Written by Edgar Luna

I think everyone has gone through those feelings of not wanting to do certain things and then you think on finding that “motivation” to get certain things done.

The word “motivation” is used for many things from sports, work or any other activity that requires us humans to reach a means or a goal.

As I was thinking about that, I started to wonder what the actual definition of the word “motivation” is, and it is the following:

“The general desire or willingness of someone to do something.”

The concept “motivation” derived from the Latin word “movere” which means “to move”.

Sometimes we feel that we are not “motivated” to do certain things, they could be easy tasks or hard tasks, but we just cannot get ourselves “to move” and do something that would give us a result.

Like right now:

Are you “motivated” to do something specific? Maybe an easy task like watch TV, eat, sleep or check social media.

However, where do we find the “motivation” to do stuff that is a little bit harder and takes more effort and energy?

No doubt that it takes “motivation” to do certain things that are harder, like go to the gym or park to workout, go to your work place and complete some tasks, take your dog for a walk, finish homework for school and so many other things.

However, how can you get “motivated” to get things done?

That is usually the hard part, if it were easy we all would be doing plenty of things and being very productive.

So like the definition says, “we need to start moving” and make a conscious decision ” to move”, we start with baby steps, little by little and working on our mindset.

How many times do we say I would like to go for a 10-minute walk or do 10 push ups? Maybe never but could you start?

The answer is YES.

However, we find that the comfort of the couch, a snack and the show on the TV will not let us go.

How many times do we say we want to learn more and try to grab a book to read, but we turn to social media, which requires basically no effort?

Well “motivation” has to be a conscious and focused effort to accomplish something.

A few things that will help us get “motivated” are by setting some goals. You have to remind ourselves that the action or task that you are going to do will benefit you in some way, set that short term goal so you can focus on the result.

But how do we do this you would ask?

There are several ways:

One of them is to start a habit of reminding ourselves over and over what the positive result from a specific action is going to accomplish.

“Walking 20 minutes a day will result on eventual weight loss, lower stress, healthier heart”

“Reading a book will result in an eventual increase in comprehension and knowledge”

“Eating a salad before lunch will result on reducing cholesterol, better gastrointestinal function”.

“Motivation” might be tough at the start , but if you focus on the word “motivation” it’s meaning is “to move” so if you want to accomplish something you need “to move”.

E Luna