The Secret of Getting Stronger (In Anything)
Two books have taught me the secret behind Self Motivation and Getting Stronger (or Better At) anything. The Sixty-Second Motivator helped me understand how motivation works (in general), and Body For Life is helping me develop a strength training and exercise routine. Interestingly, one of the things that helped me develop this simple thought was a criticism of the Body for Life program: some people find it too inflexible.
I’m positive that the following will sound obvious and stupidly easy, but I haven’t had past success in developing a routine for something I’m interested in. This is also something that I’d like to apply to the Game of Go in order to become a stronger player.
The Sixty-Second Motivator tells us that Motivation is increased through an increase in knowledge or an increase in importance. “Knowledge” threw me until I started matching that up with Body for Life. Sixty describes knowledge as an understanding of why we should change our routine. This is certainly important, but a better match-up with Body would describe knowledge as using time more efficiently through good planning. Importance fits in better with my simple epiphany:
Motivation:
- Increase Importance
- Increase Knowledge
Time Commit:
- Create an Inflexible Daily/Weekly Schedule.
- The more inflexible your schedule is, the more Importance you’re giving the change.
Time Optimize:
- Plan out your activities for each session.
- The better planned your schedule is, the more Knowledge you have, and the more likely you’ll be to follow through with your plans.