Hello and welcome to Daluwrites. I am thrilled to
write about this topic. For the records, when I first thought about it, I had
no clue as to where to begin from, but I knew for sure that it is something I’d
love to share. My personal experience and probably that of others, generally is
my inspiration for this post. Hope you enjoy it.
Self is one’s
consciousness of his/her identity/personality. Motivation is an act or process
of being inspired and stirred to action. Hence, self-motivation is the state or
process where one moves himself/herself to action. It is a process of not
needing anyone to push you. A state where you've got to come to terms with the
fact that all you've got is you. A state where you look beyond the economy of
your country, the system of education, the lack of money in your family, the
fact that your peers are already making it, etc and tell yourself that you've
got to move forward no matter what. For this post, I may be spiritual about it,
but I’m also going to be as logical as possible. You are free to agree or
disagree.
I’m not going to
write the story of my life here, but I will give some hints based on that.
Growing up, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth, nevertheless, we
weren't ‘wretched’ either. However, I had the best parenting ever, and great
siblings. As an undergraduate, due to inadequate financial assistance, I seldom
bought textbooks/handouts, but I graduated with a second class honors (Upper
Division). If my memory serves me right, the only time I bought text books were
for few courses of which, if you do not buy it, you’d probably fail the course
or something and it wasn't up to four books. I remember my elder sister would
call me on the phone go, “you see this money is for your feeding not for books,
it is only the living that can go to school.” Funny right? Well, it wasn't
easy.
Now in the midst of all these, what did I do? How did I
survive? I know there are many people out there who had worse experiences, but
this post is basically for the people who couldn't rise or grow beyond that. It
is for people who let the storms of life hold them back from becoming who they
are destined to be.
Principles of Self-Motivation
1.
Determine not to give up. Self-motivation
starts, first with a conviction that you will never give up on you. Once you
give up, every other effort is a waste of time. If you haven’t come to the
point where you have determined to move forward,: to move away/passed your
limitations whether emotional/spiritual/financial/physical, you are not ready
for the next step.
2.
Face your past. What
exactly do I mean? By facing your past, you need to come to terms with it. If
you lost someone who is very important to you/your cause, you lost resources,
you had terrible experiences like child abuse, sexual molestation, etc you need
to face it. It happened. Nevertheless where is it? All in the past. Facing your
past also means dealing with your fears: those things you are afraid to even
talk about. You need to find a way to face them and conquer them. If you need
to go for therapy, counselling, medical checkup, etc. do whatever you have to,
to let it go.
3.
Pray. I don’t know what or who you believe in, what I am
doing with this post is to share what works for me. I mean I have had my own
share of challenges, trials and tribulations on earth. I’ve had times when I
thought God was too far away. I’ve had times when the pain was so strong that
crying was enough to relieve me…I even thought of suicide once. Yes, I confess.
Nevertheless, how did I get through? It was prayer.
4.
Study the Word of God and
relevant books/articles. No matter
how dark the night, there was always light at the end of the tunnel was a
constant reminder. He will neither leave me nor forsake me (Joshua 1:5). Trust in
the Lord (not your parents/uncles/siblings/friends/spouse/lover, etc) with all
your heart (Proverbs 3:5). These and many more scriptures are major backbones
for me. You need words of encouragement? There is a word for you for any
situation you find yourself in, in the
Bible.
All you’ve got to do is study it.
5.
Meditate. Take
some alone time. It could mean traveling to a place where you’d have time for
yourself or lock yourself up in your house/room and take some time to reflect
deeply
(not in a self-destructive way) on the state of affairs in your life. Tip:
focus on where you’ve been, where you are and where you are heading to or where
you want to be. You can make it fun, draw a map or chart. Just check out of
life till you figure out how to get to the next level.
n/b: as you meditate, be
alert as God may decide to speak to you at such times.
6.
Surround yourself with the
right people. I am sure you’re
wondering who the right person is? Well, I mean people who put a smile on your
face. This only out of necessity, If you think you need a shoulder to lean on
and stuff like that. You don’t need haters, fake friends, unreliable
acquaintances, etc. you need only people who genuinely care about you and mean
well for you. Those are the people you need to surround yourself with. Hangout,
party if you can, have fun and get your shine back on!
7.
Set goals. This a time to plan, nevertheless, do not limit
yourself to these plans. Planning gives you a perspective of what lies ahead
and how you are going to achieve your goals.
8.
Dive into action. This is it! This is the real deal. The Bible lets us
know that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) Hence, having a great plan with no intention of doing
anything with it is just another not on a sheet of paper.
I hope this post was helpful to you. Thanks for visiting
this blog.
