Many of us find ourselves in times when it is hard to motivate yourself.
It can be procrastination, depression or just lack of any will to do anything.
Sometimes, you are super motivated about some project or idea and in time all this motivation just goes away.
Here are the main steps to continuous self-motivation.
1. Develop the right attitude
You can’t choose or control your circumstance, but you can choose your attitude towards your circumstances.
It’s super important to see positive aspect even in negative things.
A positive attitude might be an important driver of your self-motivation.
2. Start simple
When you just come to your work desk and feel the overload coming, just start with simple, quick wins.
Keep motivators around your work area – things that remind you to keep going. They may act as triggers for your everyday self-motivation.
3. Baby steps
Don’t put too much ambition or responsibilities on yourself at once.
Divide big tasks into small, doable baby steps.
Did you plan a super ambitious project and now struggling with burnout and lack of motivation? Start with baby steps, very small chunks of your big endeavor.
4. Write down a clear to-do list
If you just keep all work stuff in your head, it might just explode. 🤯
It is not only important to have a practical to-do list, but also to write it down.
Personally, I like to use to-do list apps, but for some big things, it still feels better to jot it down. In my experience with to-do apps, I’ll just keep adding many tasks, which will be lost in the app.
While if you write down just a few things and then cross them – it feels much more organized. And what satisfaction you get while crossing those items!
You can’t choose or control your circumstance, but you can choose your attitude towards your circumstances.
5. Stay with positive people
Keep in touch with people, who have a positive and supportive attitude.
Positive people are very different from negative ones. They will help you to stay motivated even in difficult times.
Now, it’s important to differentiate a positive attitude with a “hot bath”. In the last case, people will just constantly say yes to you, even if it’s far from reality. Some employees use that in relation to their bosses.
6. People opinions don’t matter
Stop worrying about what other people think about you.
Opinions aren’t facts.
Instead, focus on yourself, be brutally honest with yourself. That’s the only way to long-term satisfaction and motivation.
If you will spontaneously change your directions just based on someone else’s thoughts – it may bring a lot of stress.
7. Stop overthinking
By overthinking you just create additional problems, which don’t exist.
If you feeling good about something or your inner intuition points you in some direction – just do it. Don’t over plan, overthink, calculate all possible nuances, etc – it may slow you down or even scare you away.
A healthy amount of risk is a great life hack.
8. “Celebrate mistakes”
Very often, success is not built on success, it’s built on failures.
If you don’t have any mistakes, probably you just don’t do anything.
Approach mistakes as an important element of the journey, one of its building blocks.
Ability to get up and move on every time is one of the most important ones in self-motivation journey.
9. Move forward
Doesn’t matter, what was happening yesterday or an hour before, move forward.
Don’t keep bad memories or your failure experiences with yourself – they might slow you down, a lot.
10. Keep learning
Lack of self-motivation can be caused by the fact, that you hit the ceiling in your job or career. You just don’t feel that your learning curve is progressing. Then it’s time to learn something new, expand your horizons, find a new challenge.
There are plenty of sites, like Udemy, Treehouse, Linkedin Learning, where you can learn anything from coding to beads.
When you learn something new, your self-motivation will skyrocket.
By overthinking you just create additional problems, which don’t exist.
11. Track progress
Often, if you have your goals only in your head, they can become too abstract. And it’s super hard to track progress then.
Use some tool or just a piece of paper to constantly see, where you are on the way to your goals.
12. Reward yourself
It is super important to reward yourself with achievements.
Even if it is a small baby step – be happy, you just moved one cm closer to your dream.
Congratulate yourself with every small achievement.
By overthinking you just create additional problems, which don't exist.Click To Tweet
13. Be patient
Remember, that all big projects, dreams, ambitions require a lot of stamina and patience.
This is one of the most important things in business, for example. Many entrepreneurs fail just because they don’t see results in the first three months. While it may take many years or even dozens of years to achieve your aim. Those who can run this marathon, usually win.
Too many steps?
Then choose just one and focus on it!
Start with a small baby step on the road to self-motivation.
See you around.