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life.) The more reasons you have, the more motivated you will
be.
Be sure your long-range goals are realistic and moral. Talk
to others about your motives. This will clarify your thinking. Be
sure the means and the end-goals are in line with your values.
Consider what a highly motivated person with your goals would
do. Observe and talk to a role model.
Set sub-goals, e.g. get all "A's," and plan daily schedules,
e.g. study 8 hours a day. See scheduling in chapter 13. Plan
your life well enough and get enough self-control that you
expect to succeed.
Consider the most likely distractions, make plans for avoiding
them. Guard against immediate temptations distracting you
from your more important long-term goals.
List all the sources of resistance you can foresee--your ways
of avoiding the work, your temptations, your excuses, and self-
cons. Ask what these resisting forces are trying to achieve for
you; see if those needs can be met some other way. Look for
the fears that cause you to resist change and try to handle
these fears.
When you have definitely decided what goals you want to be
your priorities, stop thinking about the decision. Get on with it.
Commit yourself publicly, specifically, and wholeheartedly to
reaching your goals.
Altogether, these ideas boil down to--learn self-discipline. A critical
part of discipline is learning to postpone pleasures and stick with the
job until it is done. You must be able to envision the desired pay offs in
the future but stay steady, organized, and dependable along the way.
STEP TWO: Acquire the skills you will need to succeed. You
aren't likely to be motivated and enthusiastic about your work
unless you are competent.
Ask what skills will be needed. Learn the skills before they are
needed. Examples: decision-making, study, scheduling,
communication, assertiveness skills (chapter 13).
Beyond special skills, learn the fundamentals of whatever you are
doing. First, in school, by realizing that general knowledge taught is
school provides the foundation for all other useful, practical
information. So, learn to comprehend what you read well; learn to
speak and write well; learn math and history and psychology...
Second, on the job, no matter what level you start at, get experience
at the lowest level. Don't be in a rush to advance; if you are working
your field, get to know everything about it. If you know what you are
doing, you will be more at ease, more secure, and more passionate
about the work.
