你永远需要激励自己的两个秘诀

hellokitty

The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself Youll Ever Need

I’ve written about motivation a bunch of times before here on Zen Habits, but the more I learn about it, the more I realize that motivation isn’t that complicated.

Sure, there are numerous tips that can help, numerous tactics and strategies I’ve used with success. But it really all boils down to two things.

And those two things are so deceptively simple that you might decide to stop reading after I name them: 1) make things enjoyable and 2) use positive public pressure. But read on for more on how to use those two things to motivate yourself for any goal.

It’s Motivation, Not Discipline

First let’s back up a little bit. A number of readers have emailed me about sticking to their goals — anything from exercise and eating right to being organized and productive to creating new habits — and have said they simply lack the discipline to stick with things for very long.

But what is discipline, really? It’s mostly an illusion, in my experience.

When people say that someone has “discipline”, as I’ve written about before, they really mean he has the motivation to stick to something.

In a previous post I used the example of someone in the military, a typical case of somone who is said to have discipline. This military man might get up super early, fix his bed neatly, go on an early-morning run, do a bunch of other exercises, and generally do a disciplined job throughout the day.

But is that just because he’s disciplined? I think it’s mostly because he’s in a situation where there’s public pressure (both positive and negative) to do all of the things listed above. If he doesn’t do them, he might get yelled at or demerited or look bad in front of his peers. If he does do them, he’s an exemplary soldier.

There’s also the fact that after awhile, these things become pleasurable for him. He gets a sense of satisfaction out of staying in shape and keeping things neat. He enjoys the early morning. He feels good about being conscientious about his job.

So in the end, it’s not some vague quality (”discipline”) that allows him to stick to these habits, but rather the two secrets of motivation: positive public pressure and enjoyment.

What I Learned From My Experiences

Over the last few years, I’ve been experimenting with achieving various goals — from waking early to exercising to eliminating my debt and living frugally and simply and more. And what I’ve learned has repeatedly taught me that these two key motivation principles are all you need.

I’ve learned other things as well, but the more I stick to my goals, the more I realize that it’s these two themes that keep repeatedly surfacing. It’s almost eerie, actually. Just a few goals as illustration:

Marathon. Right now I’m training for my third marathon, in Honolulu this December. As I’ve stuck with the toughest marathon plan I’ve ever undertaken (last week my longer runs were 12 and 20 miles, and this week I’m doing 2 runs of 14 miles), I’ve marveled at my ability to keep at it. But it’s not hard to figure out why: I’ve publicly committed to doing this marathon — on this blog, on Twitter, and on Train For Humanity, where I’m raising money for humanitarian causes through my training (sponsor me here!). In addition to that, I’m really enjoying all the running!

Blogging. I’ve now been blogging for almost two years (I started in January 2007), making Zen Habits one of the longest-running projects I’ve ever stuck with. I’ve worked on many projects before, but they are usually completed within a year, if not within a few weeks or months. Anything longer is usually intimidating to me. But it hasn’t taken discipline to stick with blogging, not at all. It’s something I really enjoy, and there’s the added bonus of positive public pressure (that’s you, the readers) that has motivated me to stick with it.

Writing a book. A couple months ago, I finished the manuscript for my book, The Power of Less, that’s coming out at the end of this year. I will admit that I had some trouble writing this book, with the demands of publishing a blog (two blogs actually), training for my second marathon in March, and preparing for my wedding in June. I wasn’t always following my own advice (although in my defense I learned to segregate the different goals so I only concentrated on one at a time). But I did get the book done with both forms of motivation — pressure from my publisher to turn in the manuscript, and the enjoyment I got from writing the book once I was able to clear away distractions and focus on the writing.

I could go into many more examples of how I used these two forms of motivation, but you get the idea. Now let’s take a look at each one and how you can use them to your advantage.

hellokitty

Positive Public Pressure

While pressure is often seen as a bad thing (”I’m under too much pressure!”), if used properly it can actually be a good thing. It’s important that pressure not be applied in too negative a way and too high an intensity. Keep things positive and at a manageable intensity, and things will move along nicely.

Some examples of how to use positive public pressure to motivate yourself:

Tell all your co-workers you’re going to achieve a goal (”No sugary snacks this week!” or “I’m going to keep my email inbox completely empty”) and report to them regularly on your progress.

Email your family and friends and tell them about your goal and ask them to keep you accountable. Email them regular updates, and tell them about your progress when you see them.

Post your goal on your blog and post regular updates. It’s important that you not just post the goal but also stay accountable with the updates. Encourage people to ask you about your goal if you don’t report your progress.

Join an online forum related to your goal — I’ve done this when I quit smoking and also when I started running. Introduce yourself, make friends, tell them about your goal, ask for help when you need it, and report your successes and failures.

Write a regular column in a publication on your goal. I did this when I ran my first marathon, for my local newspaper. It created a lot of positive public pressure — everywhere I went, people would say, “Hey, you’re that marathon guy! How’s the running going?” Of course, not everyone can write a column for a newspaper, but you could do it for a group blog or a newsletter or some other type of publication.

Post your goal and a chart of your progress up in your office or other public place.

Post pictures of yourself each day. One guy did this and created a video of his progress — it was amazing to watch.

You get the idea. I’m sure you can come up with some ideas of your own.

Enjoy Your Goal Activity

You can motivate yourself to do something you don’t like to do, using positive public pressure as motivation. But if you really don’t enjoy it, you’ll only be able to keep it up for so long. And even if you could do it for months and years … is that something you’d want to do? If you don’t enjoy it, why do it for very long?

But, you might say, what if it’s something I really want to achieve but I don’t enjoy it? There are ways to find enjoyment in most things — the key is to focus on the enjoyable parts. Focus on the positive.

Here are some ways to use this motivational principle to your advantage:

Having trouble motivating yourself to write for your blog? Look for topics that excite you. If you find things that you’re passionate about, writing becomes easy.

Having trouble with a dissertation for graduate school? Maybe you’re not as passionate about the topic as you thought you were. Re-examine your dissertation topic and see if you can either re-energize yourself about it or find a new topic you can get excited about.

Having a hard time exercising? Find exercise that’s fun for you. If you don’t like running, try soccer or basketball or rowing. If you don’t like to lift weights, try doing some primal workouts where you flip logs and jump through tires. Go hiking. Walk with friends and talk the whole time.

Is eating healthy a challenge for you? Find healthy foods you love. Experiment with new recipes and have fun testing them out.

Is training for a marathon tough? Learn to enjoy the quiet of the early morning, the contemplative nature of running, or the beautiful nature that surrounds you. Or play some songs that pump you up. Or listen to interesting audiobooks as you run.

Find the enjoyable parts of any activity, and focus on those. In time, you can really learn to love something. Or, switch to something you love more and stick to that.

These two principles, especially when used together, can be powerful motivators. In fact, in most cases, they’re all the motivation I ever need.

If you really want more motivational tips, I’ve got a lot more here.

Have you used these motivational principles to achieve a goal? Let us know in the comments!

hellokitty

你永远需要：激励自己的两个秘诀

此前，我曾多次在Zen Habits网站上发表关于激励的文章。但是随着我对激励研究的越多，越觉得激励远没有想象中的困难。

当然，有许多的诀窍都对我们有帮助，许多的技巧和策略都能帮助我们达到成功。但其实这些都能归结为两个要点。

这两点简单的让人难以置信，以至于在你知道了之后，很可能就会决定停止读下去：一点是用享受的心态去做每件事；第二点是利用积极的公众压力。但是请继续读下去，学着如何使用这两点来激励你自己和一切目标。

这是激励，而非纪律

首先，让我们退一步讲。一些读者给我发邮件询问如何坚持自己的目标——各种事情：从适当的运动、饮食到变得有条理和有效率到形成一个新的习惯。他们认为自己只是缺乏纪律性去长期坚持这些事。 纪律？从我的经验看来这只是一个错觉。

我曾经写到过:当人们说一个人有自律性，他们实际的意思是那个人有坚持做某件事的动机。

在之前的一个帖子中我使用了一个军人的例子，一个典型的有纪律性的例子。这个军人很可能起的非常的早，将床整理的十分整洁，然后进行晨跑和一些其他晨练活动，而且一整天都是做纪律性的作。

但是这仅仅只是因为他很有纪律性吗？我想这更多是因为他的处境所形成公共压力（无论积极还是消极）促使他去做上述的事情。假如他不做那些事，他很可能在同辈面前会被大骂、被贬低或是很没面子。而如果他那么做了，他就是个模范士兵。

还有一个事实就是一阵子之后，这个军人所做的会让他自己感到十分愉快。他由保持良好的体型和维持事物的整洁中获得一种满足感。他享受清晨，为自己勤勤恳恳的工作态度感觉良好。

因此最后，并非一些模糊的特质（纪律）使他坚持自己的这些习惯，而是两个激励的秘诀：积极的公众压力和享受乐趣。

hellokitty

我从经验中学到什么

在过去的几年中，我尝试去完成各种各样的目标——从早起去运动到减少债务过着节约简单的生活等等目标。我所学到的反复告诉我这两个关键的激励原则正是我所需要的。

我也知道了我越是忠于我的目标，我就越能够意识到这两个主题是不断的出现的。实际上，这是十分的怪诞。以下是一些目标实现过程的例证：

?马拉松比赛。现在我正在为第三次参加今年十二月份在火奴鲁鲁举行的马拉松比赛做准备。当我坚持接手了这项最困难的马拉松计划（上周我参加长跑分别是12和20米，而这周我跑了两次的14米），我对自己的坚持感到惊叹不已。但是这不难理解为什么我这么做：我已经公开的承认过我会去跑马拉松——在博客“on Twitter”和“Train For Humanity”上，我还借此为人道主义事业筹集资金。（可以在此赞助我！）除此之外，我确实非常享受跑步！

?写博客。到目前为止我写博客将近两年了（我从2007年1月开始写），Zen Habits是我坚持最久的项目。我以前做过许多计划，但是它们经常一年内就结束了，要么就是只持续了一周或几个月。持续太久的事情总让我觉得有胁迫感。但是连续写博客对我来说根本没有任何约束。这是我十分愿意去做的事，同时还有额外积极的公众压力——那就是你们这些读者，这两点激励着我坚持下去。

?写一本书。在两个月前，我完成了一本书The Power of Less?，将会在今年底出版。我承认在写作的过程中遇到过一些麻烦，因为我还被要求出版一本网络日志（实际上是两本），而且还要为我在三月份参加的第二次马拉松做准备，以及筹备我六月的婚礼。但是我确实在这两个形式的激励下完成了我的书本：来自出版商催稿的压力和一旦我能排除分心之事专注于写作时所感受到的愉悦。

我能够举出许多关于我使用这两个激励形式的例子，但是我想你已经明白了这个观点。现在让我们看一看每一个要点以及如何使用它们来增强你的优势。

积极的公众压力

然而压力经常被看做一种坏事（我们常说：我承受了太多的压力）。但是如果使用得当压力确实能够成为一种好事。重要的是压力不能用在过于消极过于频繁的方式上。相反，将事情控制在积极的方向上以及一个可控制频度内，能使其发展的更加顺利。

以下是一些如何积极的使用公众压力来激励你自己的方法：

·吿诉所有的同事你准备达到的目标（如：这周绝对不吃甜的零食！或者，我要让邮箱的收件箱完全处于清空状态！）。并且定期的告诉他们你的进展。

·给你的亲友发邮件告诉他们你的目标，并要求他们督促你对自己的行为负责。定期发邮件告诉他们你的最新情况，同时在碰面时告诉他们你的进展。

·将你的目标放在博客上，并且定期发贴更新。重要的是你不仅公布了目标而且对目标的进展负责。鼓励别人来询问你的目标在你不想汇报你的进展时。

·加入一个与你的目标有关联的在线论坛——我戒烟时就是这么做的，还有在我开始跑步的时候。介绍你自己，告诉他们你的目标，在你需要的时候向他们寻求帮助，并且汇报你的成功与失败。

·将你的目标写在正规的专栏上。当我第一次跑马拉松时我就将目标写在当地的报纸上。带来了许多积极的公众压力——不管我走到哪儿，人们就会说“嗨，你就是那个要跑马拉松的！跑步进行的怎么样了？”当然，不是每个人都能为报纸写专栏，但是你可以把它写在一个团体的博客上，时事通讯上或者一些其他类型的出版物。

·把你的目标和进程表放置在你的办公室或其他公共场所

·发布你每天的照片。的确有个人这么做了而且还为他的进展制作了视频——简直令人惊叹

你已经明白了吧。我相信你已经有自己的想法了。

享受目标的实现过程

你可以激励自己去做一些不喜欢的事情。把公众压力当做一种动力。但是，如果你确实不喜欢这件事。就算你能坚持几个月或者几年，可那是你想做的吗？假如你不喜欢一件事，为什么要浪费那么长的时间呢？

但是，你可能会说：如果那确实是一件我很想去完成但是却不喜欢的一件事呢？对于多数事情总有一个方法能找到令人感兴趣的一面。关键是关注于令人愉快的部分。关注于积极面。

以下是一些方法将这个激励原则运用到你的优势之中：

·写博客有困难的时候。寻找能激发你的话题。假如你能找到喜爱的话题，那么写作就会变得很容易。

·写毕业论文有困难的时候。也许你并没有想象中的对那个主题有兴趣。重新检查你的论文主题，看看你能否重新燃起对这个主题的热情或者重新找一个能鼓舞你的。

·做运动让你很痛苦的时候。选择让你能感到乐趣的运动。假如你不喜欢跑步，试试他足球、篮球或者划船。假如你不喜欢举重，试着去做一些基本的健身活动使自己得到放松.。还可以去徒步旅行，边散步边和朋友聊天。

·健康的饮食对你来说是一种挑战吗？找出你所喜爱的绿色食物。尝试新的食谱并带着兴趣去品尝它们。

·为马拉松做训练对你来说很艰难吗？学着去享受清晨的平静，或是美丽的自然环境。还可以放一些能让你振奋的音乐，或者听一些你感兴趣的有声读物。

找出任何活动中能让你感兴趣的部分，并专注于它们。最终，你就能真正的学着去喜欢上一些事情。或是，对于你原本就喜爱的事情更加坚持。

这两个原则，特别是当用在一起的时候会成为十分有力的激励因素。事实上，在多数情况下它们就是我所需要的动力。

假如你需要更多的激励敲门，我这儿有更多。

你曾经有用到过这些激励原则来完成一个目标吗？欢迎在评论中告诉我们。