What does money & motivation have in common? – The Financial Resilience Hub

Have you ever noticed that when you buy something new you are motivated to do whatever the new toy/ clothing/ gadget represents?

Recently my partner & I bought a cycle rack for our 4×4 as we were getting oil on the carpet and damaging the bikes a little by partially dismantling them and putting them flat down in the back. The first weekend after we built the cycle rack we wanted to go a cycle. The weather was stormy which after 6-8 weeks of gorgeous hot sunshine, this was actually welcomed but not on a day we wanted to cycle (we’re fair weather cyclists!). As we got ourselves ready and headed out in the pouring rain we couldn’t stop laughing at the absurdness a new toy had on our motivation.

We were going out to cycle in a storm purely because we had a new toy we wanted to try out!

It got me thinking, have you ever noticed, when you lack the motivation to do something, perhaps it’s getting fitter or wanting to lose weight, you’ll buy new sports clothing, join a new gym, go to a new exercise class, buy a new recipe book, sign up with a new nutritionist, etc?

Often this is fairly harmless, but when we are continually buying products & services to assist our motivation to do something we have to hit the pause button, close our wallets/ purses and ask why.

Why do we need the motivation to do this, why can’t we just do this without assistance?

My knowledge of psychology and hypnotherapy has led me to many insights, however, the most common reason is that you simply don’t want to do it, you just think you have to! When we are doing something for others, to please them or to keep them liking us, or just doing something because society tells us we must do this, we will often find ourselves constantly lacking the motivation to do it.

For example, a smoker will not stop smoking unless they truly want it to happen thus if someone who wants to give up smoking says ‘my partner/ kids want me to stop’ it’s unlikely they will stop indefinitely.

Furthermore, many psychological studies show that motivation is higher when it’s intrinsic rather than extrinsic (intrinsic means internal – coming from within, extrinsic means external – social pressure or encouragement from others). It is important to recognise that extrinsic motivation does make a difference to our motivation; social pressure (needing to fit in, be liked, etc) or encouragement from our friends & family, but intrinsic motivation is far more powerful.

If we apply the above knowledge to the decisions we make, particularly those in our business, we will often find ourselves throwing money after products & services in order to fuel our motivation if it’s not coming from within. This is why in part 1 (of 5) in Successful Business Minds, I explain to the reader where a lot of our beliefs and desires around success and money come from (historically, socially and culturally), then encourage the reader to explore their own. To take a quote from the book- part 2 ‘What does success really mean for you?’

‘What do YOU really want?’

For example, reading books (non-fiction and fiction) and writing is something that I will do anywhere and without anyone. If I don’t read and write (or similar introvert activities) I truly feel my day is not successful, because when I do them I feel calmer and peaceful. They are an expression of who I am thus if I don’t do these activities, within 2-3 days I can feel disconnected from myself, and after a few weeks, I feel depression setting in and have been known to spend money on things I didn’t need in addition to drinking and eating things that are unhealthy for me all because I’m not truly nourishing myself. I believe artists feel the same if they are not creating. Thus for my day, week, and business to be successful it must involve time for me to write, read books and partake in similar introvert activities.

Naturally if my friends and family encourage me to write I am more motivated as it can give me a major boost, but I don’t need them to do so. However, on the other hand, if they were discouraging me and I gave in to that I would, as mentioned above, feel quite unhappy.

Over to you now. What are you throwing money after in order to boost motivation when deep down you know it’s just not there.

What would you like to do more of that comes so naturally to you and nourishes you from within?

Do that today and every day hereafter and your life and business will be more successful than you could ever imagine.

P.s. In case you were wondering, we continued to go out into the storm and thankfully once we arrived at our destination, the rain subsided as the wind blew all the clouds away, so whilst it remained a tad windy, it turned into quite a pleasant cycle.