“Strong lives are motivated by dynamic purposes.”
– Kenneth Hildebrand

While statistics prove that 90% of heart attacks happen on Monday mornings, it goes to show that motivation doesn’t come from work. In reality, most people find themselves working in jobs they hate.

Some wake up in the morning feeling lethargic and hit the snooze button one too many times. Some work only “for the weekend” and take more time to prepare their vacations than they do their own lives. And some who become “workaholics” end up working themselves either out of a job or into a grave. In short, getting motivated by one’s work is impossible. In fact, getting motivated by anything outside of oneself is impossible.

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“Commitment is what turns a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions that speak louder than words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.”
– Unsourced

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
– Anonymous

You may have heard of Thoreau’s advice, “Do what you fear and the death of that fear is certain.” I figured that becoming a salesperson was the best way to fight my fear since rejection is commonplace in sales. In the beginning, though, I certainly was no sales superstar. Working solely on commission and with no income to show for, I filed for bankruptcy (one of two, if you recall). You might say that I became what my father programmed me to believe.

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“If you don’t attempt to get over your doubts and fears, you’ll never discover how wonderful it is to live without them.”
– Colin McArty

“Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.”
– William Shakespeare

Beyond the unknown, you may have other kinds of phobias you will need to deal with. All fears, great or small, prohibit you from reaching your potential because they create self-imposed limitations. Since fear is generally the product of a low self-esteem, the most effective way to deal with your fears is to improve your self-esteem.

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“Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one’s better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk — and to act.”
– Maxwell Maltz

Realize that whatever you choose to focus on affects your quality of life, or what Zig Ziglar calls your “standard of life,” and not just your standard of living. For instance, if you focus on the future by setting goals, you may be forcing yourself to remain in your comfort-zone and probably without ever knowing how far you can really go.

Jim Rohn said, “To know how far we can go is to risk going too far.” To reach your potential therefore, you will unquestionably need to confront risks. They are inevitable. They are unavoidable. You simply have to take them if you want your successfulness to manifest, and there’s no way of tiptoeing around it.

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“Perfect self-expression will never be labor; but of such absorbing interest that it will seem almost like play.”
– Florence Scovel Shinn

In Succeeding Through Inner Strength, Dr. Nathaniel Branden says that people unconsciously lower their self-esteem through their goals.

They usually start by writing down some nebulous wish and may start working on it with the best of intentions. They may even know exactly what they want and work really hard in order to get it. However and more often than not, they quit and do so sometimes just as fast as they have written it down.

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“You do not pay the price of success, you enjoy the price of success.”
– Zig Ziglar

Again, the inner you is your conscience while your connection to it is your consciousness. While you can act in accordance with or in opposition to your conscience, you can’t betray your conscience for it is the wisdom of the highest that’s within. Therefore, if your goals ignore your conscience, they will unconsciously bring unnecessary turmoil in your life. But if your goals follow your conscience, you are then consciously purposeful.

If you’re like most people, you have certain needs and aspirations at this moment. You probably want to reach higher goals, get promoted, make more money, spend more time with your family, find a better job, lose 10 pounds or so, take that vacation in the Caribbean, start a business, etc. In other words, you want to improve your quality of life right now and not at some point in the future.

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“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”
– James Allen (1864-1912)

This paradigm shift in time management has led me to the understanding that goals by themselves are simply no good. If you ask me, they’re all a bunch of caca. The concept of goal achievement today is so clouded in misconception and uses up so much misguided energy that it literally takes people away from their true success.

If you focus on the future or dwell on the past, you can become distracted from what’s genuinely important in your life right now. Most goals are set because people have certain needs or wants. However, once those lacks have been filled, more often than not others were created or overlooked in the process.

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