All Posts in Category: Motivation

21 SUGGESTIONS FOR SUCCESS

by H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

  1. Marry the right person. This one decision will determine 90% of your happiness or misery.
  2. Work at something you enjoy and that’s worthy of your time and talent.
  3. Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.
  4. Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
  5. Be forgiving of yourself and others.
  6. Be generous.
  7. Have a grateful heart.
  8. Persistence, persistence, persistence.
  9. Discipline yourself to save money on even the most modest salary.
  10. Treat everyone you meet like you want to be treated.
  11. Commit yourself to constant improvement.
  12. Commit yourself to quality.
  13. Understand that happiness is not based on possessions, power or prestige, but on relationships with people you love and respect.
  14. Be loyal.
  15. Be honest.
  16. Be a self-starter.
  17. Be decisive even if it means you’ll sometimes be wrong.
  18. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility for every area of your life.
  19. Be bold and courageous. When you look back on your life, you’ll regret the things you didn’t do more than the ones you did.
  20. Take good care of those you love.
  21. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make your Mom proud.

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Thoughts on Motivation

  1. People do things for their reasons, not ours. Find out what they want and why they want it.
  2. All motivation is self-motivation. Before you can motivate someone else, you need to motivate yourself.
  3. People do things to gain a benefit or avoid a loss. People won’t change their behavior unless it makes a difference to them to do so. Common motivators are: Pride, Profit, Pleasure, and Protection (pain avoidance).
  4. The strongest human force for motivation is goal setting.       Paul J. Meyer
  5. Attitude is everything; it impacts everything you do. It determines your performance.
  6. When your attitude improves, so do your circumstances.         Keith Harrell
  7. We are where we are, and what we are, because of the dominating thoughts that occupy our mind. W. Clement Stone
  8. Try agreeing with people instead of disagreeing with them. See how right you can make others instead of how wrong.
  9. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.   Jim Ryun
  10. When people believe in themselves, it is amazing what they can accomplish. Sam Walton
  11. People will sit up and take notice of you when you sit up and take notice of what makes them sit up and take notice.   Frank Romer
  12. Know your people; know their goals; know their activity; know their results.   Rex Houze
  13. Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. Lou Holtz
  14. Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger. Franklin P. Jones
  15. Recognition is an energizing action which can go up, down, and sideways. Just say, “Thank you;” “Good job;” “You’re the best;” and positive energy flows between, to, and from both people. Paula Gavin
  16. Treat people as though they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.   Goethe
  17. The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them.   Harold Geneen
  18. Don’t wait until people do things exactly right before you praise them.   The One Minute Manager®
  19. Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.   John Wooden
  20. People flourish with praise and acceptance and diminish with criticism and rejection.

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Increasing Personal Motivation

MOTIVATION can be defined as a desire held in expectation with the belief that it will be realized. In other words, motivation is a “motive for action,” i.e. reason, purpose, or goal for doing something. Keep in mind that action, or behavior, includes both cause and effect. Motivation involves both the actions and the motive or cause behind the actions. Within reasonable limits, the needs, desires and drives of all people are fairly universal.
Our behavior is the action we take to satisfy desire, but different people take different paths to reach their goals. Two people may adopt identical behavior to reach opposite goals, or they may behave in diametrically opposite ways to achieve a similar goal.
Observe the behavior patterns of your employees as well as your own. Each person has his or her own set of conscious or unconscious goals, and these needs or goals motivate the chosen pattern of behavior. Therefore, all motivation is personal. To understand what it takes to motivate a person, we must know and understand the person as an individual. Each person has needs that must be satisfied.
An effective business leader identifies these personal needs and helps the employee translate them into personal goals. Then, you can help the employee see how these personal goals will help the organization achieve its goals. Since motivation is personal, you might ask: “How can I personally motivate an entire organization?” The answer, of course, is “one at a time.” There is no easier or simpler way. People are the medium through which all systems must pass. Without people, you will get nothing done.

Because all employees are people, and therefore reflect different heritages, environments and training, there is no single method or idea that will successfully motivate all of them all the time. Effective motivation can be accomplished only on a personal basis. However, business leaders can maintain an atmosphere that is conducive to personal motivation and individual growth. The leader can, by combining motivational management with desire for personal success, weld together a new and powerful force for improved performance and results.
Both of these vital elements are interdependent; individual managers and employees rarely strive to increase their personal motivation unless they are stimulated and led by enlightened and self-motivated leaders. As a leader, it is your responsibility to create a climate for growth and learn to deal with each of your employee’s motivation on an individual basis.
To do this, you need to be observant, spend one-on-one time with each person, ask questions, listen and take a genuine interest in each person.

 

All people have one thing in common – they are all different!

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Motivating People to Produce

Most people have an unlimited potential to produce great results in their chosen field. Their only limitations are usually ones they place on their own mind. People can change; they can be motivated to be more and do more. Unfortunately, most people will not change because we need, want, or even when we tell them to change. They will only change their behavior when they change their attitude. If you want to change what people are doing, you have to change what they are thinking. To change what they are thinking, you have to change what you are saying and, perhaps, how you are saying it.

Motivating people to produce must be affected through attitude change if it is to be permanent. The commonly used methods of fear and incentives have been proven to be temporary.

Fear is based on threat or punishment. Sooner or later, people become totally subjected to fear and won’t do anything without first being told. Or, they become immune to fear and only do enough to get by. Either way, people will not give you their best effort, use their full potential, or get the results you want when fear is predominant in the culture.

Incentives are external rewards. They are designed to “lure” people to do something that they should have done in the first place. Incentives can work up to a point, but they will not provide long-lasting motivation. You will find that you have to give more and more for less and less.

Basically, an attitude is the way people think about themselves and their circumstances. When, you, as a leader or coach, help people change the way they think, you help them change their attitude, which affects their behavior and influences their results. Here are some things you can do to motivate people to produce:

  1.  Help them crystallize their goals. When people have a clear picture of exactly what they want, they do not need to be forced or rewarded externally to accomplish the goal.
  2.  Focus on their strengths. People will grow quicker and accomplish more when they concentrate on their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses rather than being reminded of their weaknesses.
  3.  Use positive reinforcement. Point out people’s accomplishments and progress. Catch them doing things right. When you see it, say it. What gets noticed and reinforced gets repeated. Make sure you recognize what you want repeated, not what you don’t.
  4. Expect their best performance. People tend to live up or down to a leader’s expectations. Expect little and you will receive little. Expect great performance and results and you are more likely to get them.

When you help people develop the attitudes necessary for peak performance and success, they will develop the confidence to reach for higher and more meaningful goals and will be more valuable to you and your organization. They will discover solutions for themselves and not depend on outside circumstances. They will understand that in order to change their circumstances, they must first change themselves.

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