International communication expert and business consultant, Shelle Rose Charvet tackles motivation and success in her ebook: Wishing, Wanting and Achieving: Personal and Professional Strategic Planning.
Goal setting is easy. Accomplishing goals is hard. The problem usually isn’t in the goal. The problem is usually in the strategy one applies. Charvet draws upon NLP Meta Programs to explain three success strategies that supercharge motivation.
First, have a dual direction for motivation. Some people are motivated Toward benefits and rewards while others are motivated Away From existing problems. Charvet advocates combining these two tendencies to increase motivation. When you set a goal, visualize the problems that prompted the goal, and then visualize the rewards that make working on the goal worthwhile.
Second, combine Internal and External indications of progress. Judge the quality of your results not just from your own opinion, but also from objective means. Track your progress through external feedback – use measurement devices such as a daily log. Share your progress with others and seek their opinions.
Third, turn goal-related actions into procedures, and give yourself no options. While some people prefer options over hard-and-fast rules, options leave open the possibility of distraction. To develop successful procedures, break action items into smaller and smaller units until they are imminently doable. Pair your procedures with incremental deadlines and commit to them. Deadlines work particularly well when you hold yourself accountable to others.
Charvet also discusses how to cultivate “sacred time”, develop willpower, sustain motivation, cope with setbacks, and defeat temptation. The ebook includes a link to a free audio download of the text.
The short endorsement I sent to Charvet:
Goal-setting is easy. Accomplishing goals is difficult. Wishing, Wanting, and Achieving will help you work out the kinks in your goal-accomplishing strategies so that you supercharge your motivation! I will definitely be recommending this book to my clients!
Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D.