Motivation and Flow

I don't get motivated enough when I think about money or other financial achievements.

Computer games usually motivate me much easier, because the achievement received is pretty much instant. In squidoo lens-building, to some degree, getting some pretty badges for squidoo-related actions is also a good motivator.

Motivation, in my opinion, should be intrinsic. We (mostly I) should focus on the now, the lens-building-now, the creating-great-content-now, the searching-for-funny/relevant-pictures-now.

Extrinsic motivation tends to focus too much on external factors and it bends the individual's ego into believing that something which is yet to be achieved, was already achieved, so the task at hand doesn't have that same "glow" and the road which lies ahead doesn't seem so bright all of a sudden.

It is truly great to become extremely motivated when it comes to anything.
When I am motivated, I can be pretty productive. I don't tend to care too much about personal worries and time seems to flow very fast.



(warning - boring short story time - zzzZZZzzz)

I used to work in a small factory as an electrical assembler. The job was extremely repetitive and I truly hated it.
But it came with a bonus, so if you were to exceed the necessary quota, you would get paid extra. This wasn't a good motivator for me, so instead of thinking about the money, I started thinking about the quantity I can produce within the 8 hour shift. So i started challenging myself.
Within about a month, my productivity was boosted by about 50% and I then realized what flow was.
For me, flow means stepping aside from your usual self, let your hands do the work and simply enjoy the ride in your mind%u2026. Even if the job was extremely boring, I just liked to remain in a state of perfect awe as to what my hands learned to do on full auto.
Felt like a zombie-robot, and did not worry about anything. I was just living in the present time.

Once I saw what the possibilities of this were, I quit my job and started meddling in internet marketing, article writing , blog-making, squidoo lens-building affairs.

It seems like a better "waste" of my time and skills than mindlessly assembling connectors used in god knows what. :)

I find it hard to achieve flow when I don't feel like doing something. I find it hard to even begin to like something so I can achieve a desirable level of flow.
Usually when writing I would tend to think about something else. My attention span isn't what it used to be, because I get distracted easily by all the pretty colors and all the ads.

So what do I mean by flow? For me, flow is that perfect state when everything in the world is fine (or it just seems that way in my mind), I have no worries on my mind and money (the mother of all worries) isn't an issue anymore. Getting there is always pretty hard. I have divided the process into a couple of steps:

1. Whatever the skill is, learn the skill

I usually want and have to learn the skill for flow to be achieved. Just trying to do something perfect for the first time doesn't work for me.

1.5 Learn to LIKE the skill.

Without liking the skill, the chances of achieving perfect flow are pretty slim.

2. Over-learn the skill

When the learning is done, over-learning occurs for me. I prefer to take everything into the over-learning phase so it becomes automatic, then I can usually go on with my mental routine without affecting the natural flow process.

This whole process can eat up some of your time, but in terms of personal productivity it has done wonders for me.