Get Motivated Stay Motivated

There are certain things in the past that continues to haunt us that prevents us from moving on. We also sometimes live in the past, thinking that our life, dreams, or hopes ended there. We have given up completely because of what happened in our past. For example, a death of a loved one. There are some who would stay where they have been left by the person. What we must realize is that our loved one who died wouldn’t approve of what we are doing.

Another tendency that people do is to live for tomorrow which is only a dream. If this happens, what you will have will be an unrealized dream. In this case, we just continue to dream, we don’t make it a goal to accomplish but just dreaming that one day it will come true. But how will it come true if you just dream of it? Of course we must do something about it for us to achieve it. Because there are times when people thought that because it is free to dream, they would just dream. But they are not thinking that they can actually reach their dream. They are not highly motivated to realize that dream because it is already set in their mind that all they have is just a dream.

The point here is that we must live NOW. It is the only reality, not yesterday nor tomorrow. The past is no longer real, it has been gone already. What we’ll have will only be memories; the past that has mold you to be who you are NOW. If you have a goal, you must do the things you can do NOW that would lead you to that goal. If you must eat now, you eat. If you have to talk, then talk. If you have to travel, then go. You have to live now for its the only real thing that happens in your life. Tomorrow will soon be real and that reality depends on how you live it now.

Goal setting is all about planning.  What your goal should be, how you are going to achieve it, when you are likely to achieve it, and the likes.  But have we ever thought about what is there about our goal that we want it to achieve?  Of course, satisfaction or fulfillment.  But did you know that there is more to that?

Maybe some people would agree that aside from the goal we planned to achieve, there is a more important thing that we have achieved.  That is, the experience we gained and the lessons we learned that made us grow more as a person.  Don’t we treasure our achievement because of the hard times we went through because of that?  When you receive your first ever salary, you would want to buy something for yourself.  Let’s say, you bought a celphone, one that you really wanted to have and never acquired when you were a student, you would be very fond of it and would really treasure it because it represents your hard work.

In achieving our goals, we did not only achieved something we wanted.  But we have also achieved something that cannot be taken from us.  Those good or even bad moments that we would cherish just to succeed; our “downfalls,” where we learned to stand up; the friends we gained in our journey, and; our faith to ourselves and to God.  What you went through will serve as an inspiration and motivator to other people also.

There may betimes when things change and it does not seem to be the way you have expected as you were planning or picturing out the progress of your goal.  Like you have to spend the money you have saved for your goal for emergencies or you just missed a flight to a place that has something to do with achieving you goal.  So what could be the best thing to do?   Never give up, stay motivated, and modify your goal.

Modify your goal so that you it would still be achievable.  If you have to use some of the money you have been saving all along for buying a car,  maybe you can have a car that is cheaper than what you have wanted.  An alternative also is to wait for a little more time where you can earn more money.  There could be a lot more thing to do to achieve your goal that has temporarily been barred.

There would also be times when a goal is not that important to you already, or seems unrealistic to achieve because of certain uncontrollable circumstances.  You should then be ready to let go of this goal.  This sometimes happen when you have set your priorities and a particular goal seems to be least prioritized.  Like you just experienced financial problems in your family and buying a car seems to be unpractical of you.  So, you have to let go of this and help your family instead.

As things change, mostly beyond our control, be more open minded and flexible.  A slight change in your goal might not hurt; letting go of a certain goal is not the end of it all, give more focus on goals that are most important to you.

The soft cottony bed is just so comfortable that you don’t feel like getting up in the morning.  Maybe a few minutes more would do before you start to work.  Then the  “few minutes” is now nearly an hour.  You just can’t get enough of the comfort that the bed  provides.  But you’ve got stuff to do and finish!  Procrastinating over an unfinished and should-be-finished-now task is not healthy, we all know that.  So how would you set your mood in doing it and forget procrastinating?

Be creative.  Put some creativity in doing your task.  Like challenging yourself that you can finish mowing the lawn in a matter of minutes or maybe an hour depending on the area.  Then, if you can beat it, you treat yourself for a good lunch or something (even though you can really do it even if you can’t beat your challenge).  Or maybe you can tune in your favorite song while doing your task to keep your spirit alive.  Just like when cooking, you can sing and dance if you want.

It is only you who can really stop yourself from procrastinating.  Being creative is just one way to stop it.  There are a lot of ways to stop procrastinating.  While early, you must stop it before it becomes a habit.

One reason why we procrastinate is the lack of motivation.  But did you know that our environment also affects us?  Yes, it affects our mood and our motivation.  If we work in an office that has a pile of papers in top of your table along with leisure magazines, wouldn’t you be tempted to take the magazines instead of those pile of papers?  Seeing a pile of papers mean a pile of work.  Seems discouraging in the eyes.  Then there’s the magazines tempting you instead.

What you need to do is to strategize  your environment.  Make it more like a room relaxing to work at.  Organize your papers that are waiting to be finished.  Put it in order so that you can work on it one by one.  Unlike if you see it as one, it seems to be a heavy workload.  Put away those that can distract you from working like the magazines.  Put it in a cabinet at the corner of your room where you cannot reach it easily.  Better yet, put it in your house.

Put your whole room/office in order and always clean.  It would make you feel relaxed to work and wouldn’t feel much stress, too.  By putting things in order, you can also make your work organized.  It would really feel inspiring to work if you have a nice and quiet environment.  Also, if you are rather too busy to accept visitors, better put a “don’t disturb” sign outside the room or heed your secretary.