by Kaushik Guha

Created on: July 07, 2009   Last Updated: July 08, 2009

Why should you concentrate on doing what you love? Will it at all help increase your motivation levels?

You bet.

Why is that?

Because when you enjoy your work, it takes care of many of the fundamental principles of personal growth automatically. Otherwise, you have to consciously watch yourself at every step.

What do I mean by that?

1. Breaking through your plateau:

Often times, when you go against the grain, the progress curve initially is steep and all of a sudden you hit a plateau. And your high goes away. The next thing is you begin to question yourself if you are at all going to get out of this rut. Many people actually get stuck here for life. A common problem is Oprah's battle for weight loss.(Thank God, she has finally won her battle)

Also, when things get real hard and painful, you will ask yourself why do I need to do this. What is in it for me? I am happy the way I am..no need to go to that sweaty gym 4 times a week. The self help gurus refer to it as 'lack of leverage on yourself'.

Now , if you already enjoy an activity that is related to weight loss, you are never going to ask this question, you will still hit a plateau, but your focus will be so occupied by the task at hand you probably will notice the plateau only after you have crossed it. Like ha,I was stuck there for quite a few months..well..whatever..that's behind me now.

How cool is that?

2. Stretching yourself despite the pain:

There is a saying in bodybuilding that if you can do 10 bicep curls, the muscle actually would grow the most on curl number 11. That is a dramatic way of saying that real growth only comes from stretching yourself beyond your comfort zones. But if you hate the activity you do to reach your goal, how difficult is it to stretch beyond your comfort zone?

Very difficult.

Your whole focus and energy is already eaten up by just maintaining your current zone and that feels far from comfort. Now some one comes and tells you that until you stretch, there is no use keeping doing the same exercise..wow, some motivation there eh?

If you do something you love, stretching yourself becomes a very realistic job(not easy, but realistic) an that's still better than impossible right?

3.Be outcome independent:

You have often heard the saying, focus on the process, not the outcome. That's a fundamental truth. No question there. But if the process hurts like hell and the outcome seems sweet and full of glory, I am sure even an outdated mainframe computer would find it hard to focus on the process.

It's really simple.The brain is always trying to avoid pain and gain pleasure. So if in your mind, the process is painful and the outcome is pleasurable, you CANNOT focus on the process. You will absolutely focus on the outcome.

If you have something you enjoy, this whole equation is reversed. Now you enjoy doing it so much that the process actually is pleasure itself and while the outcome is still pleasurable, you don't really care if it happens or not. This is probably the only effective solution to focus on the process for people who are totally outcome - dependent.(which describes 99% of humanity- no offense)

So, the suggestion is this.

1.Notice how much time you spend trying to control your focus and direct it towards the process;take some of that time and energy and really really find something you enjoy .

2.Find that and then work hard at it.

3.Bingo.It will eventually lead you to your goal.

That way not only you reach your goal faster, but you are in one piece at the end of the road rather than a beat up bundle of nerves.

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