Getting motivated by something or someone is easy.
Staying motivated is tough.
And motivating yourself can be even tougher. But not impossible, and totally worth it in the context of the ‘bigger picture’.
Have you ever started working towards something with a strong drive only to burn out and lose motivation?
Yeah, it’s happened to me multiple times.
A new business opportunity, a new workout routine, a new idea that sparks me into action with new found inspiration and motivation, only to hit a wall and get burned out.
It can be frustrating at times, but motivating yourself is then key to acheiving any form of success.
Anything that’s worth anything in life isn’t supposed to be easy.
Motivating yourself is a mental battle that you must face, and that you must win.
First Step, Know The 2 Types of Motivation
- Extrinsic Motivation
when you were a kid, did your parents offer you ice cream or more dessert if you completed a certain task.
Well, they were just trying to motivate you.
This is referred to as extrinsic motivation. Or external motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is triggered by reward or the need to avoid punishment.
As much as extrinsic motivation might push you to achieve your goals, it has a few disadvantages.
Extrinsic motivation doesn’t last.
The moment you achieve your reward, your energies and inspiration start to fluctuate.
Focusing on rewards also alters your creativity as you only work to win the prize. And not to deliver a great outcome.
Without the incentive, you cannot perform.
- Intrinsic Motivation
Unlike extrinsic motivation, intrinsic motivation comes from deep within, and its reward, is deep self pride and enjoyment.
Intrinsic motivation involves performing an act without expecting rewards, deadlines, pressure, or punishment.
Instead, you do something because it’s interesting and you enjoy it.
What Triggers Motivation Within?
- Autonomy: the need to enjoy your freedom.
- The need to feel fulfilled.
- Wanting purpose behind your action.
- The need to achieve mastery.
8 Tips On How to Motivate Yourself ?
1. Determine Your Why?
The first step to motivate yourself is asking and answering the question why?
This will help you determine why you’re motivated in the first place.
The worst mistake you can make is getting on a project without determining why you’re doing the task.
What’s your why ?
Once you determine your desire, you’ll make it happen even when the road gets rough.
Knowing the benefits that will come from completing the task will motivate you and stop you from procrastinating.
2. Write Down Your Goals, Plans, Progress and Success
Another easy way to motivate yourself is by jotting down your goals, dreams, progress and success.
I do this everyday to track progress.
As simple as it might sound, putting your desires into writing is very powerful.
It doesn’t have to be pretty organized, just write them down and you can always reorganize them later.
Writing down you goals has been proven by neuroscientists to be more effective and produce faster outcomes in achievement.
When you write, you visualize what your future looks like after achieving your goals.
And once you’re aligned with your goals, you become motivated naturally. You reach your goals without breaking a sweat.
Writing your goals triggers you to take action towards achieving them. Furthermore, writing your progress motivates you to keep going to complete your tasks.
Besides, writing down your progress and success reminds you of how far you’ve come and motivates you to keep going.
3. Do Things You Enjoy and Are Passionate About
It’s a lot easier to be motivated when you’re doing something you enjoy and are passionate about.
This is called intrinsic motivation. To benefit from intrinsic motivation, you have to pursue what you’re passionate about.
Do what you love.
You must have powerful feelings about what you do and feel joy when you do it. Only and only then will you enjoy intrinsic motivation.
Michael Jordan wasn’t the best basketball player because he was born the best. Mike was passionate about basketball, which motivated him to practice and get better everyday.
The first consequence of not doing things you’re not passionate about is a lack of motivation and burning out quickly.
And even what you do involves hard work, you never feel drained because your drive comes from within. Doing what you love fulfills your purpose in life.
On the other hand, doing things you’re not passionate about only leads to more confusion, frustration, and burnout.
4. Don’t Procrastinate
Procrastination is the killer of goals and dreams.
If procrastinating was an Olympic sport I’d book the plane ticket tomorrow. LOL
But seriously, meeting goals and procrastinating DO NOT mix well.
There was a time in my life I was putting on weight so fast. And I wanted to go to the gym so badly.
But one thing was stopping me. I was procrastinating a lot. I kept on telling myself when tomorrow comes, I will go to the gym.
But when the next day came, guess what? I didn’t go to the gym. All I did was procrastinate for an entire month until my friends started mocking me. (I have bad friends, I know)
That’s when I decided to put procrastination behind me and go after my goal.
Once I started working out, I got in a daily rhythm and didn’t stop. I actually enjoyed exercising and the more i did it the more goals i got to check off which helped boost my confidence.
My advice.
If you lack motivation, just do it. Jump right in.
Stop postponing things. Just start, take the baby step lane, and before you realize it, you’ll reach your destination.
Getting started is the hardest part.
5. ABP – Always Be Positive (but realistic too)
If you want to motivate yourself, embrace positivity.
You need to in order to meet your goals. This is not optional.
Kick negativity out of your life. There’s more power in positive thinking to move mountains.
When you’re positive, you feel good. T
Instead of thinking you cannot finish a project, think what it would feel like if you completed that project.
To motivate yourself, try to be an optimist.
This goes to say, be positive around people and keep positive people in your life as well.
Protect your energy by avoiding negative emotions and negative people in your life.
6. Break Your Goals Into Smaller Tasks
This is a really simple “hack” that works wonders.
Setting goals is great. Like I want to run a blog website. But how?
Break big goals into smaller tasks. For example, first write 10 blogs. Then 25. then add photos. After after completing 10 small goals, I have a fully functioning website.
This same concept works for any goals.
When you break down a humongous assignment into small tasks, it becomes more manageable and achievable.
As the say in Affrica “The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time”
It’s easier to focus on one task and complete it without being distracted or procrastinating.
Completing one task motivates you to perform the rest of the tasks.
Don’t forget to celebrate the small tasks, to keep motivation and morale in high spirits.
7. Talk and Share With an Accountable Partner.
The best decision you can ever make is talking and sharing your goals with someone.
This can be your coach, spouse, or friends. Whoever you choose to share your goals with, ensure that they are trustworthy.
Why is this so important?
Your friends offer you more perspectives when you get stuck. Bounce ideas around, look for new perspectives to achieving your goals and you’ll find new solutions you may have overlooked.
They’ll hold you accountable for your goals.
And when you complete your goals, that’s when you’ll hear them say, “I knew you can do it.”
They’ll keep you on your toes throughout your project and remind you of the bigger picture.
Positive friends are a source of motivation.
8. Celebrate Your Success
Heck yeah, it feels amazing to finish a project. Why not pop champagne and celebrate your success, or at least a gift for yourself?
Celebrate small wins and big wins in proportion.
Celebrating your success is as crucial as performing and finishing the task itself.
Most people skip this step.
Celebrating your success is the motivation you need to begin and finish the next goal.
Again, when you celebrate the success of your project, you feel good, your blood reverberates with excitement, you feel on top of the world, and failure abhors you.
Winning becomes inherent to you and inspiration, second nature to you.
You develop a success mindset.
If you did it once, heck yeah. Do it again. If you won once, you can win again.
For this reason, make it a habit to celebrate your goals.
Celebrate your wins, however small they might seem.
There’s nothing more important than when you feel good. It’s all the motivation you need.
Understand Yourself to Motivate Yourself
Lacking motivation seems common enough to be part of natural human nature.
Researchers at the national research council on motivation where they found that 40% of students are chronically disengaged from school.
Another study by Vistaprint found that 33% of active small businesses didn’t have the same motivation they had when they were starting their business and 36% say that they experience a lack of motivation at least several times a year.
So do we humans just lack motivation?
Tough to say for sure, butt I personally have found that keeping myself motivated can be difficult, but almost every-time I do loose motivation, its because of the same reason.
I ONLY LACK MOTIVATION WHEN I LOOSE SIGHT OF THE BIGGER PICTURE.
Why did I even start this project? (or goal, task, ect)
If you loose motivation, ask you-self why you started in the first place.
If the answer to that question doesn’t re-motivate you, then your “reason for why” isn’t big enough or strong enough.
You need to have a deep rooted “positive intrinsic” motivation in order to keep yourself motivated.
Conclusion
The methods discussed above will help you find motivation even when you think you can’t.
Motivating yourself takes times, takes work, and often takes a few failures, but stay at it and self motivation becomes a way of life.
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