Our motivation is like a battery. Everyday, your battery is fully (or partially) recharged and ready to go for the new day.
During the next 12-24 hours, worries, obstacles, people, and things all slowly deplete your motivational battery. By the end of the day, you probably feel low — maybe frustrated — loss of hope — and you don’t know where to turn.
My battery has been feeling kind of low lately and I didn’t know why. But then it dawned on me — I’ve been watching the TV show “Weeds” on Netflix at night to wind down from the day. Have you ever watched it? I’m not going to get into the entire story, but the protagonist is constantly making bad decisions which turn out to be REALLY BAD decisions, endangering her life and family. There is a subtle wrapper of humor inserted throughout, but the overall theme is bad decision—bad things happen—bad decision—bad things happen.
The way I’m wired is directly impacted by the stories I watch. Since I’m a coach, I try to understand the character’s motivations and constantly try to solve their problems. It’s a vicious circle.
I then realized the same thing happened to me a few months ago while watching ‘The Walking Dead’ and a few years ago with ’24′. All of these shows have protagonists who get into trouble, miraculously get out of trouble, get into trouble, etc. I would have vivid dreams, feel disconcerted during the day, and really never know why.
Until I stopped watching these de-motivating shows. The minute I stopped giving them any priority in my life, my motivational battery stayed charged. I then focused on topping off my battery every chance I could get.
- When in the car, I listened to motivational CD’s with Zig Ziglar, Joel Osteen, and Gary Vaynerchuk.
- I read motivational books and stopped most TV in the evening (except for ‘Fringe’, I love ‘Fringe’).
- I surfed motivational sites and stayed away from the 24-hour news barrage.
- I’ve started to workout EVERY DAY. It helps me think clearer and clean out the physical and mental cobwebs.
- I’m only hanging around motivating people. No complainers. No glass-half-empty personalities. No whiners.
Guess what? I have more ideas, more energy, and more motivation. So I have two questions for you:
- What are you doing right now to de-motivate yourself? What is draining your motivational battery?
- What can you do to top off your battery everyday? How can you fit it into your daily routine?
I’d love your input, thoughts and reviews of my posts. Feel free to comment below!
Image provided by deanj at Flickr.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
This is right on point Rich! Here are a couple of things to keep the positive energy up:
- always smiling
- giving others praise
- surrounding myself with positive people
- helping others
- substituting love for hate
- watching comedy (when I watch TV)
- never reading the news (at least main-stream media)
- thinking about things I am grateful for
Enjoyed the article. We need to be ever selective in how we spend our time and of the impact outside resources have on our everyday lives.
Rich – I’ve always enjoyed your article but I’ve recently contemplated cancelling my cable because I find that I can lose an hour or more to TV by being sucked in with all the “drama”. I found when I did this last time I had more time for the gym, myself, and my loved ones. Thank you!
Hi Rich, I relocated to Canada. I realised that I was being emotionally bullied by some relatives who were not even directly related to me. Unwittingly everything became a popularity contest, and even my slightest achievement at work, education or even the way I dressed was being deliberately downplayed or criticised.
It was a tough decision to let go of a an otherwise high paying career and my immediate family. Since I’ve moved into my own house, I’m happier, more focused and positive. I’ve already started getting job offers that as I new immigrant I couldn’t have anticipated so soon.
Great advice and insight! While we can choose our behaviour, practicing an awareness of how we behave can only be healthy. Feeling sad whilst listening to sad music? Perhaps choose not to – or get involved with *how* you’re choosing to be sad! Either way, there’s a choice and promoting an awareness of choice is always good!
Great write up – good read!
cF