The Killer Motivational Mistake That Could Ruin Your Chances of Success

August 28, 2007

Self motivation is crucial for business success. But, if you make the terrible mistake that I made - you’ll struggle to reach your goals.

However tempting it is - don’t use the things you don’t want to motivate yourself. For example, if you hate your job and want to be running your own business within a year - don’t make your goal leaving your job in one year. If you do this, you’ll wind up focusing on the thing you hate - your job. Instead, turn the goal round to - I will be running my own business full-time within one year.

I made the mistake of focusing on what I didn’t want for a long time. I suffered from really bad PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), and among my goals were - not suffering from insomnia or agrophobia anymore.

So, you’ve guessed it - instead of focusing on sleeping well, feeling healthy, and being able to go out of the house alone - I focused on not being able to sleep, and being afraid to go out of the house.

As soon as I switched my thinking to the things I did want, my life began to improve dramatically.

Are you worried that you might have been focusing on what you don’t want? Here’s a simple exercise you can do.

Make yourself a list of half a dozen things you don’t want. When you’re done - take each item on the list, and turn them into positives. Instead of writing “I don’t want” at the beginning of each sentence - begin them with “I want” or “I will”.

You’ll be surprised at how much your life will begin to improve once you begin focusing on what you do want.

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Comments

3 Responses to “The Killer Motivational Mistake That Could Ruin Your Chances of Success”

Bloggrrl on August 29th, 2007 12:47 am

Hey, if you get a chance, email me.
Ian on August 29th, 2007 11:12 am

Love this one. It’s so important to focus on the positives and a desination you want to arrive at. If the end is too negative, you won’t work to get there.
cathlawson on August 29th, 2007 2:22 pm

Hi Bloggrrl - I love your blog. Thanks for dropping by. Will email you.

Hi Ian - thanks. I did it the wrong way round for a long time.