Why Is Self Motivation Important?

Having the ability to turn on self-motivation as an entrepreneur means that you give yourself greater control of the outcomes you are striving for. This ability also means putting yourself into situations where you minimize the loss of control. It means giving yourself an opportunity to be a bigger influence in the lives of your family and friends. Finally, it becomes a means of gaining greater satisfaction in the activities that you have chosen to complete.

So before we get started I want you to be crystal clear about what you’re hoping to gain and what should be the outcome of your reading. Use this answer to focus on the things I will share that will assist you in getting the outcomes you want. Let’s get started . . .

What Do I Mean By Self Motivation?

The dictionary.reference.com defines “self motivation” as follows:

“initiative to undertake or continue a task or activity without another’s prodding or supervision”

When speaking of motivation there are two general forms of it. You have intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is the motivation that comes from within or what we mean by “self-motivation”. Extrinsic motivation is that which comes from without or others. They both can lead to useful and positive outcomes. It should be noted that intrinsic motivation tends to have a higher follow through.

Self Motivation Doesn’t Happen For One Of Four Reasons

1. Chance To
   This is a systems problem. That is something in how you have set up your life is preventing you from the necessary motivation.
2. Want To
   This is a motivation problem. Self motivation doesn’t just show up by chance.
3. How To
   This is a training problem. This means that you are putting your resources in the wrong place.
4. Able To
   Not everyone is capable of doing everything. This is true even if they have access to the best training in the world.

You have heard me say it before but,”learning is behavior change”. So one great way to get motivated is to teach the thing you want to do to someone else.

How To Solve Your Self Motivation Issues

Now that we understand why self motivation is important, what it is and four main categories of why we don’t have it let’s look at some ways to get past them. This involves asking yourself four questions:

1. Is your lack of self motivation a problem caused by the system you’ve set-up?
   The solution here is to take inventory about your current set of habitual activities and eliminate the ones that hamper your motivation.
2. Are you simply not motivated?
   For you to get more motivated you have to also be willing to be more motivated. Are you willing?.
3. Do you know how to get more motivated?
   Reading this article with a definite purpose and outcome in mind is a starting solution for this. But understand that there are two training problems I am speaking of here. The first is not knowing what to do. In practice this is rarely the case. The second kind of training problem is that something psychological inside of us is preventing us from being motivated.
4. Are you able to get self motivated?
   You can get past this by using pre-selection. This means figure out what you are or can be motivated with and what you won’t be motivated with and putting time and efforts on the latter.