Sometimes keeping motivated can be tough. How many times have you started a project with an abundance of enthusiasm, only for that initial vigor to eventually fizzle out?
Unfortunately, life has the habit of swamping you with problems, mundane tasks, and dilemmas that can kill any desire you may have to do anything. An occasional lack of motivation is normal but long term, it can seriously affect our lives. Why? When you lose your self-motivation, you lose the ability to work towards and ultimately achieve your goals, dreams desires. The major factor in being successful in anything is the ability to stay consistently motivated.
Sadly, there’s no motivational pill (wouldn’t that be great!) or magic potion you can take. But the good news is that a lack of self motivation can be changed. While you can’t always control what happens to you, you can certainly control how you respond to it. There are techniques and methods you can learn and employ that can help motivate you into action and keep you motivated.
Want to know more? Below, I’ve listed 12 proven self-motivation techniques that’ll have you raring to get started on your next project and keep your motivation going throughout.
1. Acknowledge your previous successes
It is important to recognize your past successes. If you don’t, you’ll always feel as though you fail at every task you attempt, and this will kill your motivation. Acknowledging your previous successes reinforces the behavior you want to feel each time you face a new opportunity or challenge. It will increase positive emotions such as self-respect and confidence. Take a moment to look back at your previous achievements. I bet a few appeared just as daunting as your present task, but you persevered anyway and were ultimately successful.
Try keeping an achievement journal and note each successfully completed task, no matter how small or insignificant it may appear. Then the next time you find yourself facing a particularly difficult obstacle, or are experiencing feelings of self-doubt, you will have a tangible reinforcement of what you can achieve.
2. List the benefits
Whenever you need to complete a task that you really don’t want to do, try thinking of the benefits. They’re not always apparent, but with a little thought, you can often find a few good reasons to complete the project.
Benefits might include:
- self-improvement – you’ll learn something new that’ll help your personal development.
- material reward – you’ll get paid for finishing the task.
- a feeling of accomplishment – you’ll feel great for having the strength of character to push forward and complete an unwanted, tedious task.
Make sure you write your list of benefits on paper with a pen. Studies have shown that writing by hand stimulates brain cells called the reticular activating system. This more actively engages the brain than typing on a keyboard. Thus giving your mind more importance to the subject.
3. Be realistic when setting goals
Setting unattainable goals is a quick way to temper motivation. Being realistic about what you can achieve is imperative to your success and continued motivation. Your expectations will be grounded in reality, the task will appear attainable and your motivation will remain.
4. Rethink your strategy
There are usually a few ways to complete a task. If the thought of starting a job is killing your motivation, try rethinking your strategy. Maybe attacking a task using a different approach will be all the inspiration you need to get started.
5. Don’t worry about things that are out of your control
When working on a project, some things will be within your control, and others out of your control. It’s important to be able to recognize the difference. Worrying about circumstances that you have no control over will hamper your enthusiasm.
6. Surround yourself with positive people
Are your friends, colleagues, or acquaintances inspiring people who emanate positive energy? Or do they continually complain or see the worst-case scenario of a situation? Studies have shown that spending time with negative people can have a seriously detrimental effect on our well-being and self-motivation.
On the other hand, people with a positive attitude and mindset are great motivators. Try to remove negative people from your life and surround yourself with happy, positive people who will encourage and empower you.
7. Learn from your mistakes
People tend to lose motivation when things don’t go as planned. It is important to treat mistakes not as failures, but as lessons.
8. Sleep
This is my favorite self-motivation technique! Getting adequate sleep is tremendously important to staying motivated throughout the day. It’s difficult to stay enthusiastic about a project when you are exhausted.
9. Use positive affirmations
Affirmations are simple statements declaring your goals or desires. When repeated daily, positive affirmations have the power to alter your thinking and then your reality. You can actually reprogram your mind to be positive and motivated in all that you do.
10. Break the task into smaller pieces
Taking on a large project can make you feel overwhelmed and crushed by the complexities of completing the task. Any motivation you may have had will soon disappear. There is though a simple solution – break the task into small achievable steps. Tackling the project just one simple step at a time will make the task more manageable, less intimidating and give you back the motivation you need.
11. Read positive material
The benefits of reading are immense. Reading uplifting content, success stories, inspirational sayings, tales of rags to riches, etc. will help keep you motivated.
12. Reward yourself
This is a great way to get motivated. Before you start a dreaded task, decide on the reward you’ll receive when you’ve finished! If it’s a small job, maybe sitting down with a cup of coffee and a biscuit (chocolate biscuit of course!) is enough motivation. For a larger job, maybe buy yourself something, take yourself out for lunch or visit the cinema.
