My motivation from others

I like to think of myself as motivated. I often enough don’t know where it comes from I just know that I have to get on with it and do it. Sometimes I think it may be because of my upbringing when I was told that if I didn’t do it for myself, no one would do it for me. I was told that if I wanted something bad enough I could only rely on myself to go out and get it, because everyone has their own things that they want in their life.

As a child, more often than not, I did not understand the depth of these lessons, and would moan and groan feeling sorry for myself because no one would help me. The more I moaned the less attention I got, until I myself got irritated with the situation and just did what I needed to do and wanted to do. Eventually I realized that perhaps if I cut the moaning and groaning out, I would save time and would also be able to get a lot more done and perhaps quicker, leaving me more time to aim for other things that I set my mind the task to achieve.

These were not conscious awareness thoughts but just things that I did and got on with doing. At the age of 16 I think I realized just how powerful self motivation could be. I was in high school, doing singing, dancing and acting classes as extra-curricular activities and because the school I was at had no sporting activities. During one of my dance classes I felt my leg stick to the floor yet my knee and the upper part of the leg continued to turn, as we did pirouettes.
All 6’4” of me went flying, and I was in pain and my knee swelled to the size of a football! It is funny though when I think of how I flew through the air and landed under a table!

The specialist doctors I went to see told me I would have to have an operation but my dancing and sporting days were over. I was then referred to another doctor who happened to be the South African Boxing Association doctor. He said –we’ll have you up in a jiffy. 6 months after the operation and physiotherapy, I was back in dance class. I often think of the heart wrenching agony I went through – not with the knee, but rather the fact that I was told I could never do something I enjoyed again. Through patience and perseverance I was shown the light at the end of the tunnel and given hope in a place where I thought hope had moved out! At 17 I also got to swim in the South African Time Trials competing for the team against China.
I went on to have a successful 20 + years of dancing singing and entertainment as a career and all because I believed I could do it no matter what anyone , specialist or not, told me. I stopped dancing as a career for over 10 years, but have restarted ballet class again and I love it!

Last night at a cocktail function I spoke to a lady who told me she was having difficulty losing weight. She had, through unforeseen circumstances put on 30 kg’s and wanted to lose them again. Firstly I thought; Yeah right! Unforeseen circumstance? And then I asked what the circumstances were? In my mind I wanted to hide under a rock – because of what I had just thought! Nonchalantly she says Cancer! I was diagnosed with cancer, had chemo lost the hair but in the process my body changed and I put on 30 Kg’s. She then tells me that she has already lost 15 Kg’s and has 15 more to go! This same lady was full of smiles, her magnetism radiating from her every being and she danced all night.
What impressed me was that her focus was on something other than the cancer. She had been there, beaten that, and was now aiming to lose the weight. This type of motivation is what I talk about when I say ‘motivation from others’. It’s a motivating factor to see that no matter what the hurdle is you are faced with, your attitude is what makes all the difference.
I first felt like a dumbass thinking what I did, but then I felt honored to have met her. She showed me that we are in control of our own lives!

This is what I summarized it to - while laying in bed last night.
1. Intention – that she was going to beat it
2. Attention – she gave herself positive thoughts and filled her life with determination to beat the cancer
3. Stress-less – she didn’t focus on the problem but the solution and was so convinced that she had a total calm about the action and result there from.

I know I took a page out of her book last night. What is my intention, what am I focusing my attentions on and am I doing it without stress?
Id love to delve more into this at another stage, but for now I think we should all look at these three points that I come up with last night and see how we can all use it them our lives.

We most certainly can all get motivation from others if we just take the time to look and listen!