Self – Motivation Is simply the ability to do what needs to be done without someone else prodding you and pushing you to do it. It is the crucial key in setting and reaching for your goals. The definition itself is so simple yet motivation is far from being easy. It’s the difference between waking up early in the morning determined to make the most of your day and spending all day in bed doing nothing other than procrastinating your life goals.
I listened to an audiobook by Les Brown and he mentioned a few key points that I want to share with you;
- You must work on yourself continuously. Never be satisfied with yourself. – You can become whatever you want to be as long as you set your mind on it. The greatest thing you can do for you is to Invest in your self. Read good, inspiring books and listen to audiobooks that will stretch you and make you grow.
- Stop settling for less than you deserve in life. Stop Settling. – You’ll never approach anything like excellence if you settle for mediocrity.
- Develop a health plan. – You cannot do well and perform well if you are not in good health. Your health is all you have and the one thing that will ensure you can actually reach your goals. So take care of you.
- Live your life with energy – Stay away from negative people, surround yourself with positive people and make a decision to be lively.
- Change the things you say about yourself – Stop negatively speaking to yourself. Speak life into your thoughts. Watch the things you speak to yourself about and everytime you want to tell yourself you can’t do something, do it anyway. Do it afraid. Remember the biggest challenge that you will have in life is with you.
- Know your why – Why are you doing the things that you are doing? Why are you waking up early in the morning? Why are you studying or working so hard? Start at why. Write down reasons why you deserve it, why you, why do you deserve to get that goal? How will it change your life? When you have your list, everytime you get discouraged, pull out that list, read it and keep going.
There are two areas in my life that I’ve been really striving to keep motivated so that I can see progress and that’s my health and my business. It’s been great so far I’ve managed to see a difference. So here are my quick tips on keeping yourself motivated:
1. Start with a dream – Have a definite aim you are shooting for. Have a tangible goal, something that you know you will be able to see when it happens. Having this goal will constantly motivate you to challenge yourself even further. The more clarity you will have on what you are pursuing the greater chance that you will actually be motivated to get there. I wanted to lose weight so I decided to start small and work hard. I put in the work and had my goal clearly written down. I read my list of goals every night before I went to bed and l told myself that I will go to the gym and eat clean tomorrow inorder to attain my goal of losing weight. Within a few weeks l started seeing the progress and difference that it made in my life, gave me the motivation to keep going and reach for another goal.
“Motivation is when your dream puts on work clothes. – Benjamin Franklin”
2. Stay Positive – Things will not always work out the way that you hope they will. But what you think about can be the difference between winning and losing. When I started Mimzza Designs, I did not know if it would work out well. There are times l got discouraged and wanted to quit because l saw little or no return to my investment in starting the business but I held on and I’m glad I did. It took a change in mindset and talking to positive people, listening to positive speakers and so on.
3. Share – I used to be an information hoarder, keeping all the good, latest information to myself. But that just left me feeling drained as l couldn’t keep up with all the information that I had. I decided to start sharing the books that I buy, sharing any articles that I find to be useful and basically any hack that I’ve found to make life easier. That has brought so much more satisfaction to my life and I’ve learnt so much more as my network has continued to grow.
4. Compare yourself with yourself – The comparison game can leave you feeling demotivated because you will never feel like you measure up to whoever you are measuring yourself against. But if you have your set goals, you can review them often and compare your own progress and your journey to what you are working towards.
5. Be grateful – Be grateful for what you have and for the season of your life that you living. List at least four things each morning to be grateful for and go out and live your life with energy. Life is short, it doesn’t pay to be demotivated. Get up and keep going. It will be worth it.
If you are feeling unmotivated right now, I hope this helps you.
Here is a video by Scott Geller definitely one of my favourites TED Talks.