Motivation

Hey everyone!

I know it’s been a while, but I’m back for another semester of Global Challenges, which means another 12 weeks of blogging fun! Starting today, I’ll be posting every two weeks, exploring a bunch of my thoughts and experiences around entrepreneurship. Hopefully the insights that emerge will be relevant and at least a tiny bit helpful to you, whether or not you consider yourself an entrepreneur.

Today I want to talk about motivation. It’s a relatively crucial prerequisite for achieving just about anything, so I think it’s worth spending a few hundred words on. I’ll try not to ramble.

We all find ourselves lacking motivation at some point. It’s a fact of life. We rediscover our mojo eventually, but we’re not sure how, or what we should do differently next time. I don’t think there’s a silver bullet, but from personal experience I’ve learned that spending time with the right people can make a huge difference.

From here

On Tuesday night, Global Challenges students across the three cohorts were lucky enough to hear from the incredible Ian Mason: an entrepreneur, Y20 delegate, and all-round fantastic guy. He’s not a ‘motivational speaker’, but I left the dialogue that night feeling inspired, reinvigorated, and ready to tackle the adventures that lay ahead.

Don’t go thinking it needs to be a big event you attend, or an accomplished speaker you hear from. A conversation with a parent or friend can often give you the boost you need. 

When I’m feeling tired, stressed and a bit lost, my instinct is to keep to myself, and wade through my problems alone. That (almost) never helps. I find myself dwelling on my lack of productivity and motivation rather than doing something about it, and I close myself off from anyone who might be able to offer support.

To break away from my default response, I try to spend an hour with a friend each day, and in that hour I focus on them; giving myself a break from the pressure and guilt of whatever I need to get done that day. Check out the Conversation section of my post about meditation if you want a bit more detail on the power of a good chat.

It might seem like this mindset puts the responsibility for your motivation on others, but that wouldn’t be fair. It’s up to you to surround yourself with the right people, and be open to the support they offer. Both of those things are a lot harder than they sound, and I’m not an expert in this field by any stretch of the imagination, so you might want to do some further research. I’d suggest starting with this article from Forbes, or the fantastic book 'Mindsight', if you’re up for a longer read. 

Let me know in the comments section below if there are any other resources that help you stay motivated!

From here