MOTIVATION FOR ACTION

 

                            TOOLKIT
               
                                       OVERCOMING LOW MOTIVATION
                                     AND FEELINGS OF HOPELESSNESS

                                                                 To accomplish great things,
                                                           We must first dream, then visualize,
                                                                   Then plan… believe… act!
                                                                                                                 —Alfred A. Montapert

This toolkit includes two activities aimed at enhancing your motivation to continue to work on solving
problems. The first tool can be used at any point in time when you might feel hesitant to continue to persist, for example, if you feel unsure about carrying out an action plan to solve a current problem.

The second skill is another use of visualization. This can be especially helpful for people facing an
extremely difficult problem that appears to have no reasonable solution. This use of visualization is
designed to increase hope and motivation to continue to commit oneself to coping with stressful
situations. Basically, this tool involves using visualization to experience successfully resolving a problem.

COMPARING PROS AND CONS OF MOVING FORWARD
When you are "sitting on the fence," not knowing what to do next, and feeling hesitant to continue to work on a problem, try to create a “Motivational Worksheet.”
 

 

To do so, carry out the following steps:

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• Make two columns in your notebook or journal​

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• List those benefits and costs associated with not continuing to work on your problem in the left-

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             hand column

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• List in the right-hand column, possible benefits and costs associated with moving forward, that is,

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     the problem being solved

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• Now, compare these overall consequences and apply the cost–benefit analysis you learned when

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     you were focused on the Decision-Making part of the Problem-Solving Worksheet

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• Be sure to consider immediate benefits and costs, long-term benefits and costs, and benefits and

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     costs to yourself and to others

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• Post this new worksheet in your home where you can see it everyday, such as a bathroom mirror or kitchen refrigerator-- this will continually remind you of why it is important to focus on this problem 

• In comparing both columns, ask yourself the question-- do you think it is better to move forward or do nothing?

• Challenge yourself to go forward! As Benjamin Franklin once said-- "Energy and persistence conquer all things!"

 

VISUALIZATION TO OVERCOME FEELINGS OF HOPELESSNESS
A major barrier to effective problem solving can involve feelings of hopelessness. At times, when you might be feeling overwhelmed with difficult problems, you may be thinking—“I just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel; I just can’t see the problem ever being solved!”

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If you feel this way at times, use another visualization exercise. This one directs you to visualize yourself

 

at a future point in time when a current problem is largely solved. The idea is not to try and imagine how

 

the problem was solved, how the goal was achieved, or how you arrived at this point in time, but simply to

 

put oneself there. Using your imagination, try and experience this scene fully using all your senses. This

 

includes using imagery to silently tell yourself what your surroundings “look” like, what you “hear,” what

 

you “smell,” who is in the scene, what physical sensations and emotions you “feel,” and/or what you are

 

saying to yourself.

 

 

Think about people who are training to run a race. Such people often describe using their “mind’s eye” to

 

visualize or “see” the finish line to enhance their motivation to persist running toward that goal despite

 

feeling tired. Doing so actually helps them to continue to run. As such, the likelihood of finishing the race

 

is increased!

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Remember what it felt like when you pictured yourself graduating high school, on a date with someone

 

you love, or seeing a ribbon signaling the end of a race or obstacle course. These images kept you

 

studying harder, making that first telephone call, or running a bit faster. Actually “seeing the light at the

 

end of the tunnel” (in our mind) can help us to work harder to get to the goal. People who have mastered

 

this technique by practicing have been able to get through stressful, traumatic, and painful

 

circumstances, because they had hope through visualization.

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Here is a visualization audiotape to help you learn to use this skill

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In addition, to see a video demonstrating the use of visualization, click here

 

 

 

PUTTING THE VISUALIZATION TOOL INTO PRACTICE FOR FUTURE GOALS
Choose just one image or scene from your attempts to visualize a future point in time, with your problem largely resolved, or your goal accomplished, and having gotten through, around, or over the barriers in your way. Write down this goal. It could be a personal, physical, career, family, or social goal. Remember to make it as specific and concrete as possible (in other words, define it).
 

Break this goal into small steps—in other words, if the time for the goal is 5 years, write a goal for each

 

year. If the goal is for 6 months, write a goal for each month. Note that you would be using the

 

simplification and externalization tools.
 

 

Now take the first step or smaller goal that you just listed and break that down into even smaller steps.

 

Remember to be concrete and specific.
 

 

Create a daily visualization for motivation to remain focused on the goal and steps toward your goal that

 

you have just described. For example, if your initial visualization involved having an improved relationship

 

with your significant other within a year, and you visualized less arguments and more positive interactions

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each month, you might decide to remain focused on your goal by providing some positive interactions for

 

every negative interaction you experience each week.

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One example might be that for every negative exchange, you focus on noticing acts of friendship or

 

support between both of you and sharing it together. Another example might involve visualizing a long-

 

term promotion that is important to you, but you are experiencing current barriers that lead you to feel

 

hopeless. Use your visualization for motivation to establish a 3-year goal. Then break down that goal into

 

smaller 1-year goals. Next, make a list of the barriers that are in your way, and list a month-by-month

 

plan of how you will slowly work to reduce, change, or remove each barrier. Practice a daily visualization

 

for motivation of how you will feel having achieved your long-term goal to keep focused and committed! 

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