Motivation

Do you find it an impossible chore trying to motivate somebody? Do you despair at their ungratefulness, their idleness and general ineptitude? I do too.

I thought I would share some tips that I have found work when trying to get through to somebody who’s trying to start the whole ‘a new me’ but ends up relapsing into the same old ways.

The most common response I get when asking somebody what they have done today is ‘Lots, I did many useful things today’. The first thing to realise is this response is always a lie and ‘lots’ equates to a trip to the shop for some milk and taking out the rubbish. These people have become so used to experiencing only one or two ‘events’ per day that anything more becomes hard work and yet they become adamant that they have been very busy and they couldn’t possibly have gotten any more done.

The solution to this is time management. Forcing them to do any one thing for only a certain amount of time and then moving on to something else, including your leisure time. Many feeble minded people find it difficult to tear themselves away from things such as the TV or watching endless ‘Fail’ compilations on YouTube, and trying to encourage this approach is the way forward. TV 6 - 7, dinner 7 - 8, work on something  8 – 11.

Other key things to help people get on and stop faffing about include;

Making them get up no later than 8 a.m. and at the same time every morning. Consistency is crucial to a feeling of getting up and on.

Make them do chores. Doing work, any work like cleaning or cooking meals makes you feel like you’re doing something, because you are, and this makes you feel more active enabling you to focus on other work after. They’ll be amazed by how much they can get done!

Force them to cut down on TV. Just unplug it, tell them they don’t pay their share of bills so they don’t deserve it or just get rid of the TV altogether. This evil black box in the corner of everybody’s home should be treated like ultraviolet light – only limited exposure is safe.

This concludes my brief insight into a tough-love motivational workout.