Category: Uncategorized Page 17 of 34
Every year people make New Years resolutions. For too many people, those resolutions are too soon forgotten and ignored.
Does that have anything to do with motivation?
To a degree – yes! I believe that it is about how we channel our motivation and keep it going.
I believe that most people are highly motivated to achieve their New Years resolutions whether it focus on weight loss or being a better parent. Just as we are motivated to achieve certain goals at work, and yet often fail. The problem is usually not in the initial stages where everyone is excited about the new resolution or goal (go to a gym in the next week or two and see how crowded it is). The problem occurs when that initial excitement wains, and we fall back into the comfortable and routine. We might try to regain that edge after one or two fall-off the wagon episodes, but pretty soon we tend to just ignore it or forget about it all together.
What we need is to have a motivational engine that keeps us going. We need to fill that motivational engine with the right type of gas and make sure that the engine is tuned up and ready to go. We need to make sure that we have enough gas to refill when it starts running low. We need to know when to get it tuned up and change the oil. We need to make sure that we can fix it when it breaks down.
I think all of our motivational engines are within us. It is the scheduled maintenance and filling it up that we so often lag on. What type of gas do you run on? Is it a personal motivation? Does it require a reward? Is it social? Does it need the turbo power of passion? Is it a mixture of all four?
In order to achieve our goals we need to understand this about us and put elements in place to ensure that we fill our tank regularly and do all the scheduled maintenance required.
What about you – what’s your motivational fuel for 2011?
I found this slideshare presentation from Stanford very interesting. 7, 3,2, and 9 are my favorites (in that order). What are yours?
This past summer I was conducting a team building program for a company that does some fantastic work helping other companies work more effectively. We conducted an event that had teams create sixty-second commercials that highlighted who they were, what value they brought and why somebody would use their services. We consciously give them a lot of information and very limited time to make their commercials. They had to do rush to get this done.
We told them that they needed to work together, be creative, and focus on quality…we emphasized how the little details matter. As you will see, the little things really do matter.
One team accidentally taped over their commercial and had a little over sixty seconds of film that showed feet walking…
We took this as an opportunity to show how important the small details are. We created the following video that was shown to the entire team at the video showings. It was a fantastic teachable moment and one that was a highlight of the meeting. The group discussed how easy it is for things like this to happen and what needed to be done to make sure that these types of errors didn’t crop up.
Take a look and let us know what you think…
By the way, the team re-shot the commercial and it was fantastic along with the others…shows you how adversity can bring out the best in us sometimes….
Here is a ques
tion that I’ve been asking myself all day long in between surfing the web to find out about the latest Timberwolve’s news, great after Christmas specials, the East Coast’s version of a Minnesota winter, and seeing what all my facebook buddies are up to – do the holiday’s sap employee motivation? Or at a minimum, employee energy?
I know they do for me.
Which is a problem since this is our busy time of year. Normally, I’m lucky to get Christmas day off but this year I actually got three days off – that is a record I haven’t had in over 10 years! With those three days came a lot of family celebration, festive eating, lots of visiting and much time playing with the kids.
Now I need a break!
Ok, this is a little bit of a teaser…we are in the process of doing a major overhaul of how we look at the 4-Drive Model. We’ve talked about the need to update this model before (see here and here). We are underway in getting that developed and should be launching it the first quarter of 2011.
Here is a sneak peak…the four main motivations as we’ve defined them are now renamed and constitute different elements:
1. Personal Motivation- focus on the intrinsic motivators that we have and encompasses the Drive to Challenge & Comprehend
2. Reward Motivation- focus is on the extrinsic motivators that we have and encompasses the Drive to Acquire & Achieve
3. Social Motivation- focus is on the social drives that motivate us and includes the Drive to Bond & Belong
4. Passion Motivation (this name is still being hotly debated – but for now its what we are running with)… – focus is on the motivational element of purpose and passion – including defending one’s honor and tribe
The City of Lakes Rotary Club has a singing group that meets before our Wednesday morning meetings throughout much of the year (we meet at 7:15 AM so they are up and practicing by 6:30 AM – that takes dedication!). Today, they led our program by singing (and getting us to sing) a number of holiday songs.
What a treat!
Songs and singing can bring so much joy and happiness. I love watching my kids as songs are played and they sing along or dance (in the case of my 1 year old who can’t quite sing yet).
I believe that there is a little magic in music that resonates with all of us – and makes us want to sing and dance.
“Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la”
What are you grateful for?
There is a sense of justice in the world. As I wrote about yesterday, my car window was stuck open in the middle of winter in Minnesota…and I was grateful that it happened when it did for a number of reasons (see below).
But I’m even more grateful today!
I was on the way to bring the car into the local auto repair shop that is located a couple of miles down the road. I was getting the kids bundled up and the Au Pair ready to take the other car to the shop so that I would have a ride home instead of walking two miles in 18 degree weather.
If you’ve ever tried to get a 1 year old and a 4 year old ready for the snow, you know this is not always easy – so after 10 minutes of haggling, we were ready to go when I realized that the car keys for the 2nd pick-up car were in my wife’s purse with her at work. Ok, unbundle the kids and readjust plan. Now I’ll pick up my wife at the end of the day and we’ll get the 2nd car and drop off the broken window car after that.
Here is the good part…
On the way to pick up my wife, with the plastic taped over the open window, I gave the window button one more try…and to my amazement, up it went!
So I’m grateful that I didn’t have the keys for the 2nd car when I was going to take the broken window car in. I’m grateful that the window miraculously fixed itself. I’m grateful that I saved a few hundred bucks that I am now going to give to charity (Worldbuilders through Patrick Rothfuss’ blog – you should check it out).
All in all – just very grateful!
Pulling into the parking ramp before my Rotary meeting today, my car window went down but it didn’t come back up…and I’m grateful for that. I know you are thinking “Huh? Have you gone bonkers?” But here is why I’m grateful…I could have been driving down the interstate at 60 miles per hour in the 18 degree weather we have (I wasn’t). I could have to park my car on the road and get the snow plow coming by and sending a foot of snow into the car (I don’t). I could have been at the airport and had to leave my car with window down for a week (I’m not). Thus, in the big scheme of things, this could have been a lot worse and I’m grateful for that.
Its all in how we frame things…as the quote on the bottom of my e-mail signature line says, “”There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Shakespeare
We had 17 inches of snow drop on us Saturday. Combined with wind gusts that created drifts that were a good 3 feet high, I can honestly say that I’ve never been more grateful for a snow blower…
