Simple Ways to Motivate Yourself Feeling less than motivated all too often?
I do. Well, perhaps not too often. But sometimes I just feel really lazy and unmotivated.
Want some practical solutions to that universal motivation-problem? Here are 25 of them. Try
a handful.
Let me know which ones work well for you.
I�m sure you�ll find at least one or two that do just that among these suggestions.
1. Make a deal with yourself. Good for overcoming procrastination and getting things done. You
can make the deal small or large. You simple tell yourself something like: When I�m done
with this chapter/these reports I can take a walk in the park and enjoy an ice-cream.
2. Act like it. If you don�t feel motivated or enthusiastic then act like it. The strange
thing is that within a few minutes you actually start to feel motivated or enthusiastic for
real.
3. Ask uplifting questions in the morning. Here�s what you do; every morning ask yourself
five empowering three-part questions this way:
What am I ______ about in my life right now? What about it makes me _______?
How does it make me feel?
Put in your own value in the blank space. For instance, a couple of my questions are:
What am I happy about in my life right now? What am I excited about in my life right now?
It�s important that you really feel how it makes
you feel. When I think about the last part about what makes me happy right now I really
feel it. These morning questions are great because the way they are set up makes you
recognize things you take for granted and then they really get you to feel those positive
feelings.
4. Move the goalposts. Set a large and specific goal. This will motivate you much more than
small goals. A big goal has a big effect and can create a lot of motivation.
5. Do something small and create a flow. Just clean your desk. Or pay your bills. Or wash
the dishes. You just need to get started. When you have finished that small task you�ll
feel more alert and ready to go do the next thing. You just to get started to get motivated.
So if you really don�t feel like doing anything, start with something small and work your way
out up.
6. Do the toughest task first. This will ease a lot of your day-to-day worries and boost
your self-confidence for the rest of the day. Read more about doing the hardest task bright
and early right here.
7. Start slow. Instead of jumping into something at full speed start slow. When you do that
your mind will not visualize the task as something hard that you have to do fast, fast, fast.
If your mind sees such things guess what often happens? Yep, you don�t get started. Actually
getting started, even if it�s at a slow pace, is a whole lot better than not getting
started at all.
8. Compare yourself with yourself. Not with others. Comparing what you have and your results
to what other people have and have accomplished can really kill your motivation. There are
always people ahead of you. Most likely quite a bit of people. And a few of them are miles
ahead. So focus on you. On your results. And how you can and have improved them.
Reviewing your results is important so you see where you have gone wrong in the
past to avoid similar missteps further on. But it�s also important because it�s a
great motivator to see how much you have improved and how far you have come. Often you can be
pleasantly surprised when you do such a review.
9. Remember your successes. And let them flow through your mind instead of your failures.
Write down your successes. Consider using a journal of some kind since it�s easy to
forget your successes.
10. Act like your heroes. Read about them, watch them, listen to them. Discover what
they did that was special and what made them tick. But remember that they are people just
like us. So let them inspire you instead of looking up at them admiringly.
11. Remember to have fun. Or create fun in a task. Then you�ll stay motivated to do
and finish it. 22. Find out what makes you happy. Then do
that. As much as you want or can.
23. Listen while you�re on the move. Build your own small library of motivational/personal
development tapes. Listen to them while you are driving, riding the bus or your bike,
while you are out running or walking. Take a peek at my recommended personal development
products if you are looking for a good place to start.
24. Think outside your box. Don�t imagine the future from the box of what you have now.
Just
because your mind is in box of previous experiences doesn�t mean that´s the limits of the world.
Your possibilities are much larger. Create the future from the now and from nothing rather
than your past to experience bigger changes with fewer limitations than you would if you
created it from what you can see from your box.
25. Make each day count. We don�t have all the time in the world. So focus on today and
do the things you really want to do.