Mindset

Types of Motivation

March 7, 2019 By Joni Kinney 1 Comment

I believe there are four unique types of motivation. Most people agree there is Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in place. While that is true, there are internal and external motivators; I actually believe there are 4 motivations that truly drive people.

Motivational Types

Self Motivation
Pleasing People Motivation
Monetary Motivation
Rewards Motivated

While the bottom three are types of extrinsic, meaning they are driven by outside forces; the top item is intrinsic. So let’s talk about the bottom three types of motivation here first.

Pleasing People

Many people seek the approval of others. Trying to please people can be toxic to your relationships and hold you back from finding your true self. If you are always seeking the approval of someone else, then you can’t be who you want to be.

If this motivational type describes you here are some tips. Be honest with the people in your life and make sure you are acknowledging your needs. Stop being guilty when you tell people NO to something. It’s not going to dissolve the Earth to put yourself first once in awhile. Make it a priority, here are some self-care ideas for you!

Monetary Motivation

We all know someone who is driven by money and pretty much only money. Now I’m not talking about those who need to make money to survive and have so much debt all they can think about is money. That’s an entirely different problem.

These people will put everything on the side burner if it means they are making more money. While hurting their relationships isn’t something they intend to do, they often don’t realize they have hurt others until the relationship is past salvaging. While there are many types of motivation, I believe this can be one of the most hurtful to those you love.

If you find yourself in this grouping, make a focus to spend time with those you love to be around. Ensure you find ways to tell those around you what they mean to you.

Rewards Motivation

Now you are probably thinking this is the same as money. After all, money motivation and rewards motivated are tied close together. However, they are different.

Those who are driven and motivated by rewards, don’t care what the prize is. It could be a title, wealth, prestige, or even something small like an extra soda or attention from their boss. This type of person tends to make everything in life into some competition even if they are competing against themselves.

If you find yourself in this group, make sure you are not risking your loved ones by turning things into competitions when they shouldn’t be. These people tend to be exhausting to be around, so watch this if you fall into this type of motivation.

Self Motivation

This is one of the hardest types of motivation to conquer and what we all strive for. Self Motivated people don’t care about what others think, money, rewards or any combination.

These people are only motivated by what they think and their own beliefs. These are often some of the most successful people. By having a positive attitude, you often attract positive people to you and this helps you continue to be self-motivated.

Which of these types of motivation do you feel you resonate strongest with?

Random Acts of Kindness – 31 ideas you can use

November 30, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Ever you ever done something nice for someone? Maybe some random stranger was behind you at the coffee shop, and you paid for their drink? Maybe you held a door open for a mom with a young child was walking into a store? All of these random acts of kindness make a difference.

I see so many missed opportunities where people could be a small shinning star in someone else’s day. So I am challenging each of you to be the difference in someone’s life by doing random acts of kindess. Here are 31 days worth of things you can do to brighten someone’s day.

Random Acts of Kindness

Do a chore for a family member
Pick up garbage that wasn’t yours
Let someone go in front of you in a line
Give a stranger a compliment
Send out a letter to someone who could use encouraging words
Hold open the door for someone
Donate a gift to a homeless shelter or family crisis center
Drop off old clothes at a donation center
Bring in donuts (or veggies) for coworkers
Give a stranger a gift card
Spend time with a grandparent or elderly person
Write a kind word on a restaurant check
Pay for someone’s coffee or drive-thru meal
Send coloring books to a children’s hospital
Email someone about how awesome they are
Take a bouquet into a hospital and drop off at a nurses station
Loan money to someone on Kiva
When someone makes something you liked to eat, ask for the recipe
Invite someone to share a meal with you
Leave a big tip
Write words of inspiration on the sidewalk or in the snow
Mail someone a postcard
Introduce yourself to someone new
Smile at everyone you see today
Hug someone
Donate food to the food pantry
Leave a book for someone to read
Make someone a handmade gift
Bake a treat for someone
Tell someone’s boss how much you appreciate them and what they are doing good at
Be Positive to yourself. Positivity: How it can change your life!

Having a growth mindset and helping others achieve gratitude can be very fulfilling. We hope you enjoyed this list and we would love to hear what other ideas you have! Leave a comment below to tell us what ideas you have!

Life Changing Things to Make you Successful

October 14, 2018 By Joni Kinney 2 Comments

It’s effortless to point fingers at other people or things for our lack of success. Frequently I hear things said about why we are not as successful as we think we should be. However, there are very few people who are making purposeful life changes to be successful. Do not be one of those people. Making small changes can change your life. Here are some things you can do today to set yourself up for life-changing success.

5 Easy things to change your life

Stop Complaining

Everyone seems to complain about other people and yet I rarely hear people complain about their actions. Merely stop complaining about others will be life-changing. Now if you are reading this and you are saying, but I complain about myself all the time. Ask yourself are you complaining about your actions or your self-worth?

So to get the best out of our new life-changing behavior, you need to stop complaining about other people. You don’t control them. What do you control? YOU, you control yourself. Your reactions, your thoughts, your feelings about others.

Let go of Negative Energy

Negativity is everywhere. You need to learn the power of Positivity: How it can change your life! So you need to let go of all the Negativity we see and feel from ourselves and other people.

If someone in your life is not providing a positive influence in your life, let them go. You do NOT want or need that to be around you everyday.

I know this can be hard… but no one ever said doing the right things were going to be easy.

Look for Gratitude

Do not say there is nothing to be happy/grateful for in your life. Even in the very worst of times, there is happiness. Find it.

Write down at least ten things you are grateful for that happened today. Not stuff like I’m so grateful for my kids. Yep, we know that. But what did they do today that made you happy today.

Maybe you are happy the sun came up today. Did your spouse tell you they love you? Maybe you got 5 minutes in the bathroom without interruption. Whatever it is, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant write it down. Aim to get at least ten items of gratitude wrote down every single day.

If you do nothing else to change your life, do this. Find the positive appreciation in every single day. Life is short people, don’t use your time concentrating on anything but the good.

Fail Forward

Have you ever made a mistake? Ok good, so have I. We all do, we are human after all. Making mistakes is good, it gives us an opportunity to learn something new.

Do not allow yourself to wallow in the self pity of the mistake you made. Instead, fail forward by learning something from it and moving on.

Determine your vision

Determine what you want to do with your life. Are you living as the best person you can be? If you are not, what would it look like if you were? What would you be doing? Think about your career, family.

Once you have a picture of your best self, write down what that picture looks like. You have just determined your goals. Next, you need an action plan on how to make those goals a reality.

Small changes can be life changing. Be the best person possible by finding your vision, positivity and creating a life that is all about:

Self-Worth the Importance of Understanding your Value

August 9, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Having a high sense of self-worth means that you know and acknowledge you deserve respect, admiration, and support. Most people struggle with their worth at some point in their lives. Having high value means that you have an excellent self-understanding and mindset. Therefore not allowing outside forces to shake your faith, confidence, and goals.

Why is Self-Worth Important?

Self-Worth holds the power to transform your life, allowing you to put your very best qualities and traits forward. Furthermore, how you perceive yourself changes everything about how you act and interact with others. By allowing only your opinions to matter, you give yourself back the power to make positive changes. Make sure you understand and consider the power of positivity in your life.

Now don’t confuse self-worth with self-esteem. Self-worth is less about measuring yourself and being confident and more who you are as a person. Self-esteem often focuses on measuring yourself against others. As a result, you shouldn’t care about what others are doing since it isn’t a measure of your value.

How to improve your self-worth:

Well knowing it’s important, and what self-worth is all about is great, but it into action might be a little harder to practice. So how do we go about improving and maintaining high levels of self-worth?

Develop a sense of self-understanding. Now, imagine if everything in your life suddenly disappeared including family, friends, possessions, accomplishments, career, etc. Now figure out how you feel about yourself. Are you happy, sad, content or upset? If you have high self-worth, having external forces won’t matter and how you think about yourself won’t change.
Stop Comparing yourself to others! You need to accept who you are and stop passing judgment. We are so hard on ourselves that often we just can’t let go of the past. Although, we all have flaws, weaknesses, and limitations. Don’t allow them to define how valuable you are as a person. Therefore, forget about all that stuff and move forward on the path you want to follow.
Take responsibility for your life, your problems and your journey to loving yourself. You have the power to change within yourself, allowing you to transform your life into one of positivity. For that reason, stop allowing external forces to determine how you should feel about yourself. Creating a vision board is a great way to help you visualize your goals and the journey you want to take.
Most noteworthy, participate in your life. Don’t just go through the motions of living instead actively seek out things that make you feel important. These types of activities will give you value and improve your self-worth. Volunteer organizations are always looking for helpful, reliable advocates.

Final Thoughts

You can’t just build your self-worth, you have to work on your self-worth every single day. Consider it like a house. Some people build simple houses; others build mansions. What type of home you create is up to you. However, you can’t just use a single piece of wood; you have to use many pieces laid together to build your dream house. Self-worth is much the same. The type of self-worth you have is up to you, but if you don’t consistently make an effort to nurture and feed it, you won’t have your dream.

Do not settle for life being good enough when you are meant to be great. Consequently, you alone are accountable and hold power to positivity in your life. Stop complaining, blaming and allowing negativity to drive your everyday interactions.

12 Steps to Declutter your Life

July 30, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

There is so much talk about how to get rid of the clutter in your life. I’ve seen posts on pantries, offices, homes in general and just getting rid of stuff. I think decluttering is so much more than the “stuff” you keep around. Here are my 12 steps to Declutter your life.

Get rid of duplicates

Duplicate items take up space. If you don’t have a specific need for multiples, then get rid of them. Sell them, donate them, throw them if necessary. It doesn’t do you any good to have ten spatulas when you can only use one or two at any given time.

Have you used it in the past year?

Another tip to declutter, If you haven’t used an item in the past year, likely you don’t need it, especially if you can borrow that item from someone. For example, we don’t have a trailer and do occasionally need one to haul brush or bark chips. Instead of buying and storing the trailer, we borrow one from a family member or a friend.

Can you digitalize it?

A fast way to declutter all those kids paintings and pictures is to digitalize them. Do you need to keep 1000 of your kid’s pictures they drew growing up? Or can you take photos of them and create a scrapbook out of them to remember all those moments? Sometimes there isn’t a way to digitize something memorable, but for most paper type things you can. And you should! Those items will take up so much less space in a scrapbook or saved to your computer.

Are you only keeping this because you would feel guilty if you didn’t?

I know I’ve struggled with this. My friend, grandma, mom, sister, etc. gave me this item. Therefore, I can’t get rid of it. Well to tell you the truth, you can get rid of it and help declutter your house. Clean up the extra stuff you’ve held onto in your life and house, and stop being guilty about it.

Does it have a place?

Do you have a dedicated space to the item? If you don’t need it, get rid of it. If you do need it, find a place for it to live. If everything has a place it not only makes finding it more manageable, you know it’s important because you’ve made room for it.

If you saw this item in a store now would you buy it?

You may look at something and think I loved this so much. Well ok, but do you love it now. Does the retro bowl set that you’ve replaced still belong in your kitchen cupboard? If not help yourself declutter and donate that item. You never know when someone else might really need that retro bowl set.

Declutter: 1 in 1 out rule

The one in and one out rule seems so easy but can be so hard. If you buy a shirt, throw a shirt away. Found a great deal on a pair of shoes, awesome, but then as soon as you get home… toss an old pair. This way you aren’t bringing in more than you have space for and keep an inventory of what you need.

Know your clutter zones

Every house has clutter zones that we regularly declutter. These are those places that naturally seem to gather the things. For me, it’s our kitchen counter and our mail area. I feel like gremlins sometimes come in and just put things there so I’ll be annoyed and freaked out that I can’t seem ever to keep them clean. Knowing where these areas are can help you keep everyone aware and ensure that if you walk by and see stuff starting to accumulate that you immediately clean it up and return those items to their homes.

Create a goal list

Decluttering not only applies to physical things but to emotional things too. Create a goal list of things you are focusing on, so you don’t get sidetracked. If you haven’t yet check out our free ebook: Beyond Chaos to learn about how to create goals you can stick to.

Emotional Fitness

Take stock of your emotional well being. Are you able to physically remove items from your home? If you are feeling like this is a pointless task and not something you can accomplish reach out to find out what is causing the emotional block. You may find you are a hoarder and need to seek help. Tell your family or friends and get assistance if needed.

Motivate yourself

I genuinely believe that your mindset will set you apart from success and failure. Do you believe in yourself? It’s as simple as that. Being positive can and will change your life if you let it. YOU have to believe in yourself, your goals and your aspirations to achieve them. Check out our article on what is a vision board to help you visualize what’s most important to you.

Self Care

Last but not least, take care of yourself. If you aren’t taking care of your basic self-care needs, you may find yourself having a harder time letting things go. Find a few easy ways to reward and take care of yourself!

We hope you enjoyed our article on 12 ways to declutter your life. If you have other tips, contact us or leave us a comment down below.

Intrinsic Motivation

July 2, 2018 By Joni Kinney Leave a Comment

Intrinsic motivation sounds so fancy. When I first heard this term I was like whatever, what difference does it make to determine how you are motivated? Ummm… well… actually a lot.

What is Intrinsic Motivation?

This fancy term is a way of describing internal forces that make you want to do something. Or make you want to do it better than before. It’s what motivates you from the inside. External forces have no reign here (Money, people, etc). This is all about what’s inside of you that makes you motivated to achieve your goals.

**** Hey if you haven’t picked up our Free eBook: Beyond Chaos, now would be a great time!

Those who have strong intrinsic motivation do the task, activity solely because they love it. This can be reading, writing, playing sports. The list goes on and on and can be any number of things.

How to motivate others

Using intrinsic motivation to motivate others requires you to do some research. You have to figure out what that person loves, why they love it, and how to use that to help you achieve your ultimate goal. After all having employees or team members who love their position will often lead you to better collaboration, more innovative ideas and a better working team.

External Forces

You need to make sure you aren’t putting to much emphasis on these internal sources of motivation, doing so can actually make that item less rewarding. For example if someone loves to read for pure enjoyment and you offer to pay them to read a book for you. They may not get as much enjoyment out of it because there is an external force at play.

Here is a great TED talk about Intrinsic Motivation by Dan Pink

Comment below and let me know what you think – Do you know how you are intrinsicly motivated?