We must unearth our most deeply held motivations and accept those motivations as part of who we are. Before we begin to take substantive action on our discovery, however, we should take a few moments to be certain we are about to follow the “right path.”
You can use a simple exercise to determine whether the list of motivations you’ve developed is an accurate portrayal of your inner self. This project involves comparing your past individual history to past efforts-both accomplishments and failures.
Take a few moments to list several things you have tried to accomplish in the past. Think about major undertakings that excited you, projects you felt almost compelled to do, and other important tasks you have undertaken throughout your life.
Don’t worry if the list is comprised of massive accomplishments or smaller attempts-this brainstorming session will provide you with a list of past experiences that still resonate within you, and that’s what’s important.
Now, take your list and provide yourself with a “grade” for each of those past situations. You can give yourself a standard “A to F” grade, or just rate your performance via some other system. The idea is to understand when you’ve done your best and when you have fallen a bit flat.
Now, go back over the list on more time and note what motivated you to undertake those tasks. Think back to what was pushing you forward as you started them and what sustained you as you were trying to complete them. This will allow you to compare your own personal tendencies toward success with the motivations you have uncovered.
Most of us will find that the motivations we’ve listed for ourselves fall in line, for the most part, with our own past experiences. Our greatest successes will usually be related, in some way, to those same motivations. The experiments that didn’t work out as well were usually motivated by weaker forces.
This exercise will allow you to better isolate which motivators really work for you and may even help you to discover another motivation or two you overlooked earlier. It’s a great way to test the motivations you believe work best for you against your own personal reality.
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