We are bombarded with self improvement books. Each day a new book comes out telling us how to motivate ourselves to do whatever it is we need motivating to do. There are some people who buy self help and motivational books and pour through them religiously looking for answers and trying to find the secret to success. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that. I personally carry more than 50 of those types of books on my Kindle 3G at any time. The following are four that I found interesting recently.
In this blog, I spend a lot of time talking about what motivates me and asking my readers to tell me their motivational secrets. So I definitely recognize the need to depend on the advice of others for motivation and inspiration.
However, there are times when we find ourselves without our Kindle 3Gs and without our trusty paperback collection of resources. The need for motivation does not stop just because we left our trusted resources at home. At those times you have to use what you have inside you to get the job done. On those days, and today may be one of those days for you, you have to work what you have. If all you have in your arsenal is the fact that you can hold on no matter what the storm, work that. If your strength is that you are an excellent organizer, organize your way out of a bad situation. When it's just you against the troubles of the world, do you and work what you have.
This Mary J. Blige song, "Work That" captures the idea I am trying to share completely.
Like the words to the song say, work what you got. You cannot go along with someone else's plan. This means that you have to take what you have read in all the books and learned at all the seminars and put it to work. You read the books for a reason. There was a purpose behind all those seminars you paid to attend. Yes, read the books, attend the seminars and participate in the support groups.
But eventually, you get to the day where you have to start putting into play what you have learned.
So the question for you this magnificent Monday is what are you going to pull out of your pocket and work to motivate yourself?
I think my motivation comes from an internal seed planted by my parents that I should always try my best. Even when I don’t feel like It I know I should push and give it my all. I also will read some books and listen to motivational speakers on occasion. But the desire to seek out and use these resources still stems from that desire to be my best and live my best life.
ReplyDeleteI have also read outliers. I enjoyed it a lot. I liked seeing all of the other factors that determine our success in certain areas such as cultural expectations, birthdate, and parenting techniques.
@ Chasing Joy - Reading your comment that your motivation comes from a seed planted by your parents is interesting. I have 4 children so I need to step up and do more planting to that all my children have that internal seed you have. I think I have planted it, but I am going to work more to make sure I help that seed grow. Thanks for a good visualization I can use to motivate myself to motivate my children!
ReplyDelete"Outliers" was a good book for me because it showed me things that go into creating success that I had never thought of before.