Motivation? Inspiration? Just Take Action!

I have a problem with motivation. Not with everything, obviously. I can very easily get myself packed and ready to go to the beach and I can do that in 5 minutes flat. I can just as easily find the energy to meet a friend for coffee - if I can get hold of one. Friend, that is (I’m having a bit of a problem with friends since my last blog). On the other hand if it involves doing something more necessary like work say or the washing up then it’s very strange because I can’t seem to find the motivation and tend to hang about waiting for inspiration. Well I don’t really hang about, obviously. I sofa surf or tea drink. Washing up doesn’t need inspiration. You’ve seen through me already.

The idea that we need to be motivated in order to get stuff done is just an excuse. It’s just pathetic really. And as for inspiration - well that’s for drama queens. No self respecting artist talks about inspiration - they talk about hard slog. Hours and hours of endless toil. Motivation and Inspiration are just amateur rubbish words. If you believe in them then you are obviously the type (see personality types here if you are in any way concerned) who wastes good money on the kinds of seminars you see advertised in second rate blog sites. You know the ones I mean - they usually have motivational speaker somewhere in the title.

Give it up and get some work done.  

Here's what you do: you pick a task, then set a timer for 25 minutes - no exceptions. Work. When it rings, stop for five minutes. Repeat three more times, then take a longer break. That's just about it. It works. Try it.

It works because it creates an illusion that you have no choice – that there's some kind of drill sergeant keeping an eye on every move you make, stopping you from defaulting to the basic lazy that you really are... Well me anyway. It’s incredible just how easy to fool our brains are - a timer is all you need.

This is the product to try if you need more advice
http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/

Motivation follows action and not the other way round. Or as the psychologist Albert Bandura put it :

“ It’s better to act your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of acting”

Posted by Annabel who wrote this in under 25 minutes with the timer on having waited all day (on the beach at Barcelona) for some inspiration.

More tips and ways to take control of your life, set and keep goals in The Real Secret, available in paperback and kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk