It’s impossible to be motivated all the time. Sure, you can feel good about what you’re doing all the time. But, staying motivated is difficult.
So what’s the difference between feeling good about doing something and being motivated to do something?
Well, motivation is different for different people. So, I’ll give you my definition of motivation here. For me, motivation is having
the drive, determination, and commitment, to work toward reaching a goal. Even if, doing that work is painful, or uncomfortable in some way.
On the other hand, feeling good about doing something, could just be you’re excited, or eager to do something you’ve been doing for years. You’re not trying to achieve any particular goal by doing it, you just enjoy doing it for what it is.
And without motivation, we’d all be destined to sit in front of the TV all day, watching rubbish and leaving our brains to turn to ‘mush’.
We all defer to mindless activities now and then. And you may well think, you already do it far too often. If that’s you, all you need is a spoonful of Motivation.
This post is about things that can help you to motivate yourself to do things, you might not always want to do. So, below are…
6 powerful tips, to help you become and stay motivated.
A list of some simple ideas to get you brimming with motivational energy.
Tip 1: Stop generalizing
The past doesn’t equal the future. One sure-fire way to kill any motivation you have is to believe that because you failed before, you’re bound to fail again. Don’t define your life according to what went before. Learn from your previous mistakes (we all make them!), then put that improved knowledge into your new attempt. As I mentioned in the article ‘Succeed to unlock Success‘, the most successful people fail more than most, but they never stop trying.
Tip 2: Always think positively
Focus on the advantages of any given situation, instead of all the disadvantages. It’s very easy to drop into a mindset of disappointment whenever something doesn’t go exactly to plan, but there’s always something good to take from it. In future, ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?”, or “What’s funny about this situation?”, or “What do I respect about this person who’s ‘wronged’ me? Focus on the advantages instead of the disadvantages.
Tip 3: Set Goals
Setting and achieving goals is a great way of building your success muscle. Try to set goals in areas that interest you. If you’re excited about the subject, you’ll find the journey much simpler and more productive. As a side note, It’s much easier to achieve goals in areas you want to improve, rather than things you’re trying to reduce or stop doing.
Tip 4: Set milestones
When you set yourself a goal, don’t forget to set milestones, or mini-goals along the way. Don’t let yourself have to wait a long time before having the celebration of success. By having several smaller successes along the way, your mood generally will improve and your motivation will soar. If for example, your main goal is to double your income in three years, it seems so far off that it’s likely you’ll lose your motivation fairly quickly – if you set milestones for its achievement though, like achieving 10 more sales per month within three months, then 5 additional up-sells per month within six months, etc. you’ll remain motivated and be in a much better position to reach your goals quickly.
Tip 5: Create a pattern of Success to boost your motivation.
Everyone has had times of success during their life, so revisit these times and remember how you felt at the time. Look back and collect as many of these experiences as possible, then keep them at the front of your mind to draw on when you need them most.
Tip 6: Learn how to handle outside opposition.
There will always be opposition to your success. It’s human nature for us to believe that if our friend or family member becomes successful, that they’ll begin to drift away from us, or the interests that we used to share will no longer be as important to them, etc.
The opposition in almost every case will be very subtle and completely unconscious to them but believe me, it’ll happen. The best way to mitigate the opposition is to involve them in your success story, let them be a part of the process so that they feel successful as well. Not only will you be helping them to boost their confidence, but you’ll also have an ally when things aren’t going so well.
If you follow these 6 tips, your chances of success will increase greatly.
Do you have any tips you’d like to share? Let me know in the comments 🙂
