How Do You Find The Motivation You Need To Achieve Your Goals?

Motivation is quite a controversial notion, seen in many circles as something light, naive, even ridiculous. 

Much of society therefore repudiates this very useful notion. But what is motivation? Beyond the labels that can be put on it, what does it really mean?

To find out, you have to go back to the original meaning of the word. Motivation is motivating. It is therefore a question of finding reasons for his life. 

When we study for an exam, the reason we have to learn so much, sometimes not always useful, is to have a good mark. When we go to the gym, it’s to be in good shape.

When we smile at our children, it is to make them feel loved and surrounded. When we go out with our friends, it is for fun and to connect with other human beings.

There is always a motive for the things we do, even if it is not always conscious.

It is this motive, this reason, that gives us the strength and energy to continue learning when we are tired, that makes us leave our homes to go to exercise while staying on the couch is the most attractive option, which leads us to go out at night instead of staying cloistered. 

Motivation aims to give us a “why”. Without this “why” we would not achieve much, and we would not have the capacity to strive to exceed our current limits.

This is what pushes us to step out of the comfort of what we know and what we know. 

It is when we are faced with significant challenges that motivation may fail, when this is when it is most needed.

We cannot speak of motivation when we achieve something easy, which would be put in place even by inertia. Conversely, if the path to take is strewn with pitfalls, it is the motivation that will make it possible to take it and reach the end.

None of us want to study for 8 hours without a real motivation behind it. People don’t get up at 6 a.m. to go to the gym without having a firm intention to be in good shape. You don’t smile at your child like you smile at any other human, without a goal in mind.

Discipline is a great help in achieving the goals we set for ourselves, but it is not always enough.

It helps us a lot in our daily life, by creating a system of steps to follow, but it needs fuel to function properly.

If you do not feed it, you will quickly find yourself without willpower, with a feeling of emptiness in your mind.

You will surely go and lie on the sofa thinking: “Today I don’t feel like going to the gym or going for a run, I prefer to watch this TV program which I love”.

Only real motivation is able to get you out of this lethargic state by helping you take action.

And all of this just by answering these questions: “Why would I go to the gym today if I feel so good at home? Why would I smile at my kids when I’ve had a terrible day? Why would I keep studying if I want to get some rest?

Because being in good physical shape allows me to be well in my body, or to lose weight, and that is one of my main goals.

Because my kids have nothing to do with my problems or my job, and they don’t deserve to put up with my daily bad mood. Because I want to continue my career, and I know how important what I’m studying is in order to get there.

The power to know the motives, and the deep reasons which made us take this path so perilous and so complicated, acts as a real third lung which allows us to move forward, and to achieve all our goals.

This is the key that we cannot ask anyone, and that will not appear by magic. We can all use it, at any time of life, because it is present in our mind. But, we have to ask ourselves a question to access it:

Why am I doing this?

It is also important to motivate others, to help them find the reasons why they are doing this or that thing.  It is a difficult task, because many of us are embarking on paths without really knowing why.

From there, we can find a hidden motive in our unconscious, which will reveal itself along the way to come and give us a second wind.

But, it is also possible that there is no hidden reason, and that we have taken the wrong path. And there, it is without oxygen that we will stop halfway through the route.

Trying to achieve goals for no reason, aim, or motive, will only bring frustration.

How many people can say that they do what they want for a living?

How many people live with reasons that give them the strength to keep trying to achieve their goals? 

Does it make a real difference at work and in social relationships to have regular, average or poor results? Will it allow us to surpass ourselves and push our own limits?

Most likely, if we have no motivation in life, we will stay in the crowd. Those who experience great personal success are those who manage to achieve the impossible, or simply the dreams that they have had in them for years.

These people have a reason, and a motive that enables them to fulfill their destiny. 

And you ? What deeply motivates you in what you do on a daily basis?