You Don’t Motivate a Goat to Fly

Can a goat fly? Well it’s possible. It is difficult rather than impossible. Motivation is very important in actualizing anything but its not the ultimate.

The reason most people fail in achieving their goals is not for lack of motivation, motivation you can get in abundance. It is rather an issue of ability. The horse before the cart, ability comes before motivation. Great things only happen when that principle is adhered to, first things first. You cannot motivate a goat to fly because originally it lacks the ability to do effectively do such.

This however doesn’t rule out ultimately the idea that it cannot do it, but until it first develops the ability to. Anything is possible and anyone can achieve whatsoever reasonable they desire if they set their mind to it and go about it in the right manner.

We all face diverse problems and challenges; these sometimes dampen the hopes of achieving set goals. A goal can be as far or near achievement as one can muster the motivation to get one’s members to work towards it. Ability comes before motivation. This is evident in daily affairs. You cannot be helped when there is nothing to help you with. Nature doesn’t permit vacuum. When you say I am here then someone can say you are there.

Most people seek motivation to overcome challenges without developing the ability to handle the problem. Such motivations are futile. Motivate a goat all you can, it cannot yet fly until you develop its ability to. The eagle that was raised with the chickens thought itself to be a chicken and indeed it was, because it could not fly any farther than them, though it had the potential ability to soar. In cases like this, motivation can work. On the contrary, motivate an ostrich then drop it from the heights and you will watch it drop to the earth like a loaded sack dropped from a plane in flight.

If a man must overcome the many obstacles that hamper him from reaching his goal, he must first learn to develop his ability to; not necessarily skill, for ability comes before skill as well as motivation. A man once said "Give me a place to stand on, and I will move the Earth." He was not lying when he said that. Motivation can only be effective when it's preceded by ability. \opportunity is nothing without the ability to utilize it.

The Doer’s Attitude: Motivate Yourself to Achieve

      Wishes don’t achieve goals, work do.  Goals at the beginning do seem achievable and indeed are, until the quest to actualizing them do doubts spring up that makes one think otherwise. I as well as you can understand that goals can be stalled in the course to achieve them. People set goals and fail to achieve them for so many reasons than can't be mentioned now. Let’s look at three simple yet effective tactics of self motivation and how it can help achieve goals. The best motivation you can get is the one you give yourself.         

     

      I can: this is the first level of motivation, it is better to start small and grow. I can, they say is a word of power, it reflects the courage self belief as well as muster courage to achieve set goal. It creates the belief to start anything.  Whether you think you can or not you are usually right. It is about you, if you think you can you will. Things happen and they do, the sooner we agree with them. The distance between you and achieving your goal can be as long or short as you can get yourself to walk the way between the ends. Your ability to achieve does not guaranty it’s done, people only believe you for what they see you do. If you think you can, go a step further to will. Before I set to achieve a goal, I usually ask myself; is this humanly achievable? I f yes, then I can achieve it. It’s necessary to be reasonable in setting goals.

        

I will: where there is a will to walk, to act, to progress, to live, to achieve, there will be a way. Opportunity comes to the one who expects it and calls for it. Willing reflects commitment; definite commitment creates opportunity to achieve set goal. The moment one definitely wills and commits oneself to a purpose; it attracts opportunity as well as obstacles. Every goal worth achieving gets its fair share of impediment. So don’t get bitter or anxious when you experience such difficulty in your strive to achieve your goal. 

        

I must: the third level of motivation happens when opposition has come to the fore and the task seems unachievable. If it requires strong measures to overcome desperate situation, one must be ready to respond thus. Certain obstacles defy passive response. ‘I must’ reflects a strong commitment and determination to accomplish a task or achieve a goal. What you don’t show much commitment, you can easily let go at the face of resistance especially when giving up can be justified. If anything is worth achieving, it is worth the commitment.

If I can achieve a goal, I will set out to achieve it. In the process of doing this, challenges spring up which must be surmounted for the goal to be achieved.  At times as this one may lack stuff to continue with the ambition but if the goal is worthy, then one must motivate one’s members to keep on with the goal.

Your Attitude Means a Lot

There are two things, do and don’t do. But now they are three; do, don’t do and try. Caught between the midst, most people find it fashionable to try rather than setting out to actually achieve. As much as I would like to agree that there is nothing as try, only do and don’t do but sadly I must admit there is. The issue is not really with trying, but the attitude.

There is an attitude to everything. Trying and doing are no exceptions.  Why try when you can do? Well, I see the reason. It's easy to figure out – unpreparedness. There is no harm in trial, so everybody wants to try; very few set out to do. There is one straight path for setting out to do – conscious preparation proceeded by willingness and applied effort to really do. It’s easy to try but difficult to do, even though both aim at the same goal, attitude makes the difference.

1.       1. A trier’s attitude: it’s not what you do or say but how you do it or say it. The attitude of a trier is way different from that of one who sets out to achieve. Aside preparation and ability the psychological approach of being a trier could upset the goal. People shed most of the criticism when they bear the trier’s tag. Trying is a courteous way of excusing unpreparedness. A trier is a doer who sets out to achieve a goal but thinks he will fail.  A trier is a good starter but never gets to finish what he started, not for inability or any other thing but from the unset they have excused their unpreparedness and by virtue of that leverage, they can opt out when it gets difficult as they earlier expected it would. Trying is not just an attitude; it can become a standard and a bad one at that. You basically don’t set your standard, they kind of work in alignment with the habits and character of your person-hood. If one’s standard is that of a trier, they basically go about everything with the same attitude.  

2.       2. A doer’s attitude: a doer is one who sets to achieve a thing and acknowledges that he may fail, considering the challenges that he may face but doesn’t excuse himself from preparing for those challenges, resolving to pull through. A doer is a trier with an intention to achieve his aim, an intention backed with the right preparation and attitude.

It’s not what you do but how you do it, attitude makes the difference between good and excellent.