Metaphors Gone Wild: Fire and Motivation

"If my 75% player plays 50% over his ability," legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once asserted, "and your 100% player plays 10% under his ability, my player will win every time."

THE FIRE WITHIN

Author Stephen Covey has acknowledged that motivation is simply a metaphoric "fire within." That fire, of course, can be destructive--just think about the recent wildfires in California. But, properly controlled, fire can provide benefits on a numerous fronts.

DON'T POUT

Thinking of motivation as fire, we can redirect its energy to ensure that deeds and not destruction result.Yes, there is energy in negative emotions. Anger, resentment, envy--if the power of these feelings can be redirected, wonderful things can result. Need proof? Consider the words of jazz maestro Duke Ellington: "I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."

Recognize that for any given situation, you can leave it as it is, make it worse, or make it better. There are no other choices. Ideally, you're the kind of person who opts to make those less-than-ideal circumstances better than they are. If so, your pro-active choices are dependent, in very large measure, on your self-confidence levels. And, there's a wonderfully symbiotic relationship between accomplishment and self-confidence: the more you do well, the more your self-confidence grows. And, the more your self-confidence grows, the more you do well.

PICK THE RIPE FRUIT

Often, motivation is hard to find, even though it may be lying all around us--or above us. When Henry David Thoreau admonished others to "cease to grant that crust!" he was issuing a strong command to seek more from life than leftovers. The second half of his admonition was the observation that "there's ripe fruit above your head." If you are stuck in the muck of a doused fire, if all you can see are the ashes of hope, you need to look around and above you. And, if you still can't see possibilities, ask a trusted friend to discuss the potential fruit to be found in your environment, in your life.

MOTIVATION--INSIDE YOU OR OUTSIDE?

Not surprisingly, psychologists tell us that negative stress results when we feel we have little or no control over situations. One clue to your personal control-factor may lie in the way you answer the question, "How do you know when you've done a good job?". If you cited others--for example, "My boss tells me she is pleased with my work"--then the external-control quotient in your stress-equation is probably pretty high. However, if you cited yourself--for example, "I am pleased with the results of this project"--then your internal-control factor is probably quite healthy.

Ideally, you can light your own motivation-fires. Yes, it's a grand feeling when others recognize our effort. But, it's more important to be able to applaud our efforts ourselves.

Think of all the things you do on a weekly basis. How many of them are you doing because of your own wishes/intents and how many are you doing because others expect or want you to? Express your answer as a percentage: To what extent do you feel "externally controlled"? If your life is directed by others more than 50% of the time, you may wish to stoke the self-motivation fires.

ROMANCE ASIDE

Jose Feliciano rose to the top of the pop charts in the late sixties by asking someone else to light his fire. The sentiment is romantic, to be sure. But, in terms of personal goal-setting and attainment, it's always best to light the fires of motivation by ourselves.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Metaphors-Gone-Wild:-Fire-and-Motivation&id=9869359

Self-Motivation - Surprises Are Part of Our Lives

INTRODUCTION:

Self-Motivation is a very important activity in our day to day life as we don't know what surprise will come and at what time.

We have to motivate ourselves to ensure that the surprise is being handled appropriately and WE SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP. Even though the surprises are common to everyone lives and every one motivate them to handle their surprises and take it forward.

We have to motivate ourselves to ensure that the surprise is being handled efficiently and functionally. We attempt through our article, to share ancient ideas and techniques to walk you through this journey of life surprises.

Hence, we have to understand that some of the important surprises & techniques to self-motivate in handling the surprises.

GENERAL SURPRISES:

1) Financial Surprises: Generally, the companies or individuals will have a budget, unfortunately, the days may not go with the same budget planning. There may be a surprise in increase or decrease of the budget. This in turn, disturbs the financials. For projects in a company, the financial surprises can be corrected through appropriate contracts & claims management and for individuals it can be corrected through self-motivation techniques.

2) Health Surprises: Health issues may come up at any time which we cannot anticipate. We always should maintain discipline in our food habits, do daily exercises and drink appropriate water, which may avoid the health surprises.

SELF-MOTIVATION TECHNIQUES:

Any surprise or any issue can be corrected through self-motivation techniques as mentioned below:

1) Firstly, we should analyze in depth about the surprise or the issue. We have to make a note point on WHAT, HOW & WHY. By answering these simple three words we can understand the reason for the surprise or the issue.

a. WHAT: What happened?

b. HOW: How it happened? How it went wrong.

c. WHY: Why this happened? What are the corrections?

2) Secondly, doing meditation and thinking on the solution for the surprise or the issue. In this way, we can get the solution and go forward.

3) Once we answer the What, How & Why, and for corrections, we should do meditation by taking a deep breath and concentrating on the breath and thinking on the corrections.

4) We have to continue the meditation till we find out the solution. Depending on the surprise, sometimes, we will find the solution in 2 - 3 times and sometimes it may take days.

5) We should NEVER GIVE UP and we should continue the meditation till we get the solution and certainly we will get the solution through meditation for any issue/surprise/problem.

6) After having a solution, we have to make a clear roadmap for solving the surprise or issue with a contingency plan.

7) Finally, we should always follow another 3-word principle, Plan, Check and Act, this 3-word principle can ensure to resolve the surprise or issue.

CONCLUSION:

1) Generally, we face several problems in our day to day activities and we get panic or scared on an occurrence of such problems.

2) If we follow the techniques as mentioned above without getting panic or getting scared, we can easily resolve such problems by finding solutions and we can go forward in our lives and achieve success.

3) This article is to support the reader in addressing their problems/issues/surprises in an appropriate manner without getting panic or getting scared.

4) We request you to share this article after going through as this may help your friends to overcome their problems/issues/surprises.

5) All views or opinions or statements given in this Article are personal, which are in our knowledge/ information and do not signify any professional advice.

https://ezinearticles.com/?Self-Motivation---Surprises-Are-Part-of-Our-Lives&id=9888049

5 Principles Successful People KNOW That Can Change Your Life

• They KNOW the First Step:

If you wish to start a business, where do you begin? What is your first step? Or as simple as studying for your upcoming exams, what will be your first step in preparing for the exams? We all face such trivial situations and questions in our lives, yet we never give a second thought on knowing how to actually solve these problems in the best possible manner. People who dream to be successful and who KNOW the secrets to such problems understand their FIRST STEP in dealing with them. When life comes at you with full power, and hits you so hard that the impact completely destroys your self confidence and self motivation, then the FIRST STEP you take in restoring the lost treasures of your life will determine your future. Most of us know how to SOLVE a problem, but the solutions are readily available on the Internet. For instance, if you are facing a relationship problem, you can join special communities and forums and find some valuable help on the Internet from people who have been through similar situations. This way you know the solution to your problems. But KNOWING THE SOLUTION without TESTED IMPLEMENTATION is never the solution, rather taking REQUIRED ACTIONS and ANALYZING THE SITUATION forms the foundation of your solution. Unless you KNOW the problem to its basic level, no solution will ever work. This is where many people lose sight of CLARITY. KNOWING the question is more important than KNOWING the answer. This first step, which is the most fundamental need in every future successful person, is something you need to embed in your life. This will truly transform the way you look at your life's problems.

• They KNOW what IT takes:

Napoleon Hill, the famous author who wrote the best possible guide to success in his book "THINK AND GROW RICH" stated 13 principles that are required in order to become the person we dream of. Those 13 Principles include Belief, Faith, Hope, Auto-suggestion, Burning Desire, Imagination and others necessary tools to fight the devil inside of us and turn our dreams into reality. In that book, the very first chapter is dedicated to THE BURNING DESIRE. As I have already mentioned, successful people KNOW the FIRST STEP and they understand the importance of executing the FIRST STEP to utmost perfection. Napoleon Hill knew this secret for he analyzed over 500 people from varied walks of life, which included renowned people like Thomas Edison and Henry Ford with hundreds of other business people, economists, and philosophers. He studied the lives and actions of every single person mentioned in the list and presented his life research in the form of a revolutionary book. People who dream to be successful and those who will eventually make their way through the busy crowd, into the rare magical world of success are the ones who KNOW what IT takes to run for such dreams. A BURNING DESIRE backed up by BELIEF and HOPE with many different aspects of self inspiration helps a person to reach goals, that might seem unreachable!!

• They KNOW how to SURVIVE:

"Life is hard", they say, "but there are exceptional people who successfully counter the bitterness in life and emerge victorious". In science and mathematics, we label certain strange phenomena as mere "EXCEPTIONS", we tend to relate it with our lives and over a long period of time if such ideology is allowed to prosper, it takes root in the subconscious mind. As we grow through life, traveling through the early years of childhood and surfing through our teenage, gradually such EXCEPTIONS turn into proven theories or laws and before we know, these MIRACLES which were once labelled as EXCEPTIONS become the foundations for our future generations. In reality, there are no exceptions; there are no accidents. History reflects the struggles, one has to deal with in order to learn those priceless lessons from life. There is no better TEACHER than the LIFE itself. People who understand the mysteries, values and principles that allow them to break through any barriers that were imposed by life to stop their journey, KNOW how to survive in this battle of dreams. The world is growing really fast. Every second, millions of students are thinking about their future; millions of parents are planning to make the lives of their children as amazing as their own. Every person dreams about living a complete life with all comforts and pleasures. Every person knows this as well, that to achieve such a standard, they must KNOW how to begin; they must KNOW what IT will cost them; they must KNOW how to survive!!! The one who learns and understand his way of survival, and every person has a different way of survival, will eventually increase his chance of being successful.

• They KNOW when to STOP:

One of the remarkable traits of successful people, contrary to the general belief of any common person regarding the accepted fact "WINNERS NEVER QUIT", is that they KNOW when to STOP. Their success journey speaks a different story all by itself. When following a certain path I.e A SPECIFIC PATH in life, one is ought to get distracted by other interests and pleasures. For example, a student studying for exams will often be distracted by GAMES, REALITY SHOWS, AWARD CEREMONY, MOVIES, SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES, etc. It is natural to encounter hurdles on our way to the dream future.Whether or not to accept such distractions is but a choice. Naturally, when a person begins his journey and takes the FIRST STEP towards his dream future, he is but in the dark about all his weaknesses and gradually as time slips by, he gets to face those dreadful sights and enemies of his success. Struggles and difficulties that we face along the path, triggers the weak points in us and that power forces us to retreat, to a much safer and comfort place. No offense, but it is near to impossible for anybody, to not be affected by these forces. Life is all about LEARNING and just like our other activities in life, we learn by doing. Once we face these forces, our subconscious self leads us to a comfortable place, deep inside the darkness where no one can reach us. We all have been there, it feels really nice. But for the ones, who dream to be successful and for those who never let the fire in them fade away, it is no worse than HELL. If only a person knows when to STOP relaxing and when to stop being a victim of self illusions, will the true power within them will unleash itself.

These are the 4 things that successful people KNOW deep down in their nerves. You must be wondering "WHAT ABOUT THE 5TH ONE?" Actually, apart from these 4 principles, there is one special factor that is deeply rooted in every person who dreams to be successful and who has been a successful person. It is not about what they KNOW, instead this final principle is related to what they DON'T KNOW. In fact, successful people DON'T KNOW a lot of stuff. As the saying goes, "THEY CHOSE TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT SOMETHING RATHER THAN KNOWING SOMETHING ABOUT EVERYTHING". So, here's the final and the most important traits of all.

• They DON'T KNOW how/why to GIVE UP:

I feel terrible when I see someone GIVE UP. The feeling that triggers my nerves is not so much regarding why he/she stopped trying only after a couple of attempts, or maybe he/she should have tried just one more time. But it is the mere act of GIVING UP that concerns me. This ONE principle, among all the others is a must for achieving one's dream life. People with all the above four traits will succeed, but eventually they will face a moment of failure, maybe once, maybe twice, maybe tens of times, maybe a hundred or even a thousand times. The ONLY thing that will save you from sinking deep into the dark shadows and help you see the light of hope once again in your life, will be the attitude where you FORGET HOW OR WHY TO GIVE UP. You may not know the FIRST STEP, you will learn it eventually. You may even survive the fact of not knowing what IT takes to be a success. You will somehow even make it to the next levels through your different lifestyles or the people who surround you or the way your life is, but no matter where you live, no matter who you are, no matter how well your surroundings are shaped and no matter if you have thousands of angels protecting you; if you lack the quality described in this 5th principle, you may never really feel the success.

To be a PERSON is easy, but to become HUMAN and lead an EXAMPLE takes a lot of something in you. Your GOAL in life is to figure out that something, the PRICE, that life has set in order for you to become SUCCESSFUL and GIVE all that you have in terms of physical and mental EFFORTS to chase your DREAMS.

The more you LEARN, the better you PROGRESS. Remember these principles from the lives of successful people and one day when you all reach your GOALS, take a look back, reflect on your journey, and share some of your life principles with the world. As I said before, every day millions of dreamers are born. Let us all create a future where NO LIFE IS DEPRIVED OF SUCCESS

http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Principles-Successful-People-KNOW-That-Can-Change-Your-Life&id=9444804