I’m always getting asked, “So Michael, how do I move ahead in my business?” I can’t seem to stay focused, lose motivation and feel like I keep banging my head against the wall trying to work out how to get to the next level of success.”
Many people get stuck. We all do at one time or another. perhaps you’re stuck right now and not sure which way to turn next.
What are the best ways to help get unstuck in your business or your life and break through to the next level of personal professional success.
I’ve spent the last 17 years looking at what elements consistently help people to keep moving forward and it always comes back to one thing – Motivation.
What Exactly Is Motivation and How Does it Work?
Motivation is more than whether we feel like doing something or not. In all my years studying human potential and what makes us tick I have discovered that Motivation boils down to a simple formula.
100% Motivation = 10% C___________ + 10% C____________ +80% C_____________
Now let’s break this down.
As you can see from this formula there are three main elements to having 100% motivation in your life at any given point in time.
The first element which makes up 10% of motivation is confidence. I see so many people who appear to be confident people from the outside but when you have a look at their personal beliefs and habits in life, it can reveal a different story.
Some people get their confidence from their work, or having a sense of purpose or power in life. While others struggle to find their confidence at all and spend most of their time putting on a brave face while silently praying that they never get found out for the fraud they believe they are.
Being confident is about being really comfortable with who you are including the good bits, the bad bits and the ugly bits.
In other words it means that you are completely at peace with who you are in every moment whether you are happy or sad, quiet or loud, fearful or courageous, judgment or non-judgmental – none of it matters as it’s all you.
How this works in context to Motivation is that if part of your energy is being used to mask the fact that you are not a confident person, then this will lead you to make decisions in your life that help you to avoid feeling powerless or weak.
When you are confident in yourself then it is far easier for your motivation levels to be higher.
The second element which also makes up approximately 10% of motivation is competence. This means that you must have knowledge, skills and abilities in whatever you are wanting to succeed at.
You can’t fake competence. You either have it or if you don’t. If you don’t then it’s because you haven’t yet studied the areas or things you need to excel at to get ahead in your business or life.
When I was in my twenties I decided that I wanted to help inspire people to have have a better life through teaching, books and workshops. So I started reading books and attending every course, seminar or workshop I could get my hands on.
I’ve probably invested over $500,000 on self-education around how to use the power of your mind to change your life and how to help others enjoy better health, happiness, wealth, relationships and lifestyle. I’ve read hundreds of books, listened to hundreds of audios and trained with some of the world leaders in peak performance.
This was easy for me because I knew it was wanted to do, so it made sense that I needed to become competent at it in my life before i could ever hope to help inspire others to do the same.
The question here is what do you need to get competent at? What are the things you need to study and get really good at in order to take your success to the next level and beyond?
If you haven’t already thought about it then take a few minutes now to map out what those things are that you need to get good at for you to confidently move ahead. Competency comes from doing something over and over again. It’s this commitment to master your art that will massively boost your motivation levels.
Those people that don’t spend enough time studying and learning the things that they need to in order to be a success in what they are focusing on will inevitably either jump from one shiny object to the next hoping that it’ll all work out, or simply quite because it’s all too hard.
The reality is though the problem wasn’t what they knew – it was what they didn’t know or spent enough time getting competent with. I believe that no matter what you want to achieve, if you study it enough, one day it will come naturally for you.
The Most Powerful Motivator of All
This leads us to the last of the three elements. The “C” word that gives you approximately 80% of your motivation and that is clarity of vision.
So you can be a confident person who is competent in those areas you want to specialize in but if you don’t have a clear vision of where you are headed then where’s all your energy going to go?
Motivation is all about energy. It’s about waking up in the morning fired up to start your day because you are on track for something you are really passionate about and grudgingly falling asleep at night because you absolutely love what you are doing.
The master key here is that you have a vision of what you really want in life. Not something that someone else thinks is a good idea for you, or something you’ve always been good at, or something that pay’s the bills. What I’m talking about here is what makes your heart sing.
It’s something that you are truly inspired by that is something you may have always dreamed about but just didn’t know how to go about making a living from it. It’s something that feels like fun for you and it may even currently be or have been a favorite hobby.
Don’t worry about whether or not you can make a living from it in the beginning. In today’s digital world there’s a million and one ways to make that happen. I have a friend who does Yoga and she has over 1 million followers and has a movie star lifestyle – all thanks to the Internet.
More important than that is to know what you really want to do with your life and share with the world. Once you figure that out, then the rest will fall in place.
Motivation starts with having a clear vision of where you are headed and why you are going there. This gives you 80% of the energy you need to make it happen. The other 20% comes from the growth of your confidence and competence as you move forward towards your ultimate destiny.
So if you don’t have a clear vision of where you see yourself in 5 years time, then get to work on it right now. be sure to not limit your vision because the bigger you dream, the further you can go. We can grow into the person we need to become to fulfill any dream, as long as that dream is authentically true for you in mind, body and spirit.
If you already have a clear vision, then work on your confidence and competencies as they will help bring your motivational energy levels up to 100%. Once that happens, then there will be no stopping you.
Does that mean that there won’t be days that you feel down or disillusioned, not at all. It means that you will bounce back from them like a rubber ball hitting bouncing off the floor because every part of you is highly charged for success.
