When you don’t feel motivated! 8 questions to ask before you boost your GRIT!

You’ve been feeling unmotivated lately, and often have trouble concentrating on your work. Me too…

In this issue, I would like to share my thoughts on reading Chapter 3 of “Practical Version of GRIT: Get the Power to Do It Right”, which I introduced in a previous article.

　

From the “List of Questions to Know Yourself,” I have reorganized the questions I would like to ask myself in order to increase my motivation.

As a first step in taking the time to face yourself, “Why should I be motivated?” Let’s consider the answer.

By taking the time to address each of these questions, why get motivated and start working hard now? will become clearer.

　

How would I answer these questions? I hope you will think about them yourself, just for the record.

Why did I think I needed motivation?

The reason why I think motivation is important is because I work as a freelancer and am also commissioned to do telework work for an outside company.

Because I complete almost all of my work at home, I often find myself ‘unmotivated to work at home.

　

A normal office worker would go to work, do the work that needs to be done, work a little overtime, and go home.

If you are a company employee, you can balance your life and work, but this is not the case for freelancers.

　

A system is needed to repeat the process of setting goals and tasks, taking action, and making improvements.

I concluded that the first priority is to understand the current situation and identify goals in order to break away from past successes.

List of questions to get to know yourself

We were spoiled by the situation where we had some income even if we did not work and could not take action, so we felt a sense of crisis and decided to increase our GRIT.

Now, from here, I will face my past and future.

Everyone, please think about this while keeping notes and other information at hand.

What is your dream?

All GRIT starts with a dream.

I’m off to think about something I will regret if I don’t do it.

At this time, try to answer big and difficult dreams, not humble dreams.

　　

To answer this question, the question could be phrased thus.

”What would the best conceivable outcome look like?”

Adding the words “conceivable” and “best” will help you dream the best you can imagine.

　

This dream must be your own. If you dream of pleasing others, or want to mount a comparison with someone else, etc., you will fail along the way.

My answer.

To be honest, I am not comfortable writing about my dream on a blog that is seen by a large number of people, but I will write about it for my own sake.

　

The best dream I can think of right now is like the one above.

You may be tempted to say, “Oh, come on, there’s a motive for helping others!” but by helping others, I can save myself. I put it in my dream because I truly believe that I can save myself by helping others.

What’s the point of getting up in the morning?

When you don’t have a clear dream, ask yourself, “What do I get up for every morning?”

If it is to go to work, why do you go to work? and dig deeper, you will find your true purpose in life.

My answer.

The reason I get up every morning is to play. More specifically, I get up every morning to meet people.

However, I often don’t see anyone for half of the month, but I have found once again that even on days when I don’t go out, I find it worthwhile to ‘communicate with someone’ for a living.

　

In the question above, there was a dream that was other people-centered, and I would say that I live every day to get the feeling that I am contributing to others.

Why now?

I personally think this is a pretty important question.

Why do we need to do it now?

Frankly, you don’t have to get motivated now, it could be next week, next month, or even more importantly, next year or five years from now.

Can you work on something like that with passion?
I think this is a very important question.

My answer.

Frankly speaking, even if my income is zero from tomorrow, I have enough savings to live for more than 10 years if I lead a frugal life at the current prices.

We continue to work in such a way that our income and expenses are never reversed, so there is little reason why we should not do it right now.

Nevertheless, there is a possibility that your income could be drastically reduced due to unforeseen circumstances or that you could lose your savings due to a sudden illness.

We believe that the only time we have free time is now, and we fear that we may not be able to stand if things go wrong.

So I think we need to start moving toward our next goal now.

How did you overcome the difficulties you have overcome so far?

What was the hardest thing you have ever accomplished. Have you ever challenged and overcome a difficulty you set yourself?

This does not have to be difficult, they say.

It is important to get out of your comfort zone (the area where you feel safe) and to have the experience of saying that you have tried something you have never done before.

My answer.

I have always been the type of person who cannot act alone.

During the NEET period after graduating from college, I had a mental breakdown and could not ride trains, etc.

I could have stayed in my parents’ house, but that would not have allowed me to live my own life! So, I started going for an hour-long walk every morning on my motorcycle, which I had been riding since my college days.

It is a seemingly pointless habit, but it has helped me learn to get up every morning and go out on my own during the week, and it has allowed me to work full time while being a temp.

More to the point, this habit has allowed me to live a relatively free life and to write this article.

Who wants you to succeed?

Think of someone who would be truly happy to see you achieve your goals.

It is important to build relationships with people who can help you, directly or indirectly, when you are in a difficult situation.

My answer.

I can’t go into details because it is personal.

The people around me who are happy about my success are my “business associates,” “people at my favorite restaurant,” “colleagues at my consignment company,” and so on.

They are all people who have seen the process I have been working on, and I know how hard they have been working.

How do your strengths play out when you are “at your best”?

You must first know your own strengths.

In the book, I take the “VIA Institute Strengths Determination Test” to discover my strengths, but I used the results of StrengthsFinder 2.0.

VIA is free, but I recommend StrengthsFinder because I could not see the explanatory text afterwards.

　

We will consider situations in which these strengths were or could be demonstrated.

My answer.

First of all, my top 5 strengths are “desire to learn”, “prudence”, “analytical orientation”, “inspiration”, and “goal orientation”.

When are we at our “best” when we are able to demonstrate these strengths? We think about the following.

It’s a very private story, but I demonstrated my “desire to learn,” “prudence,” and “analytical thinking” when bouldering.

As for the carriers, I can’t think of any “best situation” so I’ll leave them out of this issue.

　

Your strengths are taken for granted and do not seem important. However, others see the world differently than you do.

Anyway, if you can remember many times when you were able to demonstrate your strengths in the best way, you will be better able to use your strengths in the future.

What is your ideal image of yourself in the future?

Ten years from now, I envision a state where everything is going well and my dreams have come true.

It says that 10 years is a good time frame for achieving long-term goals.

My answer.

I can live without working, but I can work when I want to.

And to be able to devote time to your loved ones.

This is my ideal vision of myself, a future that I can achieve within three years if everything goes well.

What obstacles are there to “living your best life?”

What are some possible obstacles that stand in the way of living the best life you wrote about above?

What, if any, unexpected setbacks or failures? Think about the story of the

If you have tried the same goal before and failed, the same obstacles are likely waiting for you.

　

In an article published in 『Journal of Personality and Social Psychology』, students who heard stories of people facing challenges were motivated to rewrite their own life stories, viewing difficulties as opportunities for growth.

Furthermore, the group of students who rewrote their life stories had a much lower rate of dropping out of college. This has been shown to be the case.

Writing stories for these bad situations is helpful to increase GRIT.

Timothy D. Wilson (psychologist, University of Virginia) wrote a story about facing challenges, entering a cycle of optimistic thinking, and furthermore, the cycle itself reinforces optimistic thought. He states.

My answer.

I believe that the events that can be obstacles to living your best life are illness and injury.

If there are large expenses due to illness or injury, life will be difficult and there will be less time to spend with loved ones.

In addition, there is a possibility of a decrease in income simply because the current way of earning is itself a job that is dependent on external factors.

summary

These are the first steps in the coaching process for increasing grit as described in Chapter 3 of “Practical GRIT: Getting the Power to Do It Right”.

I rewrote it in my own way and also wrote my own answer.

　

For greater effectiveness, it is better to have someone to report to, such as a family member, friend, or mentor.

This is because as we push toward our goals, we don’t do well or keep track of our own progress.

In any case, if you are in an environment where you can report to someone, you are more likely to make it through to your goal.