Aspire to Perspire
One of the lessons we learn early in life is that things do not always go according to plan — plans get disrupted, interrupted and they even change. Even this our series have been interrupted, we should have been at Episode 13 now but I’ve missed writing one time and missed publishing on two occasions.
Welcome to the 11th episode of your favourite short series — One Thing You Don’t Have to Know About and today; we’re learning about self-motivation and having a positive outlook in life.
I don’t know what your goal or purpose is in this one life you’re living but I can guess that you have a dream to lead a fulfilling and enjoyable life (yeah, I’m kinda psychic) and you must have realized that accomplishing dream isn’t a day’s journey or a stroll in the park. It gets hard, it gets tough, and dare I even say, it gets annoying.
Life will happen to you in your short journey in different ways and most times, every ‘bad’ happenstance is subtly screaming at you to get your head out of your dreams and get by just for today (and sometimes, we need this. We need to just live for today) but other times, the times that really matter, you need to make tough decisions in tough corners.
SELF-MOTIVATION is what kicks us off in times like these. We have this aid in different degrees but what’s the source? Is it genetic? Are some folks more highly motivated than others because of a gene or a DNA trait? Or is it a factor of how we are nurtured? Is it a factor of our life’s experiences and journeys? Let’s learn.
The root word where motivation comes from is the same as the one where we derived the ‘emotion’ and they both mean ‘to move’. When we face life’s obstacles, there’s two parts of the brain called the left prefrontal cortex and the right prefrontal cortex. They are tipping points in the brain that emotions lean on.
Research has identified optimism and motivation to be related to the left prefrontral cortex because it replays a memory of a time we reached our goal, of a time we experienced good success and this is what helps people going in tough times.
Those who tilt right, have less self-drive, a more critical and irritable outlook to life and its events.
Since science again has randomly chosen those it wants to favour with optimism, I’ll be sharing few tips I have learnt in my research on how to boost yours if you are not naturally inclined to have a positive outlook:
Imagine the best version of yourself; then take it a little bit further by spending time to think about the steps your present step would have to take to get close to this persona you’ve created.
Focus on things you’re looking forward to not only things you have to do. Does this ever happen to you? You not doing the things you have to do because you hate that you have to do the things you have to do? Redirect your attention to the things that would positively affect you if they get done.
Improve your storytelling skills. We tend to undersell our past victories, successes and wins. An alcoholic who has been sober for a year and half would proabably just say ‘Hi. I’m Zoe. I haven’t had any alcoholic drink in 18 months’ but another alcoholic, Bob, has written a best seller out of it. You didn’t just overcome your previous obstacles; you showed life that nothing is going to keep your head down.
I hope today I have helped you aspire to perspire.
