Motivational Tip #3: Describe your “desired end result,” rather than a “process” or “action” for creating that result.
This is an important point of motivational wisdom that many people misunderstand.
It’s a natural impulse to jump right into an action for creating a result before we’re even clear on what that result is. In doing this we can easily confuse a “process” or “action” for creating a result with the result itself.
A close friend of mine began to feel “shortness of breath” when he would walk up stairs. This alarmed him, so he decided to start walking 30 minutes a day. That became his goal. But he quickly found it difficult to keep at it.
Do you see the mistake he had made? He hadn’t clarified his real goal, which was to create cardiovascular fitness. He wanted to be able to walk up stairs and do other activities without feeling fatigued and out of breath. Cardiovascular fitness was what he really wanted to create. And without clearly defining that real goal to himself, he jumped to an “action step” or “process step” for creating his goal, walking 30 minutes a day. And he confused that with his real goal, creating cardiovascular fitness for himself.
He told himself his goal was to walk 30 minutes every day. Actually that was part of the action process for creating his authentic goal which was heart and lung fitness. In his rush to do something about his shortness of breath, he didn’t clarify his real goal, and he confused the “action to create a result” with the “result itself.”
All of us confuse ourselves like this more than we realize. And when we do it really damages our natural motivation. It makes it much harder for us to follow through to achieve the goals we really care about.
When you create an action plan for creating a clear result you’ve chosen, you begin listing action steps for creating your chosen result. Initially it’s important for the primary focus to be on the desired result. The actions to create that result are secondary.
The important thing to understand is this: the result you want to create is your “primary choice,” and the actions you choose to take, to create that result, are your “secondary choices.”
When we begin to clearly organize our goals and our actions in this way, it becomes much easier to take the actions necessary to create the results we want. And it becomes much easier to follow-through with our actions until we completely succeed at creating what we’ve chosen.
Our desired goals become primary choices we make, about what we truly want. And our actions become secondary choices we make, to create the primary choice we’ve chosen.
Please read that last sentence as many times as it takes for you to completely understand it. This is very powerful wisdom about the power of choice, and the structure of goals and actions.
When you begin thinking this way, and organizing your goals and actions this way, it will be much easier for you to take action because it will always be clearly in support of your desired result. As well, it becomes much easier to take actions (secondary choices) we don’t particularly enjoy, if they are clearly in support of creating an outcome (primary choice) we really care about.
I have a friend who hates to exercise, who is in better physical shape than anyone I know. He openly admits that he hates to exercise, and he makes no attempt to lie about it or try to convince himself otherwise. But he exercises rigorously for an hour every day (consistent secondary choice) because he really cares about fitness. What he really wants is to be physically toned and fit (primary choice.)
This is some of the most important wisdom for authentically motivating ourselves in our lives and in our work. Read Motivational Tip #4 to learn how to allow yourself to think about your true aspirations.
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