Giving Up Giving up

When we really put our minds to something we can usually accomplish it in the long run... the problem is that we will usually turn our mind to giving up on a challenge we are facing. How we deal with a challenge depends on what it is and understanding our motivations is key to being able to maintain them.

Being motivated is a tricky business. Those of us who served in the military may remember 'motivational runs' which were usually the last thing we wanted to do. One of the keys of being motivated is experiencing success... but it's not really the 'win' that motivates you... it the meaning of the victory. Once we see that it is the meaning of the victory that affects it's motivational value we can assess whether our pregress is satisfactory.

Being satisfied with our progress is extremely important with program we might use to accomplish our goals. Particularly with a 'baby step' type process it's very easy to get unmotivated by the apparent lack of valuable progress. So it is imperative that any such program have a method to include valued benchmarks.

Alternativly there is the apprioach of setting a large goal which if the task is time consiming may seem daunting. However large goals are very satisfying to accomplish. I personally like to set extremely grand goals that are safe to fail. Usually they do fail, but being able to apply what I learned to new projects constantly improves my abilities.

Going until you hit a brick wall is an extremely useful ability because so often a lot of what we want, even on 'this side of the wall' may rest very close to it. So having the confidence to 'get in over your head' sometimes can lead to your success 'right before you do.'