Are You Squatting To Rise...?

So… we're well into the new year – how are you doing on your New
Year’s Resolutions…?

If not so great, I have a question for you: How bad are you ngoing to have to feel to motivate you…?

Isn’t that the way to get your butt in gear - creating a sense of npain or discontent or something equally unpleasant in order to nget you moving in the right direction…?

Yeah – I don’t care for that method either. In the words of the nimmortal Christopher Villa:

“You’ve heard of ‘No pain – no gain’..? Well, I say, ‘No pain = NO PAIN!’”

I prefer to avoid pain, myself. Now, I understand where this theory ncomes from, and I know that a lot of people have used it to move nthem to great achievement. But while it may work to get some nfolks in gear, it seems to me that it adds an unnecessary experience nof discomfort to life. And, call me crazy (many have…), but I’m njust plain opposed to that.

And pain is hardly a universal motivator, given that some people nhave a remarkable tolerance for pain.

If your goal is losing weight, how uncomfortable does the weight nneed to be before you really get on board with a healthier diet nand better workout routine? I’ve seen plenty of folks who are nclearly suffering as a result of their weight, but still can’t get nmotivated to turn it around. It’s hard to say to them, “Well, you njust aren’t feeling enough pain – maybe you should try to be more nupset about your situation.”

And even if they take action based on the pain, working out is nhighly unlikely to be a positive experience – it is a disagreeable ntask based on a perceived need. Yuck – that’s not much fun.

And if you want more of anything, such as money, does making nyourself feel ungrateful for what you already have lead to having nmore for which to feel grateful? Based on what we know about nthe Law of Attraction, that certainly doesn’t make sense.

But there are still plenty of folks saying that if you aren’t taking nthe action required to get the results you want, then you should nfabricate a sense of discontent to motivate yourself.

This reminds me of a phrase from the great motivator Zig Ziglar: “Squatting to rise.” It’s the idea of going down as part of the process nto go up – which seems rather counterproductive.

See – what we want is to feel good. The things we wish to achieve – nwe want them because we expect to feel good in some way when nwe achieve them. Using discontent or pain to motivate us is nlike saying, “Hmm… I’d like to feel better tha
I do right now, nbut I don’t feel motivated enough to make change, so I’m going nto make myself worse first.”

Kind of like a high jumper digging a pit in front of the bar, because nwhen he sees the bar that much higher from the lower vantage point, nhe’ll be more motivated to jump that much higher.

Of course – he’ll have higher to jump.

This sort of assumes that the process of jumping (or whatever nthe required action might be) is disagreeable, and to overcome nthat obstacle the present situation needs to appear more unpleasant.

But what if the jumper is just motivated by seeing how high nhe can jump..? By the excitement of seeing what new heights nhe can reach…? (Actually, anyone in this sport who doesn’t nthink this way might want to consider another line of work…)

Yup – I’m in favor of using joy to motivate us. Because if the nachievement doesn’t inspire joy, then why do you really want it?

Motivation comes when the perceived benefit of doing something noutweighs the perceived cost. So, rather than waiting for the pain nof not taking action to be greater than the pain of taking action, nwhat if we cleared the pain, and made the joy of taking action nmore enticing than the comfort of not taking action…? In fact, nif you need to feel pain to get motivated, there is probably something nthere that you’d be better off clearing anyway, rather than trying nto overcome it.

Whether the required action is working out, or making more ncalls, or jumping higher, the degree of pain is a perception.
Some people actually enjoy these things – and that is what nmakes them more successful in those areas. So, start clearing nyour resistance to these things. And if the things you need to ndo in your field are impossibly painful, then the ladder of success nyou are trying to climb might well be leaning against the wrong nwall, to use the popular cliché.

What do you want? Are you moving towards it? Get more nexcited about it. Forget about discontent and pain – create joy nand excitement. See how good you can possibly feel, and before nyou know it you will find yourself already in action. Something nslowing you down? Clear it. Then go back to feeling good, nletting it get better and better.

You deserve so much. Let yourself joyfully experience it.