How Do You Stay Motivated?

One of my college professors in my under graduate program once told my class, “There’s no such thing as motivation.” Of course, he got our attention.

Our little pea-brains began spinning trying to prove him wrong. He had a way of setting us up like that. It never worked, he was always right.

How could there be no such thing as motivation? All of us had read books and articles and listened to many lectures and sermons about motivation. Maybe he had something left over from being too out of it in the 60’s? Hard to tell.

Well, when you think about it, what do most people mean when they talk about motivation? What do you mean by it?

What it meant to me was the “umph” to get things done even when I didn’t feel like it. Especially when oceanic like currents were pulling my attention out to sea almost every day.

Motivation was that thingy that helped me get out of bed early in the morning to go to work or get a 30 page term paper done. It was that stuff that got me as far into my college work as I was. Surely it was something that existed.

But, he helped us to understand that what we call motivation, is really our priorities. He said, “There’s no such thing as motivation, only priorities.”

What is most important to you deep inside of your innermost heart is your priority. Not just what you tell others or yourself is important. It’s what you authentically hold most dear.

Just telling yourself that achieving a certain goal or making a certain amount of money is “more important than anything else in the world,” means nothing if it’s not a priority in your innermost self.

How can you tell if something is a high enough priority in your deepest soul? By the results in your life.

The results are the fruit that flow forth from your inner root system. The root system that taps into your inner soul. It feeds from what you really mean and what you truly value.

Jesus said in Matthew 12:33, “A tree Is known by its fruit. Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.”

Knock yourself out by reading “motivational quotes,” watching “motivational videos,” going to motivational webinars and seminars if you want to. They’ll amount to precisely nothing until what you truly want becomes one of your highest priorities.

Until then, whatever is a high priority will keep popping up and dragging you into it relentlessly. If it’s a helpful priority, that can be a good thing. If it’s a useless priority, it’s not so good.

The good news is that there are ways for you to change your priorities.  One way starts with a decision and a clearly stated priority.

Be crystal clear about the new priority that you desire to plant deep into your soul to be the new IT programmer deep down. Be willing to let go of any old priority that competes with the new one.

Next, declare it into existence over and over. Use a form of decree such as, “I choose as an act of my will for this new priority to be one of my most important priorities.” Meditate on it. Visualize it. Declare it over and over.

Eventually it’ll take root and take over. Only if you’ve truly decided for it to take over.

The word, “decide” is a word that means to cut off all alternatives, but one. In a bacon and egg breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. You need to be all in. No excuses.