The importance of motivation

The importance of motivation

Motivation is one of the most important factors in determining the level of success that you will achieve. Motivation is required throughout the entire goal process. The following are some key reasons why motivation is so important:

1. Identifying a goal

Goals come from a desire to change something in your life. You may be motivated by positive or negative factors. Maybe you are unhappy with some aspect of your life. If this is the case, you would identify what you want instead and set a goal to achieve it. Alternatively, there may be something which you enjoy in life but you would like to experience more of it or, there may be something which you would like to add to your life.

Whether it is a desire for change, a desire to add more or, a desire to add something new, it is motivation for improved circumstances which inspires the goal.

2. Prioritisation

Whatever you want to achieve in life, you will need to commit yourself to it and focus your energy on it. There is only so much that you can do as time and energy are limited resources. As you are constantly inundated with things that you could do, you need to be able to prioritise your activities and focus on the most important tasks. This allows you to achieve your best results. Motivation is critical in helping you to determine which activities should be prioritised.

3. Action

Anybody can draw up a plan but the value of that plan will never be known until you put it into action. Setting a goal is not enough to achieve it. You need to take consistent, decisive and effective action to bring that goal to reality. The difference between those who consistently take action towards their goals and those who do not, is motivation. There will be days when you don’t really want to do anything. On these days, it is your high levels of motivation that will push you through.

4. Overcoming setbacks

One of my favourite books is The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield. In one section of the book, Jack provides a rather amazing statistic. He tells us that 94% of all salespeople have given up on the sale after the 4th time of asking but 60% of all sales are made after the 4th time of asking. That means that 94% of salespeople miss out on the chance of making the sale because they don’t have the motivation to keep asking.

This can be applied to all goals. How many times have you given up on something just because you hit an obstacle? Almost any goal worth achieving is going to require some resilience. You will hit obstacles and when you do, you must decide whether you will continue or give up. Motivation will ensure that you keep going.

5. Staying the course

Many of your most important goals will require a great deal of time to accomplish. It is easy to lose motivation and lose sight of your objectives. If you allow this to happen, you may never reach your end goal. It requires a special kind of person to keep their eye on the prize for a long period of time and, keep taking consistent action towards their goal. What makes these people special is that they are highly motivated and they take action to reinforce their motivation on a regular basis.

A clear vision for life and, effective goals to realise that vision, are essential if you want to live your best life. However, goals and a vision are only dreams unless you take consistent action to bring them to life. To take this consistent action requires motivation. Motivation rarely happens by accident and, when it does, it rarely lasts for long. If you want to experience the long-lasting motivation which will help you to stick with your most important goals, from conception to achievement, you are going to need to work on it. No matter what goal you set, never lose sight of your need for motivation as it will be the one thing that will push you through the tough times.