Julie is a certified musician/music lover. She plays the piano, the guitar and the violin marvelously, plus she sings like a nightingale and is a talented songwriter. In fact, Julie is deeply in love with music such that music has crept into almost every aspect of her life. She can only study if she’s incessantly listening to her Ipod. She is inseparable with her earphones—and she even sets her goals music.
Set goals with music? That’s right. It’s part of Music therapy. And I’m not kidding here—there is such a thing as music therapy. So what is music therapy and how do you set your goals music? Here are a few pointers:
• Music therapy is the set use of music and music-related strategies to aid and motivate a person to achieve specific, nonmusical goals. Music therapy is geared towards effecting change in the cognitive, physical, communication, social and emotional skills of a person by altering unproductive learning patterns.
• Music therapy makes use of the appeal and therapeutic characteristics of music (it captivates and maintains attention, structures time, sets up a social context, encourages movement, taps into memory and emotion, and is success oriented). It does this to establish the difference between isolation and interaction and is proven to be most helpful in situations such as depression, anger, pain, autism, stress, grief, loss, time management, motivation, growth, change, procrastination and improving communication.
• Research suggests that music can increase patient’s motivation and positive emotions.
• Music therapy tools include.
Affirmation – an integration of words, rhythm and melody that gives the person the ability to think positively by eliminating barriers to prosperity, decrease stress and generate pathways to love and confidence.
Mind quieting – helps you gain control of your thoughts, and thus maintain your control on your life.
Breathing – breath is life, its depth, smoothness, sound and rate mirror your mood.
Mantras – their magical sounds stimulate, activate, motivate and rejuvenate.
Chanting – it strengthens the mind and develops concentration, patience and determination.
Toning – it is the basic process of letting go.
• How to set your goals music?
Find a 10-15-minute worth of songs that match your present mood.
Find another 10-15-minute musical selection that mirrors your present internal state and the state you want to achieve.
Find a 10 to 15 musical selection of songs that match the desired state you want to achieve.
Record these and go over the musical selections as many times as possible.
That’s how music can help you set your goals. Goal setting can be as simple as setting your goals music but it boils down to utilizing the great power of music not just to entertain but to heal the mind, body and soul. And, remember, you don’t have to be a musician or a music lover to practice music therapy or to set your goals music — the only criterion is that you have this great burning desire to achieve success and make the most of your life.
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Monica, Elaine and Koreena became affiliated with the Psychology Society for different reasons. For Monica, it was because it’s what is expected of overachievers like her. As the achiever in her batch, she constantly needs to be on top of grades, as well as extracurricular activities. For Elaine, the Psychology Society has been her whole life—even with all the controversies that surrounded last year’s administration of which she is a part of. And for Koreena, the Psychology Society was the more risk-free and less time-consuming organization.
The three ladies each joined for different motivations. So, how exactly does motivation begin? There are a number of motivation theories which explain how and why a person is motivated. Here are a few of these motivation theories:
• Acquired Needs Theory states that motivation is based on the human nature to seek for power, achievement or affiliation.
• Affect Perseverance, like belief perseverance, explains that motivation continues even if there is invalidation of the original cause of the motivation.
• Attitude-Behavior Consistency tells us that we are motivated when there is parallelism between our attitude and the behavior.
• Attribution Theory explains motivation as the human need to attribute to causes that support our ego.
My class in Organizational Development was very boring. I could never get into the concepts and the ideas that my professor always babbled about. I tried my best to concentrate and to listen to him but nothing could ever get through my head. I did not exactly know if it was my professor or if organizational development was just as exciting as a computer bug, what I knew at that time was that the class was the perfect antidote to my insomnia.
Then my professor announced that we were supposed to research and write on motivation. I groaned at the thought and silently muttered “GREAT – a boring paper on a boring topic, what fate could be worse than this?” To my surprise however, once I started raiding the university’s library for resources and scavenging online databases for the write-up, I discovered that motivation is actually an interesting topic. I also found out that there are a number of internet sites with a glossary of concepts in motivation. But what in the world is a glossary of motivation? It’s basically a list of theories and terms that are relevant to the subject. Below is a preview of what a glossary of motivation looks like.
• Motivation – Daft (1997) states that motivation generally comes from internal or external forces that either awaken or increase a person’s enthusiasm to pursue a particular action, whether it may be related to his academics, employment or personal life. Similarly, motivation is also defined as an individual’s ability to change his behavior and attain a specific life goal.
• Motivational Principles – Quick (1985) emphasizes that there are four principles that are quintessential to motivation. First in line are the reasons that a person may have for doing whatever it is that he is doing. This is followed by the same individual’s belief that the goal of his action is for his own welfare. Therefore, if a person does not deem it necessary to engage in a behavior because the behavior will not do him any good, he will not engage in such. The third principle revolves around the attainability of the person’s goal. Finally, the conditions under which a behavior is executed may affect an individual’s motivation in carrying it out. For instance, if the behavior involves too much risk – e.g. the possibility that an individual may lose his fiancée if he accepts the division office managerial promotion at his job and move to another state – he may think twice before making his decision. If he values his career over his personal relationship, then he is likely to perceive the promotion as a motivating factor and is also likely to accept the position.
• Intrinsic Motivation – Intrinsic Motivation is a type of motivation. It includes the person’s need to achieve or need to fulfill and his interest in the pursuit of an action. Here a person may say that he is doing something because he enjoys it and it is in concordance with his perception of doing things and doing them well, whether or not there are specific rewards.
• Extrinsic Motivation – Another type of motivation is one that is rooted on external factors, thus the term extrinsic motivation. There are people who are motivated to complete a task because of the incentives that are attached to them – rewards which may be monetary or in kind, praises from one’s boss or promotions in one’s job or academics. For instance, there are students whose grades are in tiptop shape not because they like having an exemplary record for the sake of it but because their parents reward their consistent excellent performance. These rewards may be anything from gift cards to a substantial allowance increase or even a new car. Sometimes though, instead of rewards, external coercion may force a person to engage in an action. This external factor may be seen as a punishment or a necessary action that is forced on an individual. A divorced parent then may pay alimony to his spouse and children due to impositions of the law rather than due to his own accord.
• Identified Regulation – When one engages in an action that is a vehicle to his goal, this is known as identified regulation. Hence a person, who normally does not kiss the ass of anyone, may do exactly this in order to get his objective. For instance, a reporter who may not agree with a political candidate’s program may attend the latter’s rallies and campaigns in order to line up an interview with him because the interview may be the big-break that the reporter has been waiting for.
• Integrated Regulation – In motivation, integrated regulation simply says that a person does a behavior because it represents who he is and what he stands for. This is common among volunteers in non-profit organizations wherein members volunteer because the act is in their blood, even when they do not receive enough stipends for it.
• Introjected Regulation – People who carry out behaviors because of the tension or pressure that they feel within if they do not carry out the said behaviors are considered as using introjected regulation. With this as their reference then, there may be wealthy individuals who would give to charity because they feel guilty of their wealth if they do not do so.
• Self-motivation – A person may be naturally gifted or intellectual and yet may find himself as consistently unmotivated to do something about his life or about his studies. Here then the role of self-motivation is underlined wherein it is believed that a person’s expectations, drives and desires set the stage for him to become motivated and act towards obtaining these things.
As part of her discussion on motivation in her social psychology class, Ms. Walters asked each of her students to write down their favorite motivation quotes on a large cardboard. The students then propped the motivation quote posters on the board and were asked to jot down at least ten of the motivation quotes on a small sheet of paper to be handed out to their loved ones. Here is what one students picks were:
• When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you’ll find a way to get it. –Jim Rohn
• I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself. –Mikhail Baryshnikov
• Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. –Brian Littrell
• Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. –Winston Churchill
• You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. –Rabindranath Tagore
• Failure is not an option.
• If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place. –Nora Roberts
• Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
• To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities. –Bruce Lee
• Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking. –William B. Sprague
Though only a few examples of motivation quotes, these words when inculcated in the heart and mind, and lived with passion and conviction, can undoubtedly get us far. But remember that motivational quotes are just tools to move us to action. And just like a hammer, our choice to use it properly to achieve our goals will make all the difference. For without action, there is no accomplishment.
Which are some of your favorite inspirational quotes?
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Danielle is gifted with artistic hands that could put Picasso and Da Vinci at bay. Her paintings are full of life and are all original masterpieces. Ever since she was a child, Danielle has always dreamed of becoming a painter and owning an art studio – a dream that was far from the law firm that her family ran.
Today Danielle is a zombie working for her family’s law firm. Although she has good job performance, she just couldn’t put her heart and soul in it. She took up law after college because her father encouraged her to take a more ‘sensible’ path. The field demanded much of her time that she stopped painting, stopped practicing her art and stopped living her dream.
As Danielle’s best friend, I couldn’t bear to see her watch her life pass her by. I knew that I had to do something. I had to remind her of how different she was before. Then, she was teeming with life and pulsating with motivation. Now, she is as animated as a brick. I had to motivate her once more. While cooking up ideas on how to help Danielle, I remembered that Montaigne once said ‘The pleasant things in the world are pleasant thoughts: and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.’ So I bought my friend a book compilation on motivational thoughts.
Here are some examples of the motivational thoughts contained in the book:
• It’s YOUR Life, Live BIG – Josh Hind. If you want to eventually succeed, you need to do things that would move you closer to it. You just can’t dilly-dally and drag your feet around. However, if your dream is consists entirely of watching TV for hours on end, then by all means, drag your feet as much as you can.
• There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. You’re a service company with a single employee! Being in autopilot will lead you no where near success. Who is responsible for your success? Look in the mirror. Don’t settle on being a follower—be a lifelong learner and leader.
• In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity – Albert Einstein. Tomas Alva Edison made 10, 000 wrong choices in the process of making the incandescent bulb. His only reply was that he now knew ten thousand ways by which it cannot be done.
