Drive to lead from the front

Harrish Sairaman

Motivation is no longer a luxury for a few, but has become a necessity for the ones who intend to grow and for the ambitious. Cut-throat competition and the challenging nature of work has made motivation one of the most important qualities to sustain, grow and excel. One of the most challenging tasks for managers now is to keep themselves motivated as without this they can’t motivate their team.  Focus on the following tips to enhance your motivation levels. 

Have a burning desire to win 

A majority of people today live in the ‘survival mode’ and this mode has the least motivation as its focus is just to survive, make the ends meet and barely managing through the day. A strong vison and a burning desire to win pumps in positivity to get the maximum done in the minimum time. One way of achieving this is to remind yourself that 'you were not born to live an average life'. Rather life is meant to be lived passionately.

Focus on the benefits

A lot of times when a task has to be done or a goal has to be achieved people focus on the pain areas, the challenge, the hardships and the sweat. This approach will only kill the motivation and hence you need just the opposite. Think about this, when a sportsperson gets tired or goes through a feeling of 'giving up' what do they do? They remind themselves of their goal of winning the gold medal, which is nothing but the ultimate pleasure and it propels them to go that extra mile. So, think about all the pleasures, highest benefits of achieving the task or goal and you will see and experience the motivation not only surfacing but peaking.

Company matters

People around us have a huge impact on our emotions and behaviours. If you always have been around positive and optimistic people, motivation would have never been your challenge! But you always do not have this choice. But as an initiative you can, wherever and whenever possible be and spend more and more time with optimistic and positive people.

Keep the ‘hardware’ aligned

If your mind is the software, then body is your hardware. While motivation is an emotion and a state mind, it would need a healthy body to support it. And whether you believe in it or not a healthy body will create a healthy state of mind and support in the motivation. A fit body is now a necessity and not a luxury. Invest your time in fitness be it the gym, a long walk or even yoga backed with breathing exercise. This will not only support your mindset but will go a long way in creating a motivated and a healthy way of living.

Learn from your mistakes

We all make mistakes and the repercussions can have a damaging effect on our motivation at times. You can't change your past, but if you learn from it you can avoid the past mistakes. Not only that, a good learning from the past can even motivate you to implement the learning in the present and the future. 

— The writer is a noted motivational speaker http://www.harrishsairaman.com