I was reading a bit of a personal finance book last night when today’s card hit me, and I had to write it down in that moment:
You need to convince you of your path
Me telling you or even selling you on what to change, or how to improve, or why it’s important isn’t that consequential in the long run.
Ultimately, YOU need to convince you of your desire, your intention, your action. You need to convince yourself to change.
Lots has been written on this concept. but I want to focus on two aspects: intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation and locus of control.
As a coach, I can try to help motivate people, show them the way, even try to convince them about why they should take particular actions. That will only go so far because it is extrinsic motivation. It only has so much ability to sway someone toward action. A far more powerful motivator is that which comes from within; the intrinsic motivator. When someone has that want, that desire behind their intentions, that is far more powerful a motivator for them to change their behavior than me.
People are far more likely to put more effort into behaviors and tasks when it is interesting to them. It’s no surprise that people invest more time and energy into the things they enjoy, because they find fulfillment and joy from that.
For those not familiar with “Locus of control”:
Locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces, have control over the outcome of events in their lives
Those with a strong internal locus of control believe that their actions are the things that lead to the outcomes in their lives. Those with a strong external locus of control believe that external forces are the things that lead to the outcomes in their lives. Without getting too into the weeds, because I could get out of my depth pretty quickly here, I would encourage people to lean toward the side of the spectrum more geared toward the internal locus of control when it comes to their desires, intentionality, and actions.
How do you find purpose and joy in getting to your outcomes? Hopefully that desire connects directly to the purpose and joy and so it won’t be that hard. If you don’t get a lot of purpose, joy, or satisfaction from the actions you know you need to take, examine why that is.