Exploring Your Internal Map Of Reality: Part 8: Strategies (Part 2)

Last time we talked the basics of strategies and what a ‘good’ strategy’ consists of.

Now we consider some basic types of strategies.

Motivation/De-Motivation Strategies

A fairly essential strategy that we all use is the Motivation strategy. Most people have been motivated at least once in their life and many have been so lots of times.

In general a motivation strategy has a trigger that accords with our values. (see Part 5 of this series). We experience something from the outside world, or alternatively, our subconscious mind brings forth an idea that inspires us. We then take immediate and decisive action towards that goal.

We also have strategies that de-motivate us. Anything that goes against our values, for instance, will motivate us to move away from it. This strategy has a high correlation with the the towards/away metaprogram. (See Part 7)

Additionally, there needs to be a certain intensity involved with the value to actually trigger the motivation. Someone may be strongly drawn to a cause or purpose and you have no trouble doing things towards that, but when it comes to doing some of the requisite chores, they are less motivated to achieve them.

A typical motivation strategy may look like this:

either

1)  a visual construct (internal picture) of the outcome, leading to a positive feeling (kinaesthetic). This is a ‘towards’ strategy.

or

2)  a visual construct of the consequences of not acting, leading to a negative feeling. This is an ‘away’ strategy.

Clearly the most effective in most circumstances is the ‘towards’ strategy. However in a situation where the consequences of not acting are grave (e.g. escaping from a burning building) obviously the ‘away’ from strategy is most effective. The key is thus being able to assess the most effective strategy for the situation at hand.

Many personal development gurus focus on the ‘towards’ motivation strategy. They get you to make an internal picture of your ideal and get you to see it, feel it, taste it and hear it to induce motivation.

In order to be effective, whilst all modalities need to be used, the individual’s preferred modality is the one that usually is the most effective.

For instance, I am more motivated by sounds and data than I am motivated by sights and feelings. Yet I experience positive emotions (kinaesthetic) when the desired outcome is achieved.

Here are some suggestions to help motivate you achieve a desired goal.

• If you say things to yourself (i.e. ‘auditory’ and ‘auditory digital’), say them in a good tonality. Use words of possibility, desire or choice rather than necessity or impossibility.
• Your goal should be ‘chunked’ appropriately (see Part 4 of this series). This means the task is broken down into small, achievable steps. Doing this means you will experience results sooner than later, and this furthers your motivation towards the bigger goal.
• Use ‘towards’ strategies wherever possible. If you focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want, you are more likely to achieve it.
• If you prefer visual representations of your goal (internal pictures), make them ‘associated’ – in other words, see yourself right in there with the goal rather than looking at it from outside. For instance if your goal is to graduate form college, create an internal picture of you accepting your diploma as seen from your eyes when you receive it. See Part 6 of this series for more information on modalities.
• Remember that the content of strategies is less important than the actual strategy itself. In other words, you can use the same motivation strategy to motivate yourself to get to a party on time as you do to get to work on time. The goal may be different and the content may be different, but the process is the same.
• To make a strategy more effective, as hinted at above, you can change its submodalities. For instance you can make the sounds louder or softer, or the picture brighter or darker. Again, more on this in Part 6.  You can listen to a recording  that assists you with  this process below. The download link is here
• As a last resort, if the end point is not strong motivation then it can also be useful to focus on the consequences of not achieving it. A simple process of reasoning can help all of this, based on the principles of Cartesian logic – ask yourself:

– What will happen if you get it?

– What won’t happen if you get it?

– What will happen if you don’t get it?

– What won’t happen if you don’t get it?

All 4 are variations of the answer expressed in both towards and away versions.

Next Time: Learning Strategies