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::How to Turn Life's Greatest Negative into a Positive::
Today we are going to visit a topic that I am sure you can
relate to. It's an aspect of life that we all must
experience from time to time, and it is usually seen as a
completely negative thing. My hope is that today's message
will help you to find the motivation you need to succeed in
what most people try to avoid and forget.
The topic we are going to cover is much like last week's
subject of fear. While most avoid fear at all costs, we
discussed how it can actually become your greatest ally if
you know how to use it. This issue is the next installment
of using a typically negative subject to help you get what
you want.
Before we dive in, I want you to notice something about the
last issue and today's message. Instead of fighting against
what life hands you and struggling to get what you want,
you and I have looked for the positive factors in seemingly
painful outcomes. We have taken the facts of life and made
them work for us.
Motivation doesn't have to be a battle. It doesn't have to
be a struggle with you fighting against your temptations
and tendencies. When you use what you are given to your
advantage, the balance of power shifts to your side and the
motivation to change your life will be yours.
If you wanted to get motivated to do something in your
life, you'll soon discover an amazingly powerful tool for
doing just that.
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Have You Experienced This?
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Last week we talked about using the possibilities of the
future to motivate you to action. The fear of what might
happen to drive you forward.
Now we are going to face reality. Not what might happen but
what has already happened. Just as fear had two sides, one
to scare us away and one to scare us to action, so too does
your past experience with pain.
Only two factors drive all of human behavior - the need to
gain pleasure and avoid pain. And while pleasure can be a
very strong motivator (and necessary for long-term
motivation) we are going to deal with the stronger of the
two in today's message.
If you are human, you have experienced pain. It could have
been financial pain, emotional pain, physical pain,
spiritual pain, mental pain, or any other situation that
left you feeling helpless and alone.
Most people try to forget these memories. They push them
aside and move on feeling a sense of strength for their
ability to act as if nothing ever happened. While this may
be the best solution for some and for all in certain
situations, forgetting the pain of the past is most often a
terrible mistake.
The painful experiences of your past are ripe with untapped
energy for the future.
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The 2 Facts that Set You Free
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Now is the time to recall the pains from your past and use
them in a new and exciting way. Again, you are going to use
the facts of life to your advantage. In a very simple way,
here are the pieces to our motivational puzzle:
Fact 1: You are motivated to avoid pain (a heart attack is
a painful event that you wish to avoid. Therefore you are
motivated to eat healthy food).
Fact 2: You have already experienced a great deal of pain
in your life.
This is fantastic news! Because you have already
experienced pain in your life and you are motivated to
avoid it again in the future, you have an arsenal of tools
to help you get what you want.
Attaching the painful experiences of the past to your
current goals will give you the motivation you need to
change your life for good. You may be thinking, 'How will
the pain from my past help me in the future?'
Good question.
Before I give you the answer, I want to mention an
important fact about motivation. Until you know what it is
you want, all the motivation in the world will be of no use
to you. You have to have specific goals in each area of
your life.
More importantly, you must be working toward the right
goals. Many people think they know what they want only to
find that achieving the goal left them feeling worse than
when they began.
If you don't know what you want, only that you want
something more, or have a set of goals that needs to be
focused and organized, visit the address below:
http://www.motivation123.com/tmm-ez02.html
AOL Users Link
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This Week's Exercises
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Let's get down to business. To begin, I want to offer an
example and then proceed to give you the specific steps to
take in order to use your past pain to get motivated to
change.
Tony had a troubling childhood. His father was abusive and
took most of his aggression out on his son. It was a very
tragic story, but the pain of his past helped Tony in the
future.
When Tony and his wife had children of their own, he was
motivated to be the best father he could be. Tony worked to
maintain strong relationships with each member of his
family, never letting short-term obstacles keep him from
showing his love and affection.
There were many times when it would have been easier to
lose his temper, but the pain of his childhood kept him
forever on the right path. He knew how terrible it felt to
be a child in an abusive home, and vowed never to put his
own children through the same experience.
While the truth of his childhood was tragic, Tony used it
as motivation to ensure his family never lived through the
same thing.
Now it's your turn. The first stage is to take in mind an
important goal that you want to accomplish. You may even
want to write out your goal on a sheet of paper to make it
more concrete and tangible.
Next, think back to a painful experience that you wish to
avoid in the future. Examples include the pain of losing a
job, struggling to pay bills, disconnecting from your
family or friends, and suffering an illness or disease.
It's crucial that your goal and painful memory are related.
Recalling a time when you had a physical pain would be an
effective choice for a health related goal, but trying to
connect the memory of a painful relationship to your goal
of traveling abroad may fail to move you.
Once you have your painful experience chosen, close your
eyes and revisit the memory. Remember how much it hurt and
how you would do anything to avoid having to live through
it again.
The final step is to link the two together. Again and again
in your mind, tell yourself that not achieving your goal
will result in the pain you wish to avoid. You know how
much the pain hurt in the past and you don't want to go
through it again.
Don't just go through the motions. Convince yourself that
not acting on your goal will undoubtedly lead to the pain
you wish to avoid. If you truly believe it, you will be
motivated to act.
Human beings will do most anything to avoid intense pain.
Use this fact with each one of your goals. Stop fighting
against the human instincts and allow them to work for you.
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Wrapping It Up
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Fear and pain. Two aspects of life that people are taught
to avoid and forget.
Now you know better.
These two states of mind are among the most useful and
effective tools you have at your disposal. They are not
selective - everyone can use them at any time. And the
better you are at using them, the easier it will be for you
to get and stay motivated to do the things you have always
wanted to do.
We've all been there...
'Today is the day I'm going to change!'
And the next day comes without a change, and the next, and
the next, and on and on.
Or perhaps you've experienced the yo-yo effect of
motivation. A feeling just comes over you and you're
motivated to work toward your goals. But then it fades away
without notice. After taking two steps forward you find
yourself taking three steps back.
That can all change when you use the power of pain to get
you started and keep you heading in the right direction.
If you use today's principle, along with all of the tools
from past issues, you will have no problem getting exactly
what you want.
Because every reader doesn't have access to every issue,
and because a newsletter containing my entire program would
be hundreds of pages long, I wrote The Motivated Mind to
share with you the complete meaning and method of
motivation.
In this step-by-step book, I outline exactly what you need
to do to get and stay motivated to do anything you have
ever wanted to do. I know how hard it can be to make a
personal change or to take the risk to achieve a goal.
If you failed in the past it was not because you are a
failure - you simply failed to use the right tools.
The Motivated Mind explains motivation in an entirely new
way, one that will open your eyes to a world of opportunity
and happiness. You shouldn't have to struggle to get
motivated any longer. Visit the address below if you're
ready to take control of your life and live it the way it
was meant to be lived:
http://www.motivation123.com/tmm-ez03.html
AOL Users Link
Always remember that everything you feel or experience can
be used to help you improve your life. What may seem like a
hopeless situation or a negative outcome can actually be
the very thing that helps you get to where you want to be.
Have an excellent week and remember to never settle for
what you want and to never overlook what you already have.
Sincerely,
Jason M. Gracia
Founder and President
http://www.motivation123.com
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