Page 76 - 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself

the best the future can be is a new and better past.

Great motivational energy occurs when we get out of the box and assume
that the possibilities for creative ideas are infinite. To realize the best possible
future for yourself, don’t look at it through a box containing your own past.

53. Keep thinking, keep thinking

Motivation comes from thought. Every act we take is preceded by a thought
that inspires that act. And when we quit thinking, we lose the motivation to act.
We eventually slip into pessimism, and the pessimism leads to even less
thinking. And so it goes, a downward spiral of negativity and passivity, feeding
on itself like cancer.

I like to use this example in my seminars to illustrate the power of
continuing to think: Let’s say a pessimist has made up his mind to clean his
garage on a Saturday morning. He wakes up, walks out to the garage, and opens
the door. He is shocked to see just how much of a mess it is. “Forget this!” the

pessimist says with disgust. “No one could clean this garage in one day!” At that
point, the pessimist slams the garage door shut and goes back inside to do
something else. Pessimists are “all-or-nothing” thinkers. They think in
catastrophic absolutes. They are either going to do something perfectly or not at
all.

Now let’s look at how the optimist would face the same problem. He wakes
up on the same morning, goes to the same garage, sees the same mess, and even
utters the same first words to himself, “Forget this! No one could clean this
garage in one day!”

But this is where the key difference between an optimist and a pessimist
shows itself. Instead of going back into the house, the optimist keeps thinking.
“Okay, so I can’t clean the whole garage,” he says. “What could I do that would

make a difference?”

He looks for awhile, and thinks things over. Finally, it occurs to him that he
could break the garage down into four sections and do just one section today.
“For sure I’ll do one today,” he says, “and even if I only do one section each
Saturday, I’ll have the whole garage in great shape before the month is over.” A
month later, you see a pessimist with a filthy garage and an optimist with a clean
garage.