So far we have covered 7 Fabulous Motivators:

• 1. The Movers & Shakers
• 2. The Deal Breakers
• 3. The Momentum Builders
• 4. The Inspiration Generators
• 5. The Savvy Time Shoppers
• 6. The Day Simplifiers
• 7. The Outrageous Dreamers

Continuing with the eighth motivator …

10 Fabulous Motivators That Inspire You To Take Action

8. The Pause Removers

Let’s face it, no matter how dedicated you are towards your dreams/goals, there will be a time when life takes over and you have to give your journey towards your dream a pause. It’s not really about how much you want your dream or whether you are serious about it. It’s not about whether you are motivated or taking action. Life just gets in the way. There are other things which take on higher priority, other things which require your full attention and for some time you have to give a pause to your dream.

Nothing wrong with this.

So as long as pause remains a pause and doesn’t become a full stop.

The thing with pauses is that it’s not a simple matter of picking things up from where you left them. Pauses break the momentum you built. Pauses create gaps between dreams and action. Pauses create space for inspiration to slip away.

And that’s why it’s even more difficult to get motivated after a pause.

When you find yourself stuck with de-motivation because you can’t move beyond your pause, The Pause Removers will come to your help.

What’s stopping you?

Nothing crashes motivation faster than unrealistic expectations. If you want to surge forward to work towards your dream but keep holding back, be assured unrealistic expectations are behind this. Examine your thoughts, dig deeper into your feelings and find out how are you obstructing your progress by creating pressure of unrealistic expectations.

• Unrealistic Expectation Of Complete Clarity & Speed

  When you are working everyday on your dream, when you live it and breathe it, your mind can process everything related to it with ease. You can navigate through myriads of scenarios and possibilities effortlessly. It’s easy to take decision, it’s easy to know what you need to do and what’s pending, what requires attention and what can be postponed. You can say you are on top of everything.

  This knowledge leads to confidence. And you are used to this feeling of confidence because that’s where you were when you left off.

  When you come back, it is a different matter all together. You have to pick everything from where you left it. This means remembering itsy bitsy details of each and every work stream. This means remembering the decisions you made and why you made them. This means remembering every small mental note you made of things to do, things to track, calls to make, research to do etc.

  This will take time. Getting back in shape, getting back in the game will take time.

• Identify Unrealistic Expectations Through Feelings

  The expectation of complete clarity & speed the moment you pick your dream is dangerous. It’s unrealistic. It leads to feelings of frustration. It eats away your confidence and makes you feel not good enough. It produces fear. These feelings of frustration, lack of confidence and fear will stop you from moving ahead.

  The easiest way to know that your road block is unrealistic expectations is through your feelings. If you feel confused, frustrated or afraid to take action, you know that somewhere within you are expecting from yourself something that’s not possible or fair. If you identify and release the expectation that’s holding you back, your road block will disappear.

• Identify Unrealistic Expectations Through Language

  Another way to know that you are burdened with unrealistic expectations is through the language you use. Take note of what you are saying to yourself and to others about your work. Phrases of ‘should be’, ‘used to be’ etc are an easy way to identify what do you expect from yourself and where are you comparing your productivity with that before the pause.

  To correct these unrealistic expectations through use of language, question yourself everytime you tell yourself how things should be (e.g. : ask yourself ‘is that so?’) catch yourself everytime you are comparing yourself now with what was before the pause. The more you catch yourself, the more you will realise how are you unnecessarily pressurising yourself and setting up yourself for failure. As you negate your unrealistic expectations, you will free yourself to take action and gain motivation that you are missing.

How to move forward?

It’s clear that unrealistic expectations are the reason you remain stuck in your pause. Identifying these expectations and naming them as unrealistic can help you remove them and get free of them.

To move forward beyond pauses is then a simple matter of taking action. Following are three simple actions you can take to move beyond your pause -

• Travel Back Through Time

  The most logical and common sensical first action to take is to travel back to time when you gave your dream a pause. Start getting updated with everything related to your dream. What have you worked on so far, how things were, where did you leave them, what was your plan of action then … brush up everything the way you would brush up your study material after a long study break. Get a firm handle on everything pertaining to your dream.

  Knowledge is empowering. When you gain clarity over every minute detail, you can make informed choices and correct decisions. You may be slow but you would be moving in right direction. This slow and steady progress is the key to building confidence and creating momentum.

• Set Yourself For Success

  Based on your refreshed knowledge, create a monumental list of simple action items. Be as specific about the task as possible. Short and clear tasks that can be completed fast with very little scope of making mistakes. Target to finish only one task at a time. By doing so you would be eliminating possibility of failure and set yourself for success. This initial victory is important. It will give you the feeling that you are on top of things. It will help you get back in charge and remove your fear of making mistakes.

• Make Dream A Priority

  The only problem to tackle now would be lack of time. Not finding time to start working on your dream again is a common and valid problem to have.

  When you gave a pause to your dream, you took it down the priority list for time being. Something else of higher priority took up the time allotted to your dream. This was required then.

  However the thing with time is that it will always get filled with something or other. If you don’t claim free time consciously, something else will wiggle in and claim your time.

  This must have already happened by now. The time that should have been allotted for your dream must have got allotted somewhere else.

  In order to reset this, make your dream a priority again. And then, look at the way you spend time with fresh eyes. And see how can you create time for your dream. (hint: scheduling a daily appointment is a sure shot way of making your dream a priority and finding time to work on it).

  When you make your dream a priority, you show up everyday to work on it. When you persistently work on your dream no matter how frustrating the initial days of slow pace, confusion and indecisiveness are, you make progress.

  With every small margin of progress you make, you rekindle your passion for your dream, you find your lost motivation and soon the pause becomes non existent.

Action Items:

• 1. Find a dream/goal which has got stuck in a pause.
• 2. Identify unrealistic expectations creating this pause.
• 3. Take three steps in direction of your dream.

Have you moved beyond your pauses? What are your tips on how to remove them?

More Fabulous Motivators That Inspire You To Take Action In Part VII