As we’ve shared, part of getting out of our negative space and not allowing our chimp brains to control us involves getting a plan.
However, even that comes with its own hurdles.
How do we carry out the plan if we find ourselves stuck?
It boils down to some C.O.R.E. principles.
Commitment. Ownership. Responsibility. Excellence.
Can we commit to the challenge? Identify what we need to do to be successful, else the dream to move forward can turn quickly into a nightmare. What can you realistically physically and emotionally handle?
There’s a huge difference between commitment and motivation.
Motivation is completely chimp-brain. It is a feeling we have based on an emotion.
It typically happens when there is either a great reward to be gained or we are struggling so badly, we desperately want and need things to change.
Motivation is helpful to drive us but it is not something we must have for success.
Who wakes up every day feeling motivated? Ummmmm, no one.
Mel Robbins says, “Motivation is garbage. We only feel motivated to do the things that are easy. Our minds are designed to stop us at all costs from doing anything that might hurt us. We all have a habit of hesitating. When we hesitate – even a micro-moment – that small hesitation sends a stress signal to our brain, and our brain wakes up.”
For example, we do so many things that we don’t think about. They are so ingrained into us that we merely “do them.”
We put on our clothes, a shirt, pants, shoes, you get the drift. We brush our teeth. None of those things alarm our brains.
But when that hesitation happens, it alerts our brain and it starts asking, “Why are we hesitating?”
In that moment, one of the things it can do is the “spotlight effect.” Our brain magnifies the risk before us so that it can pull us back into a safe space.
So we make a decision NOT to do that which is tough, difficult, scary, or new.
And we miss out because we lack that motivation.
But what if we look not at motivation but at commitment?
A commitment to do something that might be challenging or something we don’t want to do.
Far too often, we wait to do something, to make a change, because we want to “feel” motivated. That simply isn’t reality.
What if we are willing to choose and “do” something consciously? The responsibility to make the change lies within us. No outside factor is going to do that for us. If we will make the effort, the decision, then excellence is certain to emerge.
Ecclesiastes 9:10a (NIV):
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
Grace and Peace,
Andrea