Ops NCO

In the Airborne, motivation is a big deal. You can have a great deal of God-given talent, but without proper motivation, it can be wasted. Motivation is a big deal in Airborne units and should be a big deal in your life. A great deal of time is spent motivating young paratroopers to run faster, walk farther, carry more weight, and do more things than they ever thought (or might have wanted) to do. I can remember as a young Sergeant attending meetings with the Command Sergeant Major where he discussed the importance of keeping our troops motivated. Keeping yourself motivated can literally be the difference between success and failure in an endeavor. Let's face it, life is tough. Getting yourself motivated, and keeping that motivation strong is huge.

The first thing you have to consider is that you're always motivated. The key question, however, is "are you motivated to do the right things?". If you find yourself lying on the couch every day eating potato chips, watching Jerry Springer and getting out of shape...than that is what you've motivated yourself to do. On the other hand, if you find yourself taking on new challenges at work, or continuing your education, or spending more or better time with your kids or spouse....than that is what you've motivated yourself to do.

So, how do you motivate yourself in a proper direction? Here are several practices others have used to get and stay motivated to do good things:

1. Set a goal. I'll write more about this later, because it's go important. But setting a goal is a good first step. Do you want to lose weight, get stronger, find a better job, etc, etc? You've got to get at least a vague idea of what you want to accomplish if you have any hope of ever getting there.

2. Write the goal down. Someone once said that a goal that is not written is just a wish. Writing down what you hope to accomplish sounds hokey (and feels hokey when you're doing it), but really helps you get clear on what you want to motivate yourself to do.

3. Set and achieve little goals first. Some people make the mistake of setting huge goals that are way out of their reach. But from a psychological persepctive, it's much more effective to set goals that are too easy, accomplish them, and then set new goals. Have you ever watched the show "The Biggest Loser"? It's amazing how at the end of each season, many of the participants have ended up losing 30, 40 or even 50% of their bodyweight. But they never actually set that as a goal. They just focus on losing a little bit each week, and then repeating the process. You can apply this process to anything you want to accomplish. Want to start donating more, but don't think you can afford to tithe 10%? Start by donating a dollar a day. Once you've gotten confident that you won't end up in the poorhouse, up it to two dollars a day. Final thought: It's actually better to set your initial goals too low and then raise them as you achieve them, than to set them too high and get discouraged.

4. Do something small every day towards your goal. (Okay, you can give yourself a break on Sundays if you want just to take the pressure off.) By doing something every day toward what you want to accomplish, you'll build momentum. For example, want to improve your reputation at work? Decide to do something every day that would help you move in that direction.

5. Read, watch, or listen to, motivational material. Zig Ziglar once said that staying motivated was like taking a bath, you can't just do it once and think you're good for the month. There are literally millions of books, tapes and websites that you can refer to in order to keep your motivation up. Sometimes, especially when you get off track (and you will, because we all do) these can help get you back into the proper frame of mind.

6. Keep track of your progress. One of the most powerful (and yet underused) techniques is to review your progress every day. This one technique can help you stay on track more than anything. Let's say you've set a goal to stop cursing (perhaps, ahem, the lady in your life has delicately suggested that the four-letter word thing is a bit out of hand). You could approach the goal of reducing (or eliminating) your cursing in two ways. First, you could try to reduce the number of times you curse each day. Or second, you could try to lengthen the number of minutes between each curse word. Whichever way you choose to go, getting a small notebook to record your progress is key. If you decided to try the first method (number of curse words per day), just put the date at the top of the page, and then put a tick-mark each time you curse. Each night, you can count the number of ticks and see if the number is dropping. If you decide to try the second method (making the length of time between curse words longer), just write down the time each time you catch yourself cursing. At the end of the day, review and write down the longest length of time you went that day.

In either case, tracking your progress toward a goal is a powerful way to keep yourself focused. And, as you make progress, it helps keep you motivated.

7. Reward yourself when you make progress. There's nothing wrong with (if you can afford it) buying yourself something you really like as you achieve your goals. But, the catch is, don't reward yourself unless you do achieve your goals or make the progress you hoped for. To go back to our cursing example. If you set a goal to curse a smaller number of times this week than you did last week (maybe last week you dropped the f-bomb 45 times, and your goal this week was 44 f-bombs or less!), then go ahead and reward yourself if you dropped it to only 42 times this week! The key is to only reward yourself when you make progress.


8. Encourage yourself mentally. This one, I know, seems as hokey as writing your goals down. But, the reality is, it works. You see, almost all of us are walking around lost in thought. We talk to ourselves in our heads, or create pictures of things (instead of words). Virtually everyone does this, but few are aware of it because it's almost automatic. You can consciously use this ability to help keep you motivated. Find what works for you based on how your brain thinks. Some ways to encourage yourself:

• Encourage yourself verbally. Many people have had success with creating simple phrases they can repeat to themselves. Statements like "I can do this", or "I will _____" can help keep your motivation up. Military units do this every day in PT (physical training). It is very common to hear unit returning from a 7-8 (or longer) mile run chanting "I can make it; I can take it..."
• Picture yourself having achieved your goal, or picture yourself telling someone about achieving your goal. For many people, the brain processes the world in pictures or sounds. Many a person who has attended the Army's Airborne Course or Ranger School has talked about imagining what it would be like when someone pinned on those silver wings or Ranger tab on their uniform.

The eight steps above are by no means an exhaustive list. But, if systematically applied, they can help you keep up your motivation toward a worthy goal or goals.

As I mentioned above, the simple reality is this: life is tough. Most anyone who has had any success will tell you that, in the process of being successful, there is also some failure. The difference between the people who don't accomplish what they want, and the people who do isn't talent or desire, it's the ability to keep themselves motivated and the ability to keep themselves focused on moving in the right direction.