• Curiosity
• joy of learning about new things = joy of expansion & growth, and the joy & satisfcation of approaching Mastery (=intrinsic motivation?)
  Examples:
  - Richard Branson says: “These days, one of my goals is to keep challenging myself. I see life as one long university education, in place of the one I never had — every day I learn something new.”
  - I found this passage about Bill Gates: “Growing up Bill Gates was genuinely interested in mucking around with technology. [...] So initially, at least, the technology itself motivated him.”
  
• joy of exploring new things = joy of expansion & growth (=intrinsic motivation?)
  This could be exploring physical places and having physical experiences, or exploring ideas in the mental realm.
  Examples: Richard Branson says: “I thrive on new challenges. I’m always excited about offering innovative solutions to common problems, even when it means that we’ll be breaking into new industries.”
• joy of understanding things in a new way – aha moments = joy of expansion & growth (=intrinsic motivation?)
• satisfaction of meeting a set goal that you believe in, and seeing positive results from your efforts.  (=extrinsic motivation?)
  Warren Buffett sums up the satisfaction you can get from goals well when he advises: “Don’t just go for safe projects, take on the really tough problems.” Because solving big problems is a lot more satisfying than solving sure-thing safe little ones!
  Wealth, success (in a chosen field or project), fame, fulfilling parental goal-oriented dreams or your own goal-oriented dreams are all such goals.
  Why is this satisfying? Because you prove to yourself you can do stuff; you prove to yourself just how amazing you are and that feels good.
  Examples of goals could be:
  - A goal to do something to a level that makes you proud: Richard Branson says the best motivator is to be building a business you’re proud of. He says. “This has always been a motivator for me, from my Student magazine days, through to our latest start-ups today.”
  - Steve Jobs said: ” the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. ”
  - Bill Gates had a goal of putting a computer in every home on every desk.
  - Goals that are inspired by seeing what other people around you have achieved.
  Richard Branson says that by meeting other successful people it helps motivate him to do more. He said: “They accomplished so much in their respective fields that spending time with them made me think about what I might do in mine. Afterward, I was more motivated than ever to do the best possible job in my own business.”
• satisfaction in receiving praise, admiration & appreciation (=extrinsic motivation)
  Why is this satisfying? Because you it helps you connect with the truth of how great you truly are and that feels good.
  
• satisfaction in feeling you have something of value to give (advice, ideas, something uniquely yours creatively, etc)
  Why is this satisfying? Because you it helps you connect with the truth of how great you truly are and that feels good.
• satisfaction of feeling that you are doing something meaningful by taking part in Meaningful Activities.
  This often involves being part of a larger story, in the service for the greater good.
  Why is this satisfying? Because you it helps you connect with the truth of how great and powerful you truly are and that feels good.
  Examples:
  - Richard Branson says he is motivated by wanting to try “to take full advantage of my days and make the world a better place for our generation and generations to come, and that gives me more energy…. I’m deeply committed to initiatives that tackle global issues – from climate change, to the failed war on drugs, to abolishing the death penalty.”
  - Elon Musk also is motivated by making the world a better place. He says: “I’m just trying to think about the future, and not be sad.”
  - Mark Zuckerberg has said that for him facebook is meaningful becuase “For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. ”
  - Bill Gates does a lot of philanthropy work these days because he believes this is meaningful. He says: “Our foundation is teaming up with partners around the world to take on some tough challenges: extreme poverty and poor health in developing countries, and the failures of America’s education system. We focus on only a few issues because we think that’s the best way to have great impact, and we focus on these issues in particular because we think they are the biggest barriers that prevent people from making the most of their lives.” He does his work because he believes “we can help every person get the chance to live a healthy, productive life.”
  - Many wealthy people who no longer have to be motivated by things like making money, do a lot of philanthropy work because they believe it is meaningful.
  

References:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2015/08/27/6-top-motivations-that-drive-the-best-entrepreneurs/#668dddfa26ff

But there’s a big difference between a desire, a hope, or a dream to do something, and really doing something. And the difference is wanting something enough to feel ready to take action.

Whatever your dream is, the starting point of how to begin the journey of making that dream into a reality all starts from the same place: It comes from a decision to just go for it.

So how do you start following your dream?
Go all in. Make that commitment to yourself and say: Yes! I am just going to do this! I’m going to take action and take the first step in the direction of this dream. Even if it is the first step of many many steps, every journey starts with a single step.

If you’ve learned how to swim and always look up at the high diving board dreaming of what it would be like to jump off it; stop overthinking it and just go for it! You’ve climbed up the high diving board and looked off the edge of it, wondering if you should jump or not for long enough. Just jump. You know how to swim; you have and know everything you need to know in order to survive the jump. So allow yourself to enjoy the exhilaration of doing something exciting that makes you feel alive and brave. Allow yourself to make your dreams come true. Allow yourself to just go for it!

References:
“All in” video by Aaron Anastasi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8q2eEAeFmM

The idea is that by tuning into times when you already have clarity, and focusing on those times, you will attract more of that “knowing vibration” into your life for all the things in your life.

Here’s the rampage:

• I love the feeling of knowing exactly what I want to do next.
• I love being in a vibrational place where ideas comes easily.
• I love being in a vibrational place where I have a strong desire to take inspired action.
• I love the effortlessness of inspired ideas flowing to you.
• I love the feeling of certainty of “I *SO* want to do that!” that comes with inspired ideas.
• I love the feeling of confidence that comes with knowing what the next step is.
• I love the feeling of stability and surefootedness with knowing what your goal is. What you’re aiming for.
• I love the feeling of clarity that comes with having a clear idea of what you want to do next.
• I love how the inspiration to take action is so natural and just happens with complete ease.
• I love the excitement that comes with the brewing of a new desire.
• I love the feeling of focus that comes with focusing on the task at hand.
• I love the feeling of desire to do a good job on the task at hand.
• I love the feeling of feeling that you ARE doing a good job on the task at hand.
• I love feeling the satisfaction of completing a task.
• I love knowing that there is always another fun task waiting around the corner.
• I love knowing that there will always be SOMETHING I want to do next. Always!
• And I know that it’s just a matter of time before I find it; it’s gonna happen.
• Things are lining up with my desires all the time and fresh opportunities and desires are always popping up.
• I love knowing that I always have desires and dreams, no matter how big or small, and that they are an infinite resource to pull fun, exciting expansion from.
• I love the feeling of flow that comes when one idea or action leads to the next and the next.

I love knowing!
It feels like certainty.
It feels like clarity.
It feels like confidence.
It feels like secureness.
It feels solid.
It feels like stability.
It feels like one thing easily flows to the next and the next.
It feels like ease.
It feels natural.
It feels effortless.
It feels easy.
It feels like it bypasses thought.
It feels like an urge from within.
It feels like motivation.
It feels immediate.
It feels like it’s just there!
It feels like it’s just there all along and I always have access to it.
It feels like knowing. Just knowing.
I love knowing!

Exercise of proving to yourself that you often DO know what you want

By remembering the times when you *do* know what you want to do, it may help reinforce that vibration within you, to attract more of that clarity into your life.

So ask yourself: In what situations do I know what I want?

Here is what I came up with:

I feel this knowing when I know exactly when I want to eat. I can feel it clearly when my body tells me I’m hungry.
I feel this certain knowing when I just know what kind of food I feel like eating. Savoury; Sweet; Crunchy; Soft; Italian; Chinese; Japanese… The knowing is always so strong and clear.

I feel this strong sense of knowing what to do next when my body tells me it wants to go to sleep.
Or when I want to go to the bathroom.

I have a strong sense of certainty when I know that I feel like watching a movie and chilling out in front of the TV.
With that is also a sense of clarity about what I want to watch. Sometimes this clarity comes before even seeing what’s available, and sometimes it comes as soon as I read the description of what the film is about. It’s pretty immediate, strong and clear.

I often have a strong feeling of knowing what I want to do next when I just know that I really feel like curling up with a good book.

When I have an urge to play some music, the urge is a clear feeling of “something I want to do now”.

When I have a strong urge to feel the fresh air on my skin and go for a walk, the urge comes from within me as easily and quickly as a click of the fingers.
When I pass a beautiful flower, the desire to lean in to smell it comes just like that!

When I hang out with someone I love, I often have an urge within me to just go and give them a kiss or a hug. No thinking. Just clear, clear connection to internal desire and acting on it straight away!

When I have news I really want to share with someone, I know straight away that sharing the news is exactly what I want to do next.

I often feel quite strongly when I just know I want to spend time with a specific someone.

I know when I feel like checking my emails or checking facebook.
I know when I feel like taking a break from work.
I know when I feel like playing a game.

In fact in most of these cases, the feeling of knowing is so clear that I don’t even have time to think “what do I want to do now”? I just know before I even get a chance to ask the question! I love that immediate, natural sense of knowing!

It’s very common to hear people waking up in a toasty, warm bed, pulling the covers over their head and saying “I don’t want to wake up! I don’t want to leave this bed!”

It’s true that this could be simply because of the joy of feeling cosy, comfortable and relaxed all snuggled up under your duvet and wanting to prolong that delicious feeling for as long as possible, but for some it may come from another origin: not knowing why to get up in the morning. For these people, they may be going through a rough patch and may be feeling a little bit depressed about things, particularly their purpose in life. This article explores suggestions for why you do get up in the morning so that if you are feeling down, maybe a few of these ideas will motivate you to get up next time you’re starting your day.

Why do you get up in the morning?

1.) You get up in the morning because you CAN

We get up everyday because we can. We have been blessed with the opportunity to create a life for ourselves and make it the best life that we can. But how do we do that? How do you find the motivation to get up because you WANT to and not just because you can?

Getting up in the morning is all about motivation. You need something to motivate you enough to get out of bed and start your day. So what motivates you?

2.) You get up in the morning to achieve Desires, Goals & bucket list items

Knowing what you don’t want and knowing what you DO want:

Desires to do certain things can motivate you to get out of bed in the morning. If you’re thinking “there’s nothing I want to do!” or “I don’t know what I want!”, then there’s good news for you: Every time you know that you don’t want something, you automatically are one step closer to knowing what you do want.

For example: If you know that you don’t want to work in the city amongst thousands of workers working in a tiny cubicle, you can start figuring out what you do want. Maybe this suggests you want to work in a smaller company that’s got fewer workers and a friendlier environment. Maybe it means that you know that you want to work somewhere that’s comfortable and spacious – maybe even working outdoors. You see how knowing what you don’t want can help you figure out what you do want?

Turn push factors into pull factors

There are two categories of motivating factors for getting us to get out of bed in the morning and live our lives: push factors and pull factors.

Push factors are those things which push us in an uncomfortable way to get stuff done, usually out of fear and shame. It is the metaphorical whip that drives you into action. I’ll give you a few examples of push factors that motivate people to get up in the morning:

• Fear of homelessness
• Fear of poverty and related issues including hunger, poor lifestyle, few luxuries, little opportunity for fun
• Fear of disappointing others, usually parents, guardians, partners and children
• Fear of looking bad to society and being labelled with negative labels like “lazy”, “useless” etc.
• Fear of being alone and lonely
• Fear of wasting your life away

A better-feeling motivator would be a pull factor, which draws us into doing things like a sugar lump can entice a horse to move forward towards it. All push factors can be pivoted into pull factors.

There can be lots of other good pull factors which usually take the form of goals and bucket list items of things you really want to do. Goals can be as general or as specific as you want to make them. Here are a few examples of goals that can help motivate you to wake up and make things happen:

• Specific Goals:
  • Desire to learn a new skill because it looks like fun (play a musical instrument, learn a language, learn an art or craft)
  • Desire to see and experience certain things in the world (eg swimming with dolphins, dining at a top restaurant, visiting a natural wonder in the world, hearing a certain performer perform live, experiencing what love feels like, experiencing adventures, thrills and excitement)
  • Desire to help a certain cause in the world
• General Goals:
  • Desire to feel good
  • Desire to feel happy
  • Desire to feel useful
  • Desire to feel free
  • Desire to create new things
  • Desire to expand and grow personally and spiritually

For more ideas on life goals see this article: Life Goals

If you don’t know what your goals are, sit down and make a list for yourself. Then pin it up somewhere you can see it near your bed to remind yourself of all the reasons you have to get up in the morning, because every day you can take a step forward towards meeting these goals. It can give more purpose and motivation to doing your job and earning money and can help you feel better about your days.

3.) You get up in the morning to experience all the joys of life and to follow your fun

Goals aside, there are lots of little things in life which can give great joy and satisfaction. Sometimes these little things can give a clue to our true passion in life and sometimes they are simply moments of appreciation that we experience, which feel good.

When you wake up in the morning, if you have little joys to look forward to, it can help motivate you to get out of bed.

Examples of everyday joys and treats to look forward to:

• Beautiful sights e.g. seeing the sun rise and set with glorious colors, enjoying the experience of matching an outfit and looking good in the mirror
• Wonderful sounds e.g. hearing a tune you love or playing an instrument yourself.
• Delicious tastes e.g. that first taste of warm coffee in the morning, or of melted butter on perfectly toasted bread.
• Pleasant sensations e.g. a hug from a loved one and other physical intimacy; joy of dance,
• Fun experiences with people: enjoying a laugh with a friend or loved one, sharing interesting and intellectually stimulating conversations, enjoying the feelings of acceptance and stimulation.
• Fun experiences with animals: the joy of cuddling up with your pet, the fun of playing with an animal
• Enjoyable entertainment: e.g. reading a good book, seeing a good movie, playing a fun computer game,
• Creativity: making art, writing a story, poem or your thoughts on a certain topic.
• Excitement and thrills: The thrill of riding a motorbike to work or the little thrilled feeling in your stomach when you jump just as an elevator comes to a stop.
• Flow: Enjoying those moments when you’re in a state of flow and everything seems to come easily and before you know it, hours have passed and you’ve barely noticed because you were enjoying the productive flow so much.

It may be a good idea to make a list of all the things you find fun or have enjoyed doing in the past and putting that besides your goal list to look at in the morning.

It may be helpful to start your list with morning-things that are most likely to immediately resonate with you in the morning. Things like “enjoying your dog waking you up in the morning”, “enjoying seeing the beautiful colors of the sunrise”, “enjoying picking out an outfit, getting dressed and looking smart” “enjoying the taste of coffee”, “enjoying the taste of melting butter of freshly toasted bread”, “enjoying listening to some great tunes as you walk to work listening to your ipod” or “enjoying the feeling of driving your motorbike to work” etc.

Sometimes there are things that you think seem fun but you need to muster the courage to try them. It may be being brave enough to do that bungee jump you’ve always wanted to experience or even a matter of gathering your courage to go to a singing lesson. You ARE brave enough to do them, it’s just a matter of pushing past the initial resistance. Stop thinking of all the reasons not to do it, and just think of how fun it could be, – concentrate on the positives – rev yourself up and do it!

4.) You wake up in the morning to experience expansion

As humans we all have a desire to expand and grow, be it in experiences (wanting to experience a lot of different sights, sounds, tastes and feelings), knowledge, to better the world, or to better yourself through personal development or spiritual growth. That need to grow and expand within specific fields can be a great motivator to get up in the morning.

5.) Get out of bed because chances are, if you get out of bed, things will get better

If you don’t want to get up in the morning because life is really bad right now, keep in mind that things can turn around – even today! Things can start feeling better!

Often, when we go through tough times, we come out the other end stronger. A perfect example of this is the spiritual teacher Eckhart Tolle who found himself feeling purposeless and depressed as a university student and just at the point of declaring that he couldn’t live with himself anymore, that’s when he had a spiritual aha moment that changed his life forever, giving his life a renewed sense of purpose and filling him with a sense of peace and appreciation.

One way to get yourself going is to tell yourself that you can start working towards a goal for 10 minutes and then you can stop if you like. Chances are you’ll want to continue once you get going, and then you’re out of bed and feeling better.

All of us have days when we really don’t feel like doing anything. It’s normal and ok to feel that way. But if you’re not enjoying this feeling, there is lots you can do to start feeling better right now! How do you start feeling more excited and motivated about things when you just don’t feel like doing anything? Here are a few ideas:

1.) Get ideas:
Visit a “stuff to do when you’re bored” or “what to do when you don’t know what to do” article for ideas. Maybe one of the ideas you read will grab your fancy, you never know!

2.) Reconnect with you goals and take a small step towards them:
Most of us have some long-term life goals, whether it’s a money-goal, relationship-goal, humanitarian-goal, personal-development goal or anything else. Even during the times when you don’t feel like doing anything, deep down, those goals are still something you want to do.

Depending on what you feel like doing most, here are two ideas to help you reconnect with feeling like doing something towards these goals again:

(a.) Take a piece of paper and start listing reasons why you want to reach your goal. Sometimes reminding yourself of why reaching a goal will be good can start getting the motivation and passion flowing.

(b.) Use your time to start doing something that works towards your long term or short term goals, even if you don’t feel like it. Choose a small, easy activity that will generally benefit your goal. Every journey starts with a single step no matter how small. Maybe once you start, you’ll start feeling like doing more of it – plus you get closer towards your goals.

3.) Use the opportunity to get practical stuff done:
Start doing something that works towards something you need to do at some point but you haven’t had the time to do it yet, eg picking out an early birthday present for a family member or friend, or choosing places in the world you’d like to visit and start planning a travel plan.

4.) Reconnect with fun and take small steps towards it:
Just start doing something that you know you’ve enjoyed in the past (e.g. a hobby, go for a walk in a beautiful place, meet or call a friend) even if it doesn’t particularly contribute towards any goals per se. Maybe once you start, you’ll find that soon you’re feeling better and enjoying yourself. Sometimes you just have to push beyond the resistance to find the fun.

5.) Connect with an uplifting person
Sometimes when you connect with another individual who *is* feeling motivated to do stuff, just spending time with them can help lift you into a similar vibration. This may be a family member you can talk to, a friend or even a stranger from the internet. All can be catalysts to help you feel better and more motivated to start doing something.

6.) Hang out in a new place
Sometimes changing up the routine and spending time in a new place can provide a different energy and vibe which can get ideas flowing and can get motivation going. This can mean taking a walk outside somewhere, or it can mean hanging out in a different room in the house than you normally do.

7.) Do nothing in style!
Sometimes the feeling of doing nothing is there because you may be overworked and genuinely need a break. So relax, and if you feel like doing nothing, make the most of it and enjoy it! Do nothing in a way that feels the best. For example, maybe you can do nothing whilst listening to some feel good songs, watch your favorite tv show or some feel good videos on youtube, or maybe you could relax in a cosy bubble bath, maybe with a magazine or something, and start enjoying the sensations of the warm bubbles around you to start feeling better. You may want to do nothing whilst spending time in a fresh environment, especially if it’s a nice day out – like in a pretty park – just absorb the sunshine, listen to the sound of the breeze rustling the leaves and enjoy the nature around you. Or maybe you can put on a relaxation CD or do progressive muscle relaxation to feel calm and accepting of the “doing nothing” situation. Another idea is to meditate. All these can feel great!