How to Stay Motivated

It’s hard to stay motivated at all times, whether it’s personal or goal driven once in while we get side tracked and we end up losing our way. Staying motivated it should be an ongoing process because at the end of the day it’s has positive effect on us and it keep you uplifted. Here are some tips to help you along:   

1. Remind yourself of your goals. Usually before devoting time to any specific endeavour, we tend to make short and long term goals. If you start to lose sight of your goals, then you may be less motivated than if you were always checking to see how much closer you are getting throughout the whole process. Keeping track of your goals and checking your progress can help keep you motivated day in and day out.

2. Make weekly checkpoints to track your progress. Everyone needs to see how they are keeping up with their goals if they want to stay motivated. If you see that you are on track or even excelling every time you check your progress, you will be motivated and happy that you are getting there. If you see that you are lagging on your goals, it may be the kick start you need to help get you back on track.

3. Make sure to reward yourself every time you achieve your weekly goals. This could be as simple as a bowl of ice cream after a long, hard week of working out. Or as rewarding as a trip to the spa for all your hard work. Whatever rewards will keep you going are the ones you should be giving yourself.

4. Give yourself breaks. Sometimes even the most determined people get overwhelmed. You may be burning yourself out, and a much needed break might be just what you need. If it is a fitness goal, maybe take a 3 or 4 day rest instead of your normal 1 or 2 day rest. If it is at school, don’t try to do all your work in one sitting, but stretch it out over the course of the day or week, if possible.

5. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Everyone falls short sometimes. If you fail to meet your goals for the week, don’t get too emotional. Let yourself take it as a lesson. It’s not always how hard you hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep moving. Don’t dwell on failure, just accept it as a human occurrence, and continue working towards your goals.

6. Watch and read motivational stories or speeches. Everyone deserves a great pep talk every once in a while. Stay elevated by watching YouTube videos of inspirational moments and you can suddenly feel a new sense of motivation to keep striving.

7. Eliminate your distractions. Identify anything that’s causing you to procrastinate. Then, get rid of it. Sell it or put it in a storage locker. Move away from it. Throw it away. You can’t become motivated if you’re squandering all of your time.

If you’re spending too much time aimlessly browsing the internet, install a “productivity” extension in your browser. These free extensions allow you to block certain sites and/or set time limits for recreational browsing.

8. Raise the stakes for yourself. Hold yourself accountable in your own eyes and the eyes of others. Set personal penalties for yourself if you don’t act – throw out some delicious cookies you’ve been saving or make a donation to charity. Tell your friends and family about things you plan on doing. If you don’t do these things, they’ll know, and you’ll be embarrassed – now you have a great reason to get started!

9. Move your body. Go for a short run, do some jumping jacks, or shadowbox. Even light physical exercise can affect our moods, making us feel more active and dynamic. Exercise has even been shown to thwart depression and low self-image – both hurdles to personal motivation efforts.

10. Break your task into manageable pieces. If you’re having serious motivation problems, breaking one large task into many small tasks can make it much easier to approach psychologically. Because we get a feeling of accomplishment from completing each step of the task, this trick can increase motivation substantially. Sometimes, all that’s needed to gain the momentum to tackle the whole project is to complete the first simple step.

11. Surprise yourself. Even tremendously motivated people can be driven to lethargy and inaction if they have to perform tedious, repetitive tasks for weeks or months on end. Break up the monotony with spontaneous and out-of-the-ordinary activities. Try to create an internal sense of unpredictability – even you don’t know exactly what you’ll do tomorrow. This can ease the psychological tedium of work that is the same day after day.

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