BUILDING STRENGTH for motivation to change

• Creating change involves personal learning and growth.

• Change comes from identifying an information gap in yourself or situation.

•  Self esteem = What you perceive others think of you + what you think of yourself

• Strength building is related to self-esteem, self-confidence, energy and motivation level.

Learning Questions

• Why change anything?
• What does changing yourself or situation involve?
• What part does perception play in motivation to change?
• How do perceptions change?

Deciding to change something in your life can be an intimidating process. This is because change involves learning and growth, and deciding to learn and grow first demands that you recognize there is room for improvement. Many folks never get that far. So, congratulations, you have recognized you and/or your situation is not yet perfect!!

Acting on the decision to change often presents challenges to your self-esteem, self-confidence, energy and motivation level. Your self -esteem is determined by the perception you have of yourself combined with how you believe others perceive you. Self-confidence is gained by what you perceive as past successes. The perceived reward and how successful you believe you will be in this situation affect your energy and motivation levels.   As you can see, perception plays a huge role in the change process.  Lucky for us, perceptions change as we assess new and old information from different perspectives.

Your present perception of your chance of success is based on past experiences with growth and change and how much you need to learn, grow and change personally. It makes sense, then, to explore those perceptions and determine how motivated you are to accomplish your goal. Is the gain worth the effort?

Our first exercise explores perceptions that affect your motivation to change.