Are YOU a Motivational Fluctuator??? Not any more!

Motivation can be are greatest alley or our worst nightmare.

So you think your self motivation skills are lacking?

Think again.

Motivation is a cycle of highs and lows. When you hit the lows this is when you are most vulnerable. This is when the villains come along, feeding your insecurities and self preservation instincts - zapping your ability to stay motivated. These villains are sneaky, but comfortable to you - many appearing as old familiar friends throughout the course of life.

As a matter of fact, you are so used to them, consciously they escape your attention. They slowly but surely gain strength and then overpower your desire to action. Who are these villains you wonder? I refer to them as the detracting eight. They slink about looking for their latest victim - chipping at your enthusiasm and excitement for success - leading you believe you have poor self motivation skills. Consider these your ammo of quotes when these enemies dare to strike YOU the Champion:

Fear:

• Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear.-- Cheri Huber
• You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.-- Eleanor Roosevelt
• Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive - the risk to be alive and express what we really are.-- Don Miguel Ruiz
• Don't be afraid to go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.-- H. Jackson Browne  

Doubt: 

• Any belief worth having must survive doubt. -- Unknown
• When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt --Unknown
• If doubt is challenging you and you do not act, doubts will grow. Challenge the doubts with action and you will grow. Doubt and action are incompatible.--John Kanary
• If you doubt you can accomplish something, then you can't accomplish it. You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.-- Rosalyn Carter 

Pessimism:

• Cheer up, the worst is yet to come.-- Philander Johnson
• An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. -- Bill Vaughan
• Some people are so fond of ill-luck that they run half-way to meet it.-- Douglas Jerrold
• Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back. -- Author Unknown 

Procrastination:

• If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting off doing it. --Olin Miller
• You may delay, but time will not.-- Benjamin Franklin
• Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin. --Victor Kiam
• Procrastination is something best put off until tomorrow. --Gerald Vaughan
• One of these days is none of these days. -- Attributed to both Henri Tubach and H.G. Bohn

Worry:

• You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do. -- Orin Miller
• As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can.--Julius Ceasar
• Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey!-- Barbara Hoffman
• Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself. -- Pythagoras 

Stress:

• Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. -- Natalie Goldberg, Wild Mind
• Stress is when you wake up screaming and you realize you haven't fallen asleep yet.--Unknown
• Its not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it.--Hans Selye
• Don't take life too seriously. It's not permanent. -- On a Coffee Mug by OZ 

Impatience:

• Perhaps there is only one cardinal sin: impatience. Because of impatience we were driven out of Paradise, because of impatience we cannot return.-- W. H. Auden
• I have to try different things to see what works best. Other people get impatient with that.-- Lucinda Williams  

Criticism

• Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. -- Aristotle
• The strength of criticism lies only in the weakness of the thing criticized. -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  

When it comes to your self motivation skills, you probably have no problem with your initial excitement and enthusiasm. It's the motivation thieves you need to watch out for so remember these words of wisdom and insight. Most importantly, you have a self motivation skills ace in the hole. It's your own personal superhero known as PROGRESS. Nothing fuels motivation better than seeing the positive results of your actions and efforts.

In a nutshell, you have a strong reason for doing what you are doing. Move into action. Fight your detractors when they attack your self motivation skills. Make progress. Succeed.

(Courtesy of fuel-my-motivation.com)