The Ability To Motivate Yourself And Others To Achieve Is A Rare And Valuable Skill

Ability -  Power or capacity to do or act.  Competence in an activity or occupation because of one’s skill, training, or other qualification.

Motivate – To stimulate toward action.    Give an incentive for action.  To impel; to induce.

Achieve - To get or attain by effort; gain; obtain.  To bring about an intended result.

Rare - Uncommon.  Unusually excellent; admirable; fine.  Unusually great.

Valuable – Having considerable worth.  Having qualities worthy of respect, admiration, or esteem.

Skill – The ability, coming from one’s knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well.  Competent excellence in performance; expertness.

Your Needs Control Your Motivations

Satisfied needs do not motivate.  Only unsatisfied needs motivate.

So, it all boils down to what you need (or at least what you believe that you need).

The trick is to focus your needs in the right direction.

Do you need to get in better shape and lose weight? – Then you should use that to redirect yourself toward exercising and eating better.

Do you need to spend less money? – Then you should use that need to redirect yourself toward spending less money and spending your money more wisely.

Those are just 2 simple examples.

It all boils down to what we believe we need.

The Buddha

In his book, The World of Shamanism, Roger Walsh M.D., PhD. reminds us of what the Buddha said in his second and third noble truths.

The cause of suffering is craving.

Freedom from craving brings freedom from suffering.

What is craving?

Craving – To long for; want greatly; desire eagerly.

I Look At It A Little Differently

Personally, I don’t think craving is necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself.

I also don’t necessarily think that we’re going to “suffer” if we don’t get something we crave.

I think the trick is to choose our cravings wisely.  If you crave something good, it might lead to something good.

For example:

If you “crave” to help your fellow man; you might start a charity that feeds the homeless.

That’s certainly not a bad thing.  BUT, you might “suffer” if you’re unable to fulfill your craving to help EVERYONE because you’re only able to help SOME people.

The Difference

In his book, Roger Walsh suggests that we redirect our motivations away from material possessions and more toward what he calls “metamotives”, such as self-transcendence and selfless service.

Some Recommended Reading

See Laws of Positioning #67 – Position Yourself To Be Motivated

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – Wikipedia Article

What Do You Think?

What do you think about these thoughts? Please share your comments below.

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Control Your Emotions Or They Will Control You. (Author Unknown)

Control -  To exercise restraint or direction over; dominate; command.   To hold in check; curb.

Emotions – The part of the consciousness that involves feeling; sensibility.  A mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes; a feeling.

You - One; anyone; people in general.

Your - Belonging to said person.

Controlling Your Emotions

In his book, The World of Shamanism, Roger Walsh M.D., PhD. lists 3 primary ways to work toward controlling your emotions.

1)  Reducing negative emotions – These are emotions such as fear, anger and jealousy.

2)  Strengthening and developing positive emotions – These are emotions such as love, joy and compassion.

3)  Balance – Developing balance between the two.

The Principle Of Balance

Balance is increasing what is deficient and decreasing what is excessive.

That’s EXACTLY what Roger Walsh is suggesting.

Balance . . .

Awareness Is The Key

If you read the definition of emotions shown above, one major component is a mental state that arises spontaneously, rather than through conscious effort.

In other words, emotions (especially the negative ones), often arise unconscoiusly.

In short, they often happen automatically, rather than on purpose.

An Example

You’re stuck in traffic and someone cuts you off.  Your first instinct is often to raise a fist toward them and start shouting at them or cursing them out.

That is an example of an automatic response.  You acted because you were preconditioned (for one reason or another to act that way).

HOWEVER, by becoming aware of how you are acting, you can consciously choose to act differently.  You can choose to restrain yourself and to let it go.

As I said before, AWARENESS IS THE KEY TO CONTROLLING YOUR EMOTIONS.

If you are aware of how you are acting, you can consciously:

1) Increase the positive emotions;

2) Decrease the  negative emotions; and

3) Seek a balance between the two.

Some Recommended Reading

See Laws of Positioning #4 – Position Yourself To Be Balanced

See Laws of Positioning #62 – Position Yourself To Be Loving (and Loved)

What Do You Think?

What do you think about these thoughts? Please share your comments below.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you Stumble It! and Digg it (Digg it by clicking the button at the top of the article) – Thanks

Ethics Is The Difference Between What You Have A Right To Do And What Is Right To Do. (Potter Stewart)

Ethics – A system of moral principles. That branch of human philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct.

Know – To perceive or understand as fact or truth.

Difference – A distinguishing characteristic. The degree to which one person or thing differs from another.

Right – In accordance with what is good, proper, or just.  Something that is due to a person by law, tradition, or nature.

Living Ethically

Ethical behavior heals the mind.

Ethical behavior heals the spirit.

On the other hand, unethical behavior corrupts the mind.

Unethical behavior corrupts the spirit.

It’s not easy to always act ethically, but it is absolutely essential that we attempt to do so.

Why?

The reason why we must attempt to act ethically is really quite simple.

When others benefit, then we benefit. When others lose, we lose.

The more often we do the right thing, even when no one is looking, the more society will benefit.

The less often than we do the right thing, the more others around us will suffer.

Or to put it another way, Buddha said ” whatever you do to others, you do to yourself.”

Some Recommended Reading

See Laws of Positioning #32 – Position Yourself To Be Ethical

What Do You Think?

What do you think about these thoughts? Please share your comments below.

One Is Not A Human Being Having A Spiritual Experience, But A Spiritual Being Having A Human Experience. (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

Human – Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or having the nature of people.  Of or pertaining to the social aspect of people.

Spirit –   The principle of conscious life; the vital principle in humans, animating the body or mediating between body and soul.

Experience – A particular instance of personally encountering or undergoing something.    The process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something.

Being – The fact of existing; existence.  Something that exists.

I’ve Started Reading Another Book

I’ve started reading another book, this one is about Shamanism.

It is called:  The World of Shamanism, by Roger Walsh, M.D., PhD.

What is Shamanism?  Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it.

An Interesting Idea

In his book, Dr. Walsh talks about what he calls the “Seven Central Practices”.

He contends that there are 7 central practices that most of the world’s great religions could agree upon when it comes to developing a full spiritual life.

What Are These Principles?

• Living ethically;
• Transforming emotions;
• Redirecting motivation;
• Training attention;
• Refining awareness;
• Cultivating wisdom; and
• Serving others.

An Idea A Day

Over the next several days, I’m going to expand upon these ideas and open up discussion about them.

What Do You Think?

What do you think about these thoughts? Please share your comments below.