Self Improvement
Getting Motivated
Tip 1: Know yourself
You need to know yourself to get motivated. Before even setting a goal, you have to know what you really want or need. What happens if you tasked yourself to do something that you do not really aim for? Chances are you sometimes feel like hitting a brick wall or losing the drive. You cannot understand why even with neck-deep work, you still feel bored.
Knowing yourself is the key to maintain your motivation. If you center your goals on things that you really want, your motivation comes out naturally.
Tip 2: Make the choice
You have to make the choice to stay motivated. Motivation is not something that comes as natural as emotions like anger or love. It is a technique that the mind uses to pursue a goal or a want. However, once a certain number of attempts fail, the mind is hard-wired to abort and the person easily gives-up. Having feelings of failure discourages you from pursuing any further.
Remember that Thomas Edison made 999 attempts before finally succeeding on the 1,000th attempt on the light bulb. This is because he made a choice to stay motivated to his goal.
Tip 3: There is no failure, only a setback
“You may have won the battle, but I will win the war. “ This famous quote shows us how the power of motivation keeps us going.
Stop seeing everything that does not meet your expectations as a failure. Instead, see each one of them as just a setback – just a means to an end. If you do this, your mind will clear-up and recovery will be fast during tiring times. As soon as you start seeing things on a grand scale, you will be able to hold on until the end.
Tip 4: Identify the clutters
Motivation is oftentimes dampened with a clouded mind. Give some time to reflect and identify the clutters of your life. There are three basic clutters we have to be aware of.
Emotional clutters are feelings of doubts and fears that do not help you stay motivated. These feelings prevent you from taking risks, which is one of the cornerstones for success.
Mental clutters are feelings of failure that cripples us to play small in this world. We simply dismiss the idea of becoming great, contented with being mediocre. As a result, we are never motivated to push our boundaries further.
Environmental clutters are negative vibes from our surroundings. If we live in an environment full of distractions or identify with negative friends, chances are we also lack motivation. But if we live in a competitive and positive environment, we will have the drive and passion to excel and be our better selves.
Tip 5: Stop generalizing your life
You have to control yourself from seeing everything in shades of gray to stay motivated. If you failed once, do not let yourself fall in a trap – do not think that you will most definitely fail twice. This is negative thinking. If you do, you will not feel any motivation at all, and just accept your fate as it is.
Do not define your whole life from this failure. Instead learn from it so that you will avoid it in the future.
Tip 6: Create a pattern of success
For sure, you have had success in some of your endeavors in life. Revisit the defining moments of your life, like when you finally clinched the prize of your efforts to stay motivated. Highlight the milestones and identify the formula you used to reach your goals.
Athletes use this technique each time they compete. They visualize their winning moment to boost their confidence and performance.
Tip 7: Always think positive
Once you have identified the clutters in your life, teach yourself to see things in a more positive way. This technique keeps you motivated. Focus on the advantages instead of the disadvantages. Concentrate on the pros, not the cons. This may take some practice but once you start thinking positively, your surroundings will appear brighter, and you will feel lighter and more confident.
Tip 8: Create your own space
Make sure that you made every effort to attune your mind, body and spirit towards your goal. But you still have to manage the distractions around you.
Remove the distractions around you, either at home or at work, and you will feel more motivated. A sound environment reinforces your resolve to achieve your goals and you will have more energy to face your day.
Tip 9: Make it simple and positive
You have to remove all clutter, both inside and outside. To do this, you need to organize your life and make it simpler.The Pareto Principle states that you need to focus 80% of your attention to those people who can help you with your goals. This technique not only keeps your life simple but also makes you achieve your goals faster.
Organizing your activities also saves you time. This is time that you can use for other endeavors. The feeling of having this much time that you can use makes you motivated and feel good about yourself.
Tip 10: Plan well
Good planning is essential. Planning well is the first step in setting a goal and you need it to feed your motivation.
When you plan, you have to be conscious of pitfalls and traps that can disable you. You have to commit yourself to overcome these and stay on the course. You can do this by having a back-up plan in case things do not go your way.
Tip 11: Set milestones
If you set a goal, do not forget to set milestones. Do not let yourself wait for a long time without any cause for celebration. Depriving yourself from enjoying these milestones either results to boredom or frustration.
Having milestones creates a positive mood and motivates you. It also marks your achievements towards your goal.
Tip 12: Enable yourself
You always have to plan before going after a goal. But sometimes planning seems to take longer than it should. You have to enable yourself and take action as soon as possible. Stop crippling yourself because of fears and doubts and dare to go after your goals.
Just do it, as the Nike commercial said. A small step towards your goal is a spark that jumpstarts your motivation.
Tip 13: Prepare a morning ritual
A morning ritual is important to start a day with zest. The level of energy you have for the day depends heavily from your morning ritual. This ritual can be a short run at the gym, a number of yoga moves, or playtime with your dog.
Continue to practice it daily until it becomes a habit. It also helps if you practice a positive mindset every time you do your ritual to reinforce its benefits.
Tip 14: Look for a mentor
If you want to stay motivated to reach a particular goal, try to look for someone who can become your mentor. He or she is someone who was able to achieve excellence, whose success you want to emulate. You can choose two types of mentors; a celebrity mentor and a local mentor.
A celebrity mentor is a public figure that you wish to mimic. This mentor does not necessarily have to be alive. Being a famous personality, you can gain insights about him and his life from reading his biographies and other media.
A local mentor is someone from your family or neighborhood that serves as your inspiration to reach your goals. This mentor displayed success in his field. The success of someone who inspires you fires up your motivation.
Tip 15: Immerse yourself
If you want to stay motivated, you have to immerse yourself in what you are doing. In any endeavor, the baptism of fire is always necessary to the path to success. In order to have it all, you must be ready to go all out.
For example, you must be ready to explore all available resources and exhaust all effort to achieve your goals. This is also one of the tell-tale signs that you are motivated. Be ready to read books, watch movies, and other media about the subject.
Tip 16: Have a social life
To stay motivated, you need to surround yourself with people. Go out and enjoy the company of friends! Loners are more susceptible to a lack of motivation instead of outgoing people. You do not have to be the life of the party, but you need interaction with other people from time to time.
Tip 17: Stay active
You need to stay active to stay motivated. Never let boredom or depression creep up on you by keeping yourself busy with activities. These activities may include hobbies or new learning such as enrolling in an art or music class, or you can study playing the guitar. As much as possible, choose activities that helps you achieve your goals.
Tip 18: Remember to exercise
If you have a healthy body, you have a healthy mind. Clear thinking is always a requirement for motivation. Without clarity, you will find it hard to reason yourself out of desperation or frustration. If you feel good about yourself, you will always be motivated to pursue success in your life.
Tip 19: Meditation
Studies show that even a few minutes of meditation improves the thinking processes of your brain. Aside from this, it also improves your sense of well-being.Meditation upon waking up helps focus your energies and keeps you feeling motivated throughout the day. On the other hand, Meditation before going to sleep clears your mind of the daily clutter. It keeps your motivation in check as well. You feel recharged the next morning if you make it a habit to clear your mind before you sleep.
Tip 20: Share your blessings
To stay motivated, you must cultivate a positive attitude. One good way of doing that is to share your blessings.
Giving and not expecting anything in return boosts your confidence and improves your attitude towards people. It does not mean giving out money or gifts. It can be sharing your time, effort or attention. What is important is that you share with those people who really need it.
Tip 21: Laugh out loud
Humor gets people to stay motivated. A refreshing laugh is not only good for the heart but also good for cultivating a positive attitude. Seeing the funny side of life more often reduces your exposure to stress and you will worry less.
Remember to take a step back in a stressing situation and take a look at it again to try to find something funny and positive. This technique keeps your motivation going despite the odds.
Tip 22: Practice
To stay motivated, you need a lot of practice. It is not simple to maintain a positive attitude in an imperfect world but you can train yourself so you can display a positive attitude as consistently as you can.
The key to staying motivated is to be in constant check of your thinking and actions and correcting any signs of negative attitude or ways.
Tip 23: Pay yourself first
For each milestone that you reach, pay yourself first. Treat yourself in a fine dining restaurant or go out to a relaxing spa gym. A milestone is always a cause for merriment that you must observe. At all times, remember to unwind and give yourself a firm pat on the back for each good job done.
Tip 24: Remember to relax
Every time pressure creeps up on you, relax. It rejuvenates the mind and body and helps keep you motivated.
Feeling the pressure is a sign that you are tiring yourself to the point of burnt out. It requires your immediate attention. Stress will always be part of reaching a goal so you must always have a back-up plan to fight it. Stress can also be a sign that you have to rethink your goals or find other ways to pursue them.
Tip 25: Build your own buffers
Buffers are important for those events in your life that you absolutely have no control of. A buffer can be a best friend who you can talk to or a ritual that you can perform to take away the stress. For some, a schedule with a therapist may be necessary.
However you do it, having an external support shakes away the stress and negative feelings that you have to stay motivated.
Tip 26: Avoid procrastination
Procrastination is damaging to motivation. Because of this, you will fail to finish many goals that you set. It is a painful process. Lack of productivity makes you unmotivated.
As you fail to finish tasks one at a time, your lack of motivation grows worse until you realize that you failed to do any task at all.
Tip 27: Find time to review
Keeping yourself motivated is not definite science. There are a number of factors that affects motivation. But what you can do is to reflect and reassess your options frequently.
Doing this technique helps you identify brick walls or pitfalls. It is also a strategic way to identify a shortcut in reaching your goals. A time-saving opportunity boosts your confidence and maintains the level of your motivation.
Tip 28: Make a report card
Stay motivated by making a report card of your achievements and milestones. You can do this using a journal or a blog wherein you can write down your experiences and the adjustments that you make in your plan. Writing down the experience fuels your motivation to achieve your goal.
Conclusion
For most of us, motivation can be short bursts of energy that are easily doused or a lit match that will be out soon. Fortunately, we can change that. We can make our motivation burn longer like a candle. We only need practice and constant reflection.