Here is something from my archives that goes with the Motivation videos

“To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for grated.”– George Kneller

Motivation has been defined as something that descends upon us, it has been said to come from someone or something to us.  People have looked up the hierarchal ladder for leaders to give motivation and for those who are “up the ladder,” they look to subordinates to get motivated. Motivation is elusive although we want and expect a lot from it.

We generally know motivation when we feel it, but what is it really, and how do we go about getting some?

What I know about motivation:

• You do not give it or receive it, although you can hinder or support the process; motivation is already possessed.
• It is naturally accessible. Nature has provided you the ability and means to motivate.
• When you access it, you are accessing your energy supply, your Power and roots of your potential.
• Motivation moves, grows and changes with you.
• Motivation is a process.

According to the psychologist, Abraham Maslow, we are motivated instinctively to meet what he calls “deficit” or basic survival needs first and foremost.  They are called deficit needs because without meeting those, our ability to survive is in deficit.

The higher needs, which we will call, “intrinsic,” Maslow calls, “being needs,” address higher self-actualization.  When these higher needs are met, individuals and collectives transform and therefore, evolve; an individual is motivated and a whole community can be too.

Joseph Campbell (a renowned scholar and sociologist) refers to the quest to meet higher needs as different from the status quo as, traveling a Left Hand Path.  In other words, most of us are in a continual cycle of addressing survival needs, even if they are already really met.  In order to get past perceived survival you must recognize the beliefs you have developed around the business of your surviving.

Imagine that your intrinsic motivation is a river that runs through your life.  As you grow and experience life, brambles and bush grow obstructing your way to that river from the strategies and beliefs acquired as a result of meeting survival needs.  Brambles and bush are some form of perceived control, a way of believing, that usually no longer serves you and actually impedes your ability to thrive and evolve.  You will want to begin to transform those obstacles to get a clear view of the river, or literally you will go nowhere.

Most of the striving work lies in being able to get the river in your sight past the obstacles, whatever your obstacles may be.  The paradox is, by addressing the obstacles, it helps you see the river clearly, otherwise, maybe, you would have just taken it for granted?

This analysis does not have to be a long, dragged out process.  It can be, and often is, fun, and freeing.  Coaches, mentors, counselors or any reasonably objective support, can help you reflect on what your obstacles may be.  Personal assessment tools such as the one in Chapter 2 and 3 of my first book, Finding Power Passion and Joy Being at Work A Unique Coaching System for Becoming Your Own Mentor and Leader (soon available for download), can serve as an objective, useful tool as well.

“Your Strengths are your weaknesses, and your weaknesses are your strengths” –mary

I recommend you check out the various personal assessment tools and books such as the ones I have listed on “We Recommend” to help reflect on what your strengths are, as well as, what your obstacles may be.

If assessment tools are not for you, try interviewing those who know you.  Ask them what they think your strengths and obstacles may be, and most importantly, why they have that opinion or what their evidence is.  I suggest you write the information in a journal so you can work with it over the next few days of the tutorial.

Your notes may look something like this;

Strengths                   Obstacle                                             Evidence

Sensitivity            Difficulty making my own decisions     Think of others most of the time, Concerned with what others think

Independence     Am on my own most of the time        I Am quite capable of many things, I often do not accept other’s help

Until next time, Be Real!  Wishing you a good journey on your way to Making it Real for you…

 Mary