motivators (see archives).
External motivators whether interpersonal or environmental can have a tremendous impact upon your behaviour especially when it comes to motivation.
Ever notice at times you may not feel like completing a particular task but once you get into the situation how much easier it seems?
How about not feeling like going to the gym or starting the yard work or completing the laundry? Once you get into the situation, motivation seems to improve. This is due in part to the Action first Principle (see archives) as well as the power of external influences.
Becoming more aware of environmental influences and learning to manipulate them in your favor can be an effective tool to promote task completion. This is the technique I call TILTING THE SCALE BEFORE THE WEIGH IN.
What this really means is, the more you can control the external environment towards increasing the probability towards a desired outcome the greater the chance you will actually achieve it.
Lets say it's in the evening and you have allot of house work to do the next day but due to pressing responsibilities, avoidance, and forgetting, it just isn't getting done.
Maybe you have plans to go to the gym but before you know it, it's time to pick up the kids or some other responsibility looms ahead.
You know by now that environmental cues (reminders) can be effective in promoting the likelihood of completing a particular task, even if you aren't motivated to do it.
For example, regarding the housework, if you get the vacuum cleaner out the night before and put it where you will practically trip over it in the morning, that increases the chance you will complete that task that you might otherwise be able to avoid (i.e. out of site out of mind).
Also, telling your friends and others who typically drop by or call that you will be busy in the morning and to contact you later in the day, again shapes the environment in your favor to complete a task that you would otherwise be distracted from or sabotaged by others.
Planning to go to bed earlier, packing your gym bag the night before with the idea of getting up in the morning to work out increase the probability you will actually complete that task.
Preparing and manipulating external influences in the present to promote outcomes in the future is the essence of tilting the scales before the weigh in.
The more you promote proactive behaviours that enhance future outcomes the easier it is to become proficient and more productive in your aspirations and daily endevours.
Practice this empowering technique and see for yourself how much more productive and motivated you will become over the long haul.
Next week I will discuss with you the power of visualization and how it can help you stay task focused and improve your motivation.
If you have a friend and or colleague that you believe would enjoy Motivational Mondays then just submit their email address and they will automatically receive this free information, how awesome is that.
Thanks for the opportunity to serve you.
To your productivity, empowerment and motivation,
Mark
