Educate and Motivate

When was the last time that someone asked you for motivation? Alternatively, when was the last time that you asked someone else to provide you with motivation? My point is this, it is part of human behaviour to appreciate being motivated! We all have received motivation, and we all have motivated someone in some capacity.

In an article that I wrote on 5 February 2010, I suggested that in order to gain motivation, you absolutely must focus on the motive behind the motivation. The word ‘motivation’ originates from the word ‘motive’.

That still holds true! If you are in need of motivation to do something, then please focus on the motive of doing that ‘something’. That alone should be motivation enough if you can focus your energy on the motive itself.

Now, I will add another element to motivation. That element is education. I have learnt through my years of teaching personal development, and through my role as a motivational speaker, that it is absolutely integral to educate someone about motivation if they are asking for motivation.

So, what exactly do I mean by educate (in this context)?
Please allow me to give you an example.
I was delivering a three part series of training sessions to a corporate organisation who hired me to support their staff in being more productive and successful. The first training session was on Self Image, followed by Goal Setting, and finally Motivation.

When it came to motivation, I asked the CEO of this organisation a simple question “What do your staff know about the importance of sustaining motivation in the workplace?”

Then I explained to him that it is very important to educate first, and then motivate.

In this context, I started the Motivation training session by educating the staff on what it means to have motivation in the workplace. Then, I asked them to make a list of how continual motivation would serve them in their role. Followed by a statement that I always make when providing corporate training “What you do in your job will always be reflected in your career!”

My goal was to educate the staff on the benefits of having motivation in the work place, and the benefits of doing so.
That is why I believe that it is absolutely integral to educate someone first, and then motivate them.
Educating them meant giving them a clear picture on what they need motivation for! Please remember that with clarity, achieving something is a process simplified! The more clarity you have, the more simple the task at hand would look like!

Another example that I could share with you is when I was a Life Coach, certain clients of mine needed motivation for weight loss.

Just telling them to ‘Do it’ would not have been enough. So, I took it upon myself to ensure that I gave them enough clarity by educating them on the task at hand.
I felt that it was very important for them to understand what the process of weight loss was all about! What can they do to achieve their desired end result? What will the process involve? Once they have got down to their ideal weight, what happens then?

Here is a simple three step process to ‘Educate and Motivate’:
1. Understand why you are doing, what you are doing! In other words, have a perfectly clear understanding of why you are doing what you have set out to achieve.
2. Figure out how you will sustain the level of motivation necessary to carry out the task at hand. As Zig Ziglar once quoted “Motivation does not last, that is why I recommend it daily”. What is it that will give you the ongoing motivation that you need?
3. Finally, ask yourself this question “What motivates me?” Everyone has a different method of motivating themselves! What is it that does it for you? Do you need to talk to someone? Do you need to see a picture? Do you need to listen to some audio material? Do you need to read a motivational quote? Or is it something else?

Just last week, I competed in a gruelling cross country race over the distance of 10.8 kilometres. I knew that I had to start preparing (mentally and physically) for this race, weeks in advance.

I firstly studied the description of the race course (hills, steps, narrow tracks by the edge of a river). Then I looked into the type of training that I would need to do, to prepare for this race. Now, all of this was done way before I even thought about motivating myself to train by running 12 kilometres at 6:00am in the middle of winter!
I realised that I needed education first, then motivation second.

Motivation becomes easier once education is incorporated into it.

So, for future reference, when you are asked to give someone motivation, please do understand and apply the importance of education into motivation.

I sincerely hope that I have given you some simple insights into educating to motivate!

Inspiring you towards your excellence,
Ron Prasad (Author, Speaker, Life Coach & Executive Coach)

PS: For my latest video "5 Keys to Your Excellence", please click on this hyperlink:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlf0-cz-dkg

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