hitchcasanovaSetting up goals and how to be motivated
As human beings we’ve done a lot of remarkable things. For instance worldwide we are lifting people out of poverty in the fastest rate known to mankind in history, collectively we do so, because we have a structure that actually works. Nothing works at a 100%, maybe at 30 or at 70 at times, but it lowers the scales in humanity’s favor. Inequality is building up around the world even more today at the same time, but you can see the tide slowly lifting up. I don’t know how fast worldwide we can double the speed of the process, but it is my firm belief that if people put their act together and really aim at it, it will truly be possible with a 100% efficiency one day.
When a goal is set up straight, it produces a positive emotion if it sees you moving towards that valued goal. But how do you find the motivation to move towards that goal?
If you think about it, the best course of action is to stop procrastinating and just do what you have to do, because it is beneficial for you and people around you.
Cost reward analysis.
– How should you think about motivation? We can say that emotions track progress towards goals. Motivation determines where you are going to aim, so if you have the need to eat, you go to the fridge and make yourself a sandwich. That will affect your perception and you will cancel out everything that is around you (most of it anyways) and go and grab a bite. As you are moving around through actions towards the desired goal and you complete them step by step (because we can’t do everything at once) it produces a positive emotion. The same can be said as you are moving in the world towards your more sophisticated goals. What happens when you get the sandwich? You eat it, you are satisfied till you feel empty again so you repeat the process that includes a couple of easy steps. Imagine your goals in life as that sandwich you are going to make, but it’s not that easy is it? Because you encounter things that get in your way, and that produces negative emotions. If you encounter a couple of those, it will punish your fragile motivated frame out of existence and it will set you back a couple of steps, if not end the process as a whole. That gets you into a counterproductive persistence easily, and there comes a choice, you rather quit or go forward.
The question that arises is – is it worth it depending on the cost reward analysis, and in most cases, because people crave instant gratification, it doesn’t seem that way. So they move away from their goal and settle for easier ones until the point they become inert or absolutely unwilling to aim for greater heights. Those small goals are relative to your survival and they produce a frame of reference which becomes part of your personality, which has viewpoints that go along with it, it has perception of things that are relative to it, action tendencies, etc. And you can see this in addiction particularly. You can see that in alcohol addiction, or people who are addicted to cigarettes. They have found so much excuses to justify their behavior, that it is almost impossible to get out of the lie-loop they’ve put themselves in (cognitive dissonance). Therefore the addiction has a personality that overlaps and replaces your own.
So what is the solution? How can I be motivated?
The more valuable the goal in principle the more the micro processes are associated with that goal to start to take a positive charge. You need to find value in your goals. The way to not be affected by the actions of your brain and body in a negative way (cause action is everything), because in most cases we simply react to prevent something or to expect something. The key is to never EVER be anywhere where those types of negative actions are necessary, in other words you must challenge yourself. Like I mentioned in the previous topic, you need to start small in order to grow into a mountain.
– Challenge yourself, find new hobbies, do what is right for your health (we all know it inside ourselves).
– Read books and look at other people’s perspectives on things.
– Exercise (because it clears the mind) and find time to do what you don’t like, in order to make it so, it doesn’t pile up and take over your life.
– Make what is good for you into a positive routine that will never leave you.
– Have integrity and move around with your own pace by your own design.
– Change your mindset with a better one with better values.
You do a structural analysis of the sub components of human existence. You need a family you need friends career educational goals, time outside of work, mental physical health etc.
If you don’t have those components and goals you only have more misery and happiness only comes partially. Who is that you are trying to be? Not want to be but should be. Often people won’t specify their goals, because in actuality they don’t want to specify conditions for failure. If you keep yourself all vague an foggy, which is real easy, cause that’s just a matter of not doing as well, because you won’t know if you will fail. Therefore you must do what you’ve said you are going to do. Don’t lie to yourself and be productive for yourself and others.
A lot of you might think, well I don’t really want to know when I’ll fail, because I don’t want to suffer the pain of failure, therefore I will keep myself blind until I fail, and that is fine, except for the fact that until then you will continue to fail and this will become a stream if you don’t have a set of goals you are working towards. You don’t know about that major failure until you’ve experienced it when you are 40, afterwards you are done! Depression settles in. That is the so called willful ignorance, you could have known, but you chose not to.
Make a damn schedule and stick to it! It’s not a prison. Set the damn schedule so that you can have the day you want for yourself.
You can rather exist and believe or live and know and aspire to greater things. You have to negotiate with yourself, but not tyrannize yourself otherwise you waste time and opportunities. You are a bad employee and the worst boss and that works for you to put you in a loop, where you just survive and don’t challenge yourself, so don’t do that, rather do what’s hard but it has long term benefits for you after the processes themselves.
Life has two sides, this is why it is hard for me not to judge and judge at the same time. On one hand you can justify people for being so and so, trying to prevent the loss of energy (by being lazy), and on the other hand you can condemn laziness as a lack of consciousness and an aim for greater heights