Have you ever wondered what you’re doing with your life? What exactly is your next step?What does your future hold up for you? And what’s stopping you from chasing or changing it?Have you even reached the point where you stopped being lazy and decided that this is it. It’s done. I’m done wasting my time; I’m done wasting my health and life away.
If you did question, if you did decide to own up for everything, then good, you’re in the right track. But if not, then what are you waiting for? You might say “well, I’m not motivated enough”.
And that’s the thing, if you need motivation, you have to get it yourself, stop waiting for everyone to believe in you and start believing in yourself. This is the one crucial step to acheiving great things in life, simply believing in yourself and that you can do it. The rest is easy.
What I’ll do in this article is give you some scientific proven methods to help you motivate yourself and keep it that way. So, stay tuned.
Motivation
« Great men are not born great, they grow great »
Whether it’s the strong will to overcome your fears, to wake up early in the morning and do something productive, the ability to fight your laziness back and hit the gym or it’s just the simple desire to reach your goal, motivation can be all of that and more. It’s the main element in setting and attaining your objectives.
Motivation is failing time after time but never giving up, it’s saying no to failure, It’s repeat until you succeed. If you want to figure out how to do something, repeat it, because repetition will help you improve each time.
And according to Daniel H. Pink there are mainly three versions of motivation.
Motivation 1.0:
Motivation 1.0 is our basic need of survival. It’s the simplest level of motivation. Our basic drive and need, for example, biologically speaking you are motivated to eat, sleep, and have sex. These are called somatic instincts.
Motivation 2.0:
Is what Pink believes to be an outdated model. This is what is referred to as “carrots and sticks.”
We use these tools to encourage or reinforce positive behaviors and to curb behaviors we want to eliminate. The philosophy of this approach comes from the old story that the best way to make a donkey move is to put a carrot out in front of it or jab it with a stick from behind.
An analogy for this would be, a promotion for a carrot, and a demotion for a stick. But this kind of approach only worked well for routine kind of tasks, it was found that it does not inspire us like many have believed. It only serves as a temporary boost but winds up fading fast.
Motivation 3.0:
This is where we are inspired by internal drivers rather than external factors. This is where our own will takes control; the joy of the task itself pushes us to do it.
See, we have this tendency to chase after challenges and what we would love to own, isn’t that right? You’ve all seen it happen, somehow, someway. Your self determination, your intrinsic motivation is what actually pushes you to do more, to achieve and to accomplish your goals. It produces the highest performance, adaptation, and innovation.
This is opposite to extrinsic motivation which comes from the outside, from environmental rewards such as money and recognition which often drive a different response than was intended.
In particular, people tend to lose all personal interest and do only what leads to the reward, even when that means forgetting the real goal.
This intrinsic motivation is believed to have three themes:
- Autonomy: have enough independence to feel free to do your best work. You need to feel that you get to do it whenever, however, and in every possible way; that it’s all in your hands.
- Mastery: create yourself an environment where mastery is possible, the drive to complete patterns, and achieve the best possible outcomes.
- Purpose: be sure that you’re gaining out of this work a deep sense of personal fulfillment and meaning from consistently doing it, whether it’s sports, losing weight, getting a better grade, or a better job.
What kills our motivation?
Motivation is self-directed. The only thing an outsider can do is present you with a choice, you later on motivate yourself towards one or another decision. This means you’re the only one responsible for your motivation, only you can make it and in some cases kill it.
Avoid doing the following to prevent your motivation from dying away:
1. Overestimating your abilities:
Believing you are smart and capable of the job is a good thing, but it does not guarantee success. Motivation isn’t about that, it’s about using everything in your power; believing you can do it, but not being cocky and over confident about it. That’s actually a major kill for you.
2. Comfort:
Ever wondered why you’re not achieving something worthwhile in your life? It’s simply because you’re choosing comfort every time.
Sure, it may provide you with pleasure, but it’s only on the short-run. You’re choosing sleeping, watching TV, and worthless time surfing on the internet over doing something with your life, something that would actually provide you with long-term fulfillment.
3. Persuing perfection:
Settling down isn’t a bad thing, choosing to do something and completing it is way better than wasting your time with mastering it then not even finishing it at time, don’t compare yourself to others, to each his efforts, and to each his limits.
4. Visualization:
Contrary to what others think, constantly imagining yourself reaching your goal isn’t that good of a thing. Indulging yourself in fantasies might predict poor achievement because you’re not thinking about the effort needed, the energy included, and you’re not working towards it.
So, better yet imagine the steps leading to that goal, work toward them. This way, no disappointment will occur.
Rather than picturing yourself instantly rich, picture yourself working hard on your job and doing everything you can. Try to plan everything ahead.
How to stay motivated
You might believe that some people get handed everything on a silver plate, money, looks, a job and a home. But that’s not actually the case. These people worked hard to attain their goal, these people struggled. They gave up sleep, rest, and dedicated time and effort. As you should.
The big question is, how did they they reach that level of motivation? Right? How did they get to the point where they give up their cravings for the greater good?
Well, these are some of the tips that helped people get motivated and stay that way:
1. Watching motivation videos: whether it’s YouTube or Ted talks, both can help give you the inspiration to keep going, to know you’re not going through this alone. Whatever motivation you’re looking for you’ll find it there.
2. Managing time: try to find some kind of routine and stick with it. Make use of each free time you have, don’t waste it for something futile. Create a To-do list and avoid distractions.
3. Trying something new: break out of bad habits like procrastination, and reset yourself. Refresh your mind either by meditating, practicing yoga, or even just taking simple walks everyday around your neighborhood park. Play music when you feel like you hit a slump and you can’t go on any further.
There are plenty of other tips to help you, but I’ll settle with these for today. Try reading books as well, “The Power Of Habit” by Charles Duhigg for example can make motivating yourself into a good habit. This can help you make “the New year, New me” motto come true.