Author : John Watson
Have you ever started out, with great enthusiasm, on the road to achieve an important goal and, after several months or even years, found that you are not much closer to your goal?Perhaps you decided to make money by joining the internet gold rush but after several years you now find yourself in credit card debt and wondering what happened.What did happen? Distraction probably happened and you were unable to overcome the distractions enough to focus on your goal. Or you may simply have become tired of working hard with little to show for it.You may have become discouraged by the lack of results and your self-image changed from being a winner to being a loser. You no longer felt like someone who can triumph over difficulties.However, most of the problems above can be overcome if we will take control and take steps to avoid the distractions. If we keep working long enough with renewed focus, we will begin to see some results and our self-image will change along with our success.Focus and hard work can help you become good at something and becoming good at doing something is a great motivator. You may, of course, have to focus on the activity or skill in question for half a year or more and work hard for at least an hour a day for the same amount of time.Hopefully, after two or three months, you will begin to enjoy the increasing level of skill you are achieving and this will motivate you to put in even more concentrated effort and to focus on developing your abilities further.However, the universe or some of the people in it seem hell bent on preventing focus. All kinds of distractions are thrown at the person who is trying to concentrate on their main priorities in life.When I was at school, I worked hard at every subject except two or three where I was too easily distracted by factors like the following:In one lesson the students in the front rows were occasionally showered by spit from an enthusiastic teacher. This made concentration difficult.In another lesson, time was wasted discussing the rumor that the teacher had a cork replacement for part of his rear end. Rumor had it that part of his back side had been shot off in the tank warfare of World War II.In yet another lesson, I sat next to a friend who cracked jokes while the teacher was trying to explain mysterious things about the square on the side of the hypotenuse.If I had had more sense, I would not have sat in the front row of the enthusiastic teacher and would not have been too concerned about that cork backside!I would also have avoided the company of my talkative friend in mathematics lessons. In other words, I would have had the wisdom to concentrate or focus my mind on the subjects we were supposed to be studying.Hard graft or work often leads to greater motivation. The more you work at something the better you get and the more you will be able to enjoy the respect and admiration of others. Once you have that respect, you will not want to lose it and will be motivated to work even harder to keep it.Most of us want to work less to achieve our goals. We want to become experts who can achieve goals without apparent effort. But to achieve this state we will probably have to work more to begin with!We may have to get up early or stay up late and get things done but once the ball is rolling, it will take less effort to keep it rolling.The abundance school of thought is rightly very popular today. It teaches that, if you think right and tune in your subconscious mind to the power of the universe, you will accomplish your goals with far less hard work and effort.However, even if you become an expert at abundance thinking, there is always a need at some point for effort and hard work of some kind. You will always reach a time when you have to force yourself to work at what you don't feel like doing.You may not feel like listening to those tapes which will program your mind into believing that you are already rich and successful. You will then have to make the effort to put distractions aside and find a place where you can be quiet and listen for half an hour or more to the tape in question. This is not easy.If you live with a family, it is downright difficult!Even if you live on your own, you will need to switch off the TV, disconnect the telephone and pay some attention while the tape drones on! Even after you have controlled what you think about there are actions to be taken. This is work even though it is less work.I notice that the gurus, who make millions and then tell you how easy it all was do seem to do huge amounts of hard graft themselves. Perhaps they have become so used to doing this work that they started believing that the work involved was minimal.Possibly, the pleasure of the rewards which have followed their hard work has made them forget the hard grind which they endured before the rewards started to arrive.Once you have put in the focus, time and effort needed to develop the skills you desire, you will no longer need as much motivation as before.Your own skill, self-confidence and new self-image will become a self-renewing fountain of inspiration and motivation. You will be able to relax more and relaxed effort is usually more productive than tense effort.You will have an image of yourself as a hard working expert who is able to resist all manner of distractions and overcome all manner of problems and obstacles.So then; take urgent steps to avoid distractions even if this means losing a friend or upsetting a relative or annoying a teacher.When I started the martial arts, I trained in Kung Fu in the morning and Karate in the afternoon. My instructors did not approve of this arrangement.My Kung Fu teacher simply gave me a disdainful look when I told him that I was doing Karate as well as Kung Fu. My Karate teachers told me not to chase two rabbits as I would catch neither of them.They were right. In the end I moved on to Taekwondo!Be willing to work very hard and with focus until you see some results and start believing in yourself. Ralph Waldo Emerson makes clear the importance of work:"Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it."If you can focus on one project until it is completed, you will feel a sense of achievement and develop the kind of confidence and determination which will help you to focus on your next project and complete that as well.Aim high so that your new image of yourself will be that of a winner who is top of the class in everything you do. This will create a clear distinction between your old self-image and your new victorious self-image.This will clearly mean working harder than everyone else. Get up early or stay late if necessary and do more than you are asked to do instead of complaining about how much you have to do.Realize that once you believe in yourself and have a new self-image, you will be able to work harder and with greater intelligence. You will feel that you can do anything and this will allow you to work with relaxed power. At this point every thing you do will appear to have a momentum of its own.You will no longer need as much motivation because you will know what it feels like to be a success rather than a failure. The memory of that feeling may be enough to motivate you for years to come.Your new self-image will make regressing and losing motivation less likely.Dr. Joyce Brothers, the psychologist, has stressed the importance of a strong self-mage for the achievement of success:"An individual's self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change. A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life."Add focus and hard work to that strong self-image and you will have a recipe for success and for the motivation that usually accompanies success.
.John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt martial arts instructor. He has written several ebooks on motivation and success topics. One of these can be found at http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.phpYou can also find motivational ebooks by authors like Stuart Goldsmith. Check out http://www.motivationtoday.com/the_midas_method.phpFeel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site but please include the resource box above
Keyword : motivation,motivational,focus,work,self-image,success,goal-setting,self-concept,abundance,kung fu
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