The 3rd Line of The Blues
“ . . . is always sung a second time,
I said, the third line of the blues, is always sung a second time
Because by the time you get to the third line, you’ve had the chance to think of a rhyme”.
(Papas Blues. Starlight Express)
It’s that music thing again. I love how music inspires so much positive thought. Even seemingly negative lyrics can bring out creative ways to develop and manage our ideas about life and everything.
What does Papas Blues have to do with anything?
Repetition often finds the rhyme and if you care to search, there is plenty of evidence to support this. Now let’s replace rhyme with motivation. We all need to be motivated to do the things we do. The more motivated we are, the easier they become and when things get easier, we are motivated to do more.
MOTIVATION IMPROVES WITH REPETITION
MOTIVATION IMPROVES WITH REPETITION
REPETITION IMPROVES MOTIVATION
OK, the third line doesn’t rhyme but hey, you get the idea, right? Now, hands up if you’ve ever experienced a drop in your motivation. Lost you mojo and can’t quite put your finger on why. It happens to all of us, sometimes for reasons we can’t miss, occasionally for no apparent reason.
Motivation Doesn’t Last
You’re banging out great work. Suddenly you’ve run out of ideas.
You’re excited with the new website you’ve just started, and motivation is running high. Then (this was me yesterday) you realize that your color scheme is rubbish. Motivation crashes and burns.
It’s true that motivation can run its course and doesn’t last. Neither do clean clothes. They have a habit of getting dirty again and in need of washing. That’s why we must repeat the process. It takes work and frequent repetition.
Affirmations Help
Here are a few:
- My business is a huge success.
- I believe in myself and trust in my abilities to succeed in all that I do.
- Being successful is natural for me.
- Success, money and happiness come easily to me.
- My work makes a difference.
- I am smart and successful.
I’m sure you can produce some that are specific to you but, remember repetition is key. I also put my affirmations on the board in front of my desk. They help hugely. One of my favorites is, “When Doubt is Banished, Abundance Flourishes and Anything is Possible”. Do be sure not to overload with too many affirmations though. Start by choosing a couple that resonate with you or write some of your own; read and repeat at least morning and evening, more often if they are new and not fixed in your mind. Repetition will fix them consciously and sub-consciously.
Think about it in relation to changing your mind about something. It’s a process of information that leads you to changing your mind about most things. It doesn’t just suddenly happen.
Affirmations are only one of the keys to success. Self-Motivation takes more than repeating a few affirmations. It takes work, dedication and plenty of determination and repetition to keep away and manage the negative and demotivating debris that assaults our minds.
Realizing that the essence of self-motivation is about changing the negatives to positives is a start, so long as we realize that there is going to be work involved and a lot of repetition. Think about it like getting fit. If you don’t exercise regularly, physical fitness will hardly improve. What’s the point of a new year resolution in January if you’ve forgotten it by February?
I and many others know that affirmations work in all areas of life. I’ve been using them for a long time. Some years ago, I wrote a specific affirmation relating to a job I wanted. That alone didn’t get me the job, but it had a positive effect on the way I presented myself during the two-day interview process.
Rediscovering Motivation
There’s plenty of positive motivators all around us, family, friends, colleagues, books . . . Yesterday I put it out to my network that I needed some color scheme advice or ideas and, in they came. I felt my motivation beginning to rise again and today I’m excited to get back to that site and sort it out. Thank you to those wonderful people.
By considering and repeating that advice in my mind, I now have a series of positive steps to take and my motivation for that task is restored. Now I will get better results and greater success but, It’s ultimately up to me. Repeatedly.
The same goes for you too. Repeat your way to success.
What motivational tools do you use?
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