Does motivation come from outside events or from within?
The answer for me is both. In fact I would argue that like in the old music hall song Love and Marriage - you can't have one without the other.
Actually that old song is now very much out of date because you very much can have love without marriage.
A few days ago I mentioned a talk I attended by 100 year old Rose Melnyk. For those interested in social history this talk is now on You Tube. Just open You Tube and search for Rose Melnyk. The recording lasts for just over an hour and I guarantee it will leave you wanting more.
But back to motivation. The key to motivation is positivity. That's something we all lack at times. I actually started writing this blog over a week ago but then found I didn't have the motivation to continue it until yesterday.
Tennis is a good example of motivation and lack of it. As I'm writing this I'm watching the men's singles final at the Australian Open. Tennis is very much a game of motivation where players have to dig deep within themselves to be mentally strong over hours of physical play.
It's very easy at times to just give in at tennis and allow yourself to be beaten. You can see this even at the top level where players take a breather and just lose a set before coming back again. I could go on about the mental side of tennis all day but won't. Golf is another game where positivity is key. Unfortunately it doesn't matter how positive I am at golf my game never improved.
Positivity and motivation go hand in hand but how do you find them when it appears everything is going against you? At times truly positive people can seem as though they don't truly care. "Oh he or she seems to have got over that very quickly" is often a comment made. It doesn't mean that a positive person doesn't care. Deep down they may be really hurting, but they find a way to find motivation even through the worst of times.
The biggest way I find of being positive and having motivation is setting goals. This gives you a reason to get out of bed in the mornings. One of the most humbling comments I have received about these blogs is a message saying my ramblings are a reason for getting up in the morning. That comment not only almost reduced me to tears but gave me the motivation to keep writing blogs.
Motivated people also look outside themselves. When I'm having trouble thinking of things to write in these blogs I think of the responsibility I have to everyone that reads what I write and for some reason continues to enjoy my piffle.
I'm going to leave that there for the moment. I feel I have waffled on enough but will return to this subject in later blogs. One final thought is that nothing that happens in life is wasted. I have mentioned before that I have diplomas in sports psychology and life coaching but have never really made use of either. But then I realise that they are the basis of this blog. So maybe my time studying wasn't wasted after all.
Do let me know how you deal with unhappy times and how difficult you find it to stay positive.