Page 31 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Another thing that happens when you flow into a project slowly is that speed

will often overtake you without your forcing it. The natural rhythm inside you
will get you in sync with what you are doing. You’ll be surprised how soon your
conscious mind stops forcing the action and your subconscious mind supplies
you with easy energy.

Take your time. Start out lazy. Soon, your tasks will be keeping the slow but
persistent rhythm of that hypnotic song on Paul McCartney’s Red Rose
Speedway album, “Oh Lazy Dynamite.” The dynamite is living inside you. You
don’t have to be frenzied about setting it off. It lights just as well with a slowly
struck match.

16. Choose the happy few

Politely walk away from friends who don’t support the changes in your life.
There will be friends who don’t. They will be jealous and afraid every time you
make a change. They will see your new motivation as a condemnation of their
own lack of it. In subtle ways, they will bring you back down to who you used to
be. Beware of friends and family who do this. They know not what they do. The
people you spend time with will change your life in one way or another. If you
associate with cynics, they’ll pull you down with them. If you associate with
people who support you in being happy and successful, you will have a head

start on being happy and successful.

Throughout the day we have many choices regarding who we are going to be
with and talk to. Don’t just gravitate to the coffee machine and participate in the
negative gossip because it’s the only game in town. It will drain your energy and
stifle your own optimism. We all know who lifts us up, and we all know who
brings us down. It’s okay to start being more careful about to whom we give our
time. In his inspiring book Spontaneous Healing, Andrew Weil recommends:
“Make a list of friends and acquaintances in whose company you feel more
alive, happier, more optimistic. Pick one whom you will spend some time with
this week.”

When you’re in a conversation with a cynic, possibilities seem to have a way
of disappearing. A mildly depressing sense of fatalism seems to take over the
conversation. No new ideas and no innovative humor. “Cynics,” observed
President Calvin Coolidge, “do not create.” On the other hand, enthusiasm for
life is contagious. And being in a conversation with an optimist always opens us