Motivation
Becoming a football player (second part)
Do you remember Matias? His goal was to pass the aptitude test in a major football team and to become a junior football player.
In order to achieve that goal, he planned to train one hour on schooldays and several hours on Saturday mornings. He is very excited about becoming a junior football player in one of the major football clubs, but some evenings he is tired from school, and some Saturday mornings he would prefer to stay in bed.
Sometimes, he is tempted of giving up his dream.
What can Matias do? He needs some motivation.
To carry on with the plan is the hardest part of any project. Specially in long-term plans, it is easy to become demotivated.
Even in short-term plans, if they require hard effort, we easily run out of energy and start thinking in giving up the project.
Fortunately, there are some motivation techniques we can use for reinforcing our desire to achieve our goal.
Exercise 2.1
Pair each situation with the general technique it exemplifies:
Have you ever given up a plan because of lack of motivation?
Have you ever employed any of the above motivation techniques? When?
Which one works best for you?
Can you think of other motivation techniques?
Know yourself
Everybody needs motivation for carrying on its projects. But different people need different motivation techniques. One technique works well for some people but not for others. This is so because each of us has its strengths and its weaknesses.
It is very important to know yourself so you can reinforce your strong points and improve on your weak ones.
Exercise 2.2
Read the following descriptions of different people.
Pair each person with the motivational technique you think will work best for that person:
Exercise 2.3
What are your strong points? Make a list with three of them. How can you reinforce them even more?
What are your weak points? Try to locate at least two of them. How can you improve them? Is it enough doing it one time or is it important to repeat it many times?