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Conquering your goals: Motivation, Discipline and Resilience

Hope September 4th

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. We have covered quite a few topics so far in our Conquering Your Goals series. Last week we talked about dealing with setbacks. This week we will dive into the role of Motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic) and Discipline, Consistency, Grit, and Perseverance. 


Motivation (Intrinsic and Extrinsic)

When you are intrinsically motivated, you engage in an activity because you enjoy it and get personal satisfaction from doing it. When you are extrinsically motivated, you do something to gain an external reward. An example of intrinsic motivation is learning about history because you are interested in a certain period. As for extrinsic motivation, you learn about history because you want a good grade. 

Most of our goals aligned with our core values tend to lean more toward intrinsically motivated. You may wish to walk more because you enjoy feeling more mobile. But at times people can strive to achieve something as they are motivated extrinsically, for example wanting to walk more so you can win the steps competition at your office.  Typically you want a combination of both to excel at your goals! For example, if you wish to walk more and feel better, you may not feel like walking every day. It can help to have a tracking app that encourages your goal and acts as an extrinsic motivator. 


Discipline

Even though motivation is talked about more often, It is usually far more helpful in getting you started than in keeping you motivated. As motivation can be quite inconsistent, your mood and external factors can greatly dictate how motivated you feel to achieve certain goals. To follow through with your plans, you need discipline. Discipline is the ability to consistently follow through on your commitments, regardless of whether you feel motivated at the moment. It involves self-control, routine, and the willingness to do what needs to be done even when you don’t feel like it.

One of the key realizations to remaining disciplined is accepting that there will be days when you will not feel like doing the things you need to do to reach your goals (this excludes valid restrictions such as a decline in health or unexpected life challenges). One way to reinforce discipline is to ensure there is accountability. You are more likely to do the thing you don’t want to do if there is some form of tracking or someone watching your progress. 


Consistency, Grit, and Perseverance. 

Consistency is likely one of the most important dictators of whether you will reach your goal. If you can master showing up, it will greatly help your chances of having what you desire. To be consistent with something, one requires grit and perseverance against all odds. Grit means sticking with something and working hard, even when it gets tough for a long period of time, for us to display grit, we need to persevere in the face of adversity. 


📢Tasks (Please complete both)

  1. For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.
  2. Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal.


Further Reading

GRIT by Angela Duckworth

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Hope OP September 4th

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pamharley003 September 4th

@Hope

  1. For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.
  2. I am working on self repairing myself since I feel I am distancing myself from me ( not taking good care of myself)my instrinsic is to read up on all the area's needed to experience what I am to do to better myself and gain joy and satisfaction from it 
  3. Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal. A goal for me is when I have applied all I need in making myself happy again to stick with a good coping skills and tools to use in the my life 

1 reply
Hope OP September 12th

@pamharley003

Thank you for sharing! 

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CordialDancer September 6th

@Hope

For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.

One of my intrinsic motivations is having more time to spend on goals and other activities that I enjoy. An extrinsic motivation for me is I believe that I will overall be happier not spending so much time scrolling on YouTube.

Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal.

When I was in the process of getting my Bachelor's degree, there was a lot of chaos going on in my life. I knew when it was time to take a break to focus on my life around me. I also had the perseverance to come back and complete my degree. I am grateful for saying yes to leaning into the grit that I never acknowledged I had before.

2 replies
Hope OP September 12th

@CordialDancer

I can see that you are committed to your goal of reducing your youtube shorts time. Have you made progress so far?

I am glad you were able to complete the degree

1 reply
CordialDancer September 14th

@Hope

My progress has been amazing! Besides maybe one day, I’ve been keeping below 30 mins or completely zero time for the YouTube shorts.

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Heather225 September 6th
For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.
I am outlining a fantasy novel I will eventually write. The intrinsic motivation is wanting to challenge myself to create a cohesive story. The extrinsic motivation driving me is for the finished product to be read!

Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal.
My strength isn't in projects without deadlines, and I had to turn in a piece for a creative passion project that had hard deadlines. I pushed through setbacks due to my perfectionism to get this piece exactly right. Having the deadline and reminding myself how satisfied I will be when I've turned it in were the two things that compelled me to keep going. I made the deadline, and now I've learned that I should also be setting deadlines for myself (even if I don't want to and especially if I don't want to).
1 reply
Hope OP September 12th

@Heather225

I did not know that! How fascinating 

I am glad you were able to figure out the missing piece!

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Admirablerainbow2825 September 8th

@Hope

  1. For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.Intrinsic motivation: The motivation that comes within you. I am motivated to do things because they have a positive outcome such as a good feeling/emotion after doing something. Extrinsic Motivation: The motivation that comes from external factors. I am motivated to achieve my goal because of the resources that are provided to me. I make proper use of them. Rewarding myself with something I like helps me continue doing the behavior and achieve the goal. For example, I eat a snack when I have a break after my study session or doing a homework.
  1. Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal. I have been able to continue achieving my goals because of pushing myself to do the tasks. Though it may seem difficult, I have learned to accept the emotions that come with it by positively talking to myself. Practicing gratitude, forgetting the past, stopping myself from hurting myself by sayingnegative things and telling positive affirmations really help in the journey for self-growth.

1 reply
Hope OP September 12th

@Admirablerainbow2825

Looks like you have a good hold on both motivations! 

It looks like you have learned that you can do difficult things through discipline!

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mytwistedsoul September 10th

For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you. Intrinsic motivation: curiosity and a desire to know myself better

Extrinsic: the wonderful things I've seen and photographed and all the new things I've learned

Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal. For the past nine months I've been taking care of my father's estate. The whole process is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined it would be. So many times I wanted to quit and just hand everything over to some court appointed person but I stuck with it and finally signed off on the final tax papers and sent them in. Once they are reviewed and accepted (in about six months) this nightmare is over! 

2 replies
Hope OP September 12th

@mytwistedsoul

Taking care of anything that involves deep dive into complicated laws is nothing short of commendable!

I hope it wraps up soon and well for you

1 reply
mytwistedsoul September 12th

@Hope Thank you so much! 😊

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Fortunata67Anima September 12th

The link to the YouTube video for GRIT is excellent.  Thank you for adding that in.  That same video, the presenter offers a 1-page PDF summary; I think all for just an email address.

  

Intrinsic: Reading helps me with a sense of accomplishment, of learning something new, of engaging with the author in an internal dialogue.  "Today, I'm having ol' Bill Shakespeare over for coffee".  Books are like time machines in that aspect.

Extrinsic:  I get to build my library with the stuff that is good and impacts me.  I don't have a huge library of books.  On purpose.  They have to be good and speak to issues that I care about to make it to my shelf.  

For goals in the past that required grit and perseverance.  Upon thinking more about this, I realize, perhaps for the first time, that the energy needed to make the changes I wanted to meet past goals - has always come from somewhere deep in my core values.  I wanted to change something or start something.  And, I just set my mind on it and it will be done.  Not everything is that easy.  I've tried to lose weight so many times and eat healthy and consistently fail.  But...but...there were moments and times during weight loss and muscle gain that I made a lot of progress because I wanted to lose that 40 pounds "no matter what".  Or whatever it was.  It came from within.  Thank you for reminding me of that.  :) 

Clio9876 September 27th

@Hope

For my goal of improving my posture, an intrinsic motivator is how good I feel about myself when I remember to do it.

Extrinsic motivators are the cost of physio that I need when I don't do my exercises. 

I followed my path to better mental health, despite the naysayers. That took determination and I called it stubbornness.

KatePersephone September 30th

@Hope

For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.


The intrinsic motivation that drives me for working out is the feeling of accomplishment i feel after doing it, and the extrinsic is the strength i gain from it.


Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal.


Grit played a role in my studies, because even though i dislike the traditional way of studying, i knew it was for the best for me to keep going.


daydreammemories October 1st

@Hope

  1. For the goal you’ve set, describe the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations that drive you.
    intrinsic: become a better person in my carrier and not mess up, extrinsic: get good grades 
  2. Reflect on a goal you’ve achieved in the past and consider how grit played a role in reaching that goal.
    i think moving on and having consistency plays an important role in what you will achieve and sometimes when motivation isnt working, grit is what makes you going.