The Day Loans Blog

How can you stay energized in the face of so many obstacles? Why do some people look at life from a positive point of view all the time? What is the formula for success?

The prime ingredient in any success story is motivation. Motivation is the driving force to keep going, “when the going gets tough.” In order for you to stay motivated about anything, you must choose something you have a passion for. This will help you to stay inspired in good, or bad, economic times.

So before you consider motivation, do some self-analysis and realize your passion. This must be something you would love to do every day, and don’t consider it to be work, because you enjoy it so much.

How many of us have known an artist or musician that pursued his, or her, dream. Some make money, and some don’t, but all put a lot of work into their passion. They do this willingly, because their work inspired them. It wasn’t the money that kept them going. The life of most artists, or musicians, is one of economic struggle, even in the best of economic times.

Once you have found your passion, make sure it is something that will help others in some way. This allows you to feel positive about your work and find solutions for people’s problems, which leads to the first factor needed to stay motivated, all the time.

The first factor is gratification in your work. Without it, why should any of us want to keep working at a goal every day? So, you must have a deep feeling of satisfaction from your work.

The second factor is recognition. Everyone wants to be recognized and be proud of their accomplishments. Look at how a child glows after getting an award and receiving praise from his, or her, parents. Recognition makes us all feel worthy.

The third factor is staying positive in the face of negativity. You can’t close your eyes and ears to negative input or a “doubting Thomas.” However, you can use negative energy as fuel for your own cause. Always look at “the glass as half full,” as compared to half empty.

How is this possible? Use the doubts of others as an incentive to prove them wrong. I call this “negative motivation.” Teenagers often do this with parents: Mom or Dad says it won’t work, so the teenager works twice as hard to prove his, or her, parents wrong. Adults can borrow on this method and learn from rebellious teenagers.

The fourth factor is complete health in mind, body, and spirit. You need friends in high places to stay motivated and succeed, so why not take time to pray? I never heard anyone tell me they felt bad about praying, but I have heard many people say they don’t pray enough.

You have to allow for down time; even the toughest of us need a break now and then. If you must work hard, due to an impending deadline, remember Benjamin Franklin’s words, “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

Take the time to sleep, exercise, go on vacation, play with your kids, show love toward those who love you, and live life as well as you can. If you follow this formula, you will be motivated and success will surely follow.

© Copyright 2005 - Paul Jerard / Aura Publications

Have you been trying to develop ideas for a new product or service? Did you get stuck? Well, List And Twist is a simple technique that might help you out.

The List And Twist technique is one of many that are loosely based on the idea of random stimulation, that is, introducing something unusual to take your train of thought in an entirely different direction.

Here we don’t do anything too radical. Simply think of a product or service that you currently have and apply the words or phrases from the List And Twist checklist and see what they suggest. They may seem strange but they just might jog your memory! For instance I showed the list to someone who was writing a childrens’ book and they were taken by the suggestion of adding a smell! The net result - a scratch and sniff book.

Try it for yourself and see.

Add a step, find other uses, slow down, rearrange the steps, improve the quality, reduce the quality, add motion, add an ingredient, make it easier, change packaging, combine ingredients, align with other product, de-automate parts, make it more extreme, make it more expensive , put some fun in it, substitute materials, find new distribution, change the state, make it self service, combine other processes, change the shape , add more service,
make it a game, put a story with it, celebrity connection, reverse the concept, turn it upside down, purify it, add nostalgia, add smell, add colour, make it transparent

Derek Cheshire is an expert, speaker, consultant and facilitator in the areas of Business Creativity, Innovation and Idea Generation. He is creator of the Innovation Toolkit, and co creator of workshops such as Creating The Difference, Creativity as a Business Tool, Sticky Strategy and The Idea Factory. You can receive regular ideas and updates on Business Creativity and Innovation by visiting http://www.creative4business.co.uk and filling out the simple sign up form.