Gregory Harris

Learning how to motivate people is a useful skill whether you need to apply it at home or in the workplace. Mastering this is a skill that has been used by many successful leaders throughout time and it’s a practice that will no doubt be required and studied continuously through future years.

But how do you motivate anyone? How can you keep people inspired and moving forward?

I want to take you back to a time when you were a young student at school, perhaps in your teens. Now I want you to think of a teacher that really got the best out of you, a teacher of a lesson that you enjoyed attending, a teacher of a subject where you actually studied hard. I can bet my bottom dollar that the very teacher your thinking of was positive, upbeat but more importantly gave you lots of positive praise on all of your work, whatever it’s grade or standard.

Now think of the opposite, a teacher who you disliked and a lesson that you simply didn’t enjoy. It’s safe to say that 9 times out of 10 this teacher wasn’t very forthcoming with positive praise and only managed a little when you did something outstanding.

Which one motivated you more? The one with the praise, right? Well that’s the first tip and perhaps the best tip of them all. If you want to get someone geared up, then give them lots of praise and encouragement. Be positive when they do something right and be positive when they mess up! One advancement for this tip that works incredibly well in the workplace is to give someone praise publicly. A pat on the back or simple recognition in front of colleagues and peers is worth tenfold of that given in public.

I was speaking with a lady (will call her MJ for the purpose of this article) a few days ago. MJ is in her late twenties. She is petite, 5ft 2″, tanned with straight hair that drops past her shoulders. She is a professional in the corporate world with a fortune 500 company, a hard worker and very ambitious. I know this to be true, because she has been my client for some time now.

Whilst we chatted in our last coaching session, she was in awe of an inspirational figure in her working place. Her eyes would sparkle and her face was flooded with a big smile when she was telling me about her new inspirational figure – a role model that she worked with – her boss.

She spoke about how at his age (in his 50′s) he had an extremely good physique and had taken good care of him self. He had a great family, was successful in his professional life and more importantly he seemed like a happy guy all the time. He seemed to have it all.

When I quizzed MJ if she had taken the time to speak with her boss about what helped him achieve the all round success he had, she quickly replied, ‘yes I did’- nodding at a million miles an hour.

I asked him, “What one thing would you say has helped you achieve all the success that you have? What one thing has got you to the point where you are happy in your day to day life?”

Before sharing her bosses’ reply, she quickly mentioned that she had hoped to receive a good deal of information on what he did to get to where he was.

‘Instead what I got was two words’, she said.

Ah yes, the Road to Success, what a straight stretch of newly paved highway! Not! The Road to Success is anything but and it is never the same road that someone else has necessarily taken either. It’s easy to get lost so remember to refer to the proper directions.

The main focus here is to keep going. You can stop to take a rest or to sight-see or to re-energize but then get back on that road and just keep going! The common denominator for every successful person out there, is that they remained focused through all the trials and tribulations.

When you set your sights on a dream and map out the route to achieve it, make a commitment to yourself to follow through no matter what. Don’t lose that feeling of passion that you had when you first decided to go for it. Stay motivated by listening to the success stories of others. You will always find inspiration in their journey. You can and will learn from their experiences. Apply the lessons and fine tune your plan.

Pick up a book at your local bookstore today and read it. There is tremendous education in the words you will find on every page of that book. Choose a subject that you can identify with. Find an expert in your field. Do you have an idol? Buy a publication that is written well and gives you good insight into their life. Find a mentor. Be a sponge, soak up all the information you can and educate yourself. Let them guide you. With their helpful advice, they can steer you clear of the many pitfalls that they had to encounter. They can even offer shortcuts to help you fast-track your career. Value their expertise and be inspired by them. Take the advice that they offer to you and run with it.

There are many jobless individuals out there today in dire need of work. Some have been quite unlucky with their job hunting while others are plainly lazy on finding a job. That’s where a motivational speaker comes in. They conduct seminars in different areas or communities where there are a lot of jobless individuals. These seminars and workshops are free so they invite just about anyone for a motivational talk on how to search for a job, where to look for a job, and enhancing ones skills in order to be hired. Read through some topics a motivational speaker discusses in these seminars and trainings.

Hunting for a job – These motivational speakers will discuss to their audience and guests exactly how to look for work. But first a person must know what their skills are and what educational background they have. If they happen to be college graduates and have a degree, then they are most likely to easily find office work that would fit their degree. However if an individual has not been through college and has only finished high school, chances are they will most likely find blue collar work as building inspectors, electricians, auto mechanics, maintenance men, carpenters and steel workers.

White collar work on the other hand is offered to those who have a college degree. They are offered office work as executives, accountants, lawyers, secretaries, customer service personnel and department heads. This is due to their capacity and ability as higher education passers and degree holders.

Where to look for work – For those who are degree holders it might be a bit easy for them to find certain work for some companies already offer them work before they have graduated from college. Those who are seeking work can simply apply in certain companies or firms where if they can pass the interview and qualifications they need then they are hired. However if they are not qualified then they would move on to another company or firm to apply and so on.

What is the reason you want to be motivated? Just answering this question truthfully can be a great way to get daily motivation. Combining this method with some of the other methods below has proven to work well for others in the past. The chances are good that some of the methods outlined will work well for you too.

Motivate Yourself In Seven Steps

1. Share Your Plans. To stop procrastinating, tell someone close to you what you intend to do and this will usually get you back into the mood to continue. Find a good listener that will also be able to give you encouragement. This will work well to get you motivated if your plans are ones that you really want to achieve.

2. Utilize Your Desires. Visualize the end result of your goal. Imagination is a powerful motivator that is used to sign people up to get rich quick scams. Good salesmen can have you picturing yourself in a dream home within minutes, which is a great motivator to get your deposit together, or sign the dotted line. You can use this tactic to your own advantage.

3. Utilize Pain. Use Neuro-Linguistic Programming to understand the pain involved with not taking action. For example, picturing your kids in jail for drug use can motivate you to have a talk with them about drugs before it gets to that stage. This will help the act of linking rewards to action. Linking pain to not taking action is a great motivator.

4. Take An Interest. Having an interest in your goal will help keep you motivated enough to follow through but if you don’t have an interest and you still need to complete it, just remember the reasons you have for beginning in the first place.