Get Motivated Stay Motivated

I have read from one of Steve Pavlina’s article about an effective way to overcome procrastination.  That is through timeboxing.  Timeboxing is a method where you select a small piece of the task you can work on for a small amount of time, say, 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards.  Rewards like watching your favorite tv show, enjoy your snack, or anything that would give you pleasure.  Something that you would like to look forward to.  It becomes a sort of a motivator for you.  Then after claiming your reward, schedule another chunk of time to continue your task and set another reward for it.  But this does not imply that you should really finish your task after 30 minutes or your given schedule.  If you feel motivated to do it, don’t stop.  The reward is only given to motivate you.  You can exceed your time if you feel like doing it, its a good advantage actually.

I have also thought of another way to overcome procrastination, relating to timeboxing.  We can also do our tasks, those which we are likely to set aside, while doing some of our hobbies.  Like watching tv, listening to favorite music, and the likes.  Of course, timeboxing is not applicable to all kinds of tasks.  This is just one of the methods that we can use to overcome procrastination.

For the rest of Steve Pavlina’s article, click here.

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

-Maya Angelou

I think that is the very essence of success.  When you feel within yourself the fulfillment of what you are doing.  That is why it is very important that you set your goals right by knowing what you really want.  Because if you don’t have the passion and the desire over it, you will find it really hard to achieve it.  You won’t have much motivation in pursuing your goal.  Your passion and desire is what will make you strive to reach your goal.  It gives you the energy and the determination that you need to succeed.

Also, having the passion and desire over your goal will give you the positive attitude,  stand up every time you fall and continue reaching it.  Sometimes it is the process of achieving your goals that gives you fulfillment and makes you more successful.  The fact that you have surpasses all the trials just to achieve your goal is a success already.

It always look good to people if you are that kind, loving, caring, etc. to others.  Of course it is really good to be like that.  But how are you to yourself?  Do you realize your self-value as you realize the value of others?

Realizing our self-value helps us to stay motivated.   It makes us feel good to know our value as a person and that will lead to a positive us.  It will give us more energy to appreciate the value of other people.  As the cliche goes, you must learn to love yourself first before you can love others, or something like that.  Just the same with self-value.

Another thing about realizing self-value is to acknowledge our strengths.  The things we’re good at.  If you are good in cooking, practice it.  If you love gardening, do it.  If you are good in basketball, play basketball.  If you acknowledge these, you won’t be much worried with your weaknesses and it will help you feel positive about yourself.  Thinking much of negative things will do you no good.

Realizing our self-value will help us  to put trust in ourselves and believe in our own capabilities.  That is very important to stay motivated and positive all the time.  The worst enemy that we can have is ourself.  But we are also the best motivator for ourselves and we have the choice which one we could become.

There has been so many articles or maybe tips about goal-setting. But do we really know what a goal can do to our lives? Why we need to have a goal? Here are some things that a goal can do:

• Generally improve our lives
• Gives us motivation towards work or tasks
• Make us realize what we really want in life
• Help us eliminate bad habits or traits
• Gives us focus towards achievement

These are just possible effects of having a goal in life. That is why we need to set a goal if we wish to achieve something. Remember that a goal is different from a wish or dream. Wishes and dreams are just things you like to happen without really doing something. Whereas a goal is something that you want to achieve and that you really do the things that will make you achieve it.

When you are motivated, you approach your tasks with energy and enthusiasm. A lack of motivation can make everything seem like hard work. You will feel like your driving force has gone and you just can’t be bothered to do what you need to.

Sometimes you can’t be bothered to do anything at all when you lack motivation. This feeling can hold you back and stop you achieving your best, which in turn lowers your motivation even further.

With a lack of motivation you can often come up with excuses to blame for not getting down to doing what you need to do, but this just increases the problem as you dig yourself deeper into a pit of lethargy.

Why do you suffer from a lack of motivation?

It may be that you lack confidence so you don’t feel that you will do well at something so it is far easier to explain this away to yourself with the excuse that you didn’t try anyway and that if you had tried you would have been fine. A lack off effort is easier to bear in oneself than a lack of ability.

Perhaps it is not ability you lack, or feel you lack; perhaps you don’t have enough interest in the project at hand to really put your full effort into it. Perhaps you don’t perceive the task ahead as very important; many of us would lack motivation to do something which we considered to be pointless or at least that there are far more important things to do.

If there is no incentive for you to do something, then very often you will lack motivation to do something. That could be as simply solved as you needing to look a little deeper into the project to understand it better.

Very few people are just plain lazy for no reason but perhaps that could explain your lack of motivation too. More likely, though, procrastination and putting things off has just become a habit for you. If you are scared about what people might say about your efforts you may lack motivation to complete a task and have it open to scrutiny. If you are stressed or nervous about tackling something, that saps your motivation to begin it.

All of these reasons can lead to a lack of motivation and enthusiasm, bug it is important to recognize that they are only excuses which you make to yourself to stop yourself acting.  You can learn to overcome any of these reasons for a lack of motivation if you recognize them within yourself; like with all problems, you need to recognize them before you can change them. Only then can you learn to think differently and re-discover your motivation.

It is much easier to become enthusiastic and motivated again if you are able to decide what is important to you in your life. This can be little things that you enjoy doing every day or it can be long-term plans you have. If something is important to you, it is much easier to maintain the motivation to complete the task.

It may be that you are motivated by extrinsic rewards or by intrinsic satisfaction; you will need to think about what works for you, so that you are receiving some pleasure for getting things done. That is where your motivation lies.

Managers and team leaders have a responsibility for motivation in the workplace. Well motivated employees work so much better and are so much more productive and creative as they approach their work with interest and enthusiasm.  As a manager, you can create such a motivated workforce.

1. You need to create an educated workforce which keeps up with the main developments in their area of work. People love to learn new things and affording your employees an opportunity to learn tells them that you respect them and you care about their development.

You as a manager can satisfy this need in staff for education by providing staff development courses and seminars or even just resources like books that are relevant to your particular workplace. If, as a manager, you want to increase the effectiveness of motivation in the workplace, you should participate in this training yourself. Lead by example.

2. You should have spent time and money helping your employees to become educated.  You should make the most of the opportunity by allowing your staff to share what they have learned with the rest of the workforce. As well as sharing knowledge, this will have several other great motivational elements to it.

People will feel valued and trusted if they are allowed to educate others; they will see  the point of having undertaken the training and other people will be motivated to undertake training because they will see what that can lead to for them.

3. Allowing and actively encouraging staff to put into action what they have learned is a great motivation. Your business will feel the benefit of the new ideas in the short term and in the long term it will benefit form having better educated staff.

For the employers, they will feel motivated to work harder for a company which values enough to train them up and this will increase their productivity and creativity. Having a manager ask you what you learned on a course you attended makes you feel valued and respected as an employee and people ten to react well to that.

4. To motivate your staff, you need to know them quite well.  You need to know their strengths so that you can utilize those effectively and have them pass on that expertise to others. This will make them feel respected. You also need to create a culture of trust within the workplace where people are not afraid to share their weaknesses too. These weaknesses should be addressed sensitively and supportively.

If this happens, you will strengthen your workforce’s capabilities and thus the performance of your company. The weaknesses can be addressed so they don’t hamper progress and productivity and the employees, if this is done sensitively, will appreciate the support. This addressing of weaknesses has to be done in an environment where people don’t feel that admitting weaknesses will count against them.

So if you create a culture where individuals feel their efforts and talents are appreciate and you allow employees to train and to learn from one another as well as providing support for employers to develop and grow, you should have a positive impact upon motivation in the workplace.

You become what they think, whether that is something positive or something negative, so you need to make sure it’s something positive. If you control your thoughts you control your future and you can make it happen. Motivation techniques need to get you in the right frame of mind to begin with.

1. See Yourself Achieving your Goal

Sports psychologists train athletes to visualize themselves as winning a race. Top athletes see themselves as passing the finishing line in first place then they mentally rehearse the steps that will achieve this. You can do that too, no matter what your ambition. This mental rehearsal starts you planning the things you need to in order to fulfill your ambition.

2. What Needs to Happen for you to achieve your Aim?

In order to be successful in your aim, you need to identify exactly what you want to achieve. If you don’t know the target, you can’t aim efficiently. Write down a list of things that need to happen/not happen. Make it realistic and make it comprehensive. It doesn’t matter how many things are on there.

In fact, the more ideas on the list the better, because if something later comes up that you hadn’t thought about before,  that can knock your confidence and your motivation.  Once you have this list, you can get motivated because you will know some practical thins that you can do to achieve your aims.

3. Hold the Thought and Act upon it

Keep your aim in mind. Now you know what needs to happen in order for you to achieve your aim, take the steps you just planned. They’re no good just in your head; you have to do something about them. So take that class, make that appointment; arrange that bank loan or whatever you need to do.

4. Keep Re-visiting your Aim and the Actions you Planned in Order to Achieve it

That enables you to stay clear about your aim, but don’t be a slave to the exact aim. If it’s not working for you, change it. Scale it down, or make it bigger. Make it motivate you again. After all, that aim is yours; you can do whatever you want with it. Knowing what you want will concentrate your energies and you won’t waste time on doing things that won’t help you achieve it.

Re-assessing your original aim will give you greater motivation for the difficult times that may be ahead. You’ll see it’s still something worth working for, and you’ll see what benefits success will bring. You’ll also see how far you’ve come towards achieving your goal.

5. Take time to celebrate those achievements

Notice when you have fulfilled one of your targets. It will keep you motivated and keep you focused as each target builds on the previous one.

Perhaps most importantly of all, looking back at what you want to achieve will help you see what you need to do next.  You can achieve your dreams. Sometimes that will need a little help, sometimes it will need a lot, but you can do it. Your future is in your own hands and that should be a very motivating thought.

Many people start their exercise program with good intentions. Most often it starts in the New Year when you become aware of the Christmas over-indulgence catching up with you. Your clothes don’t fit as well as they did a few weeks early and so you embark upon a diet and with that you often attempt an exercise regime to maximize the benefits.

But soon you feel your exercise motivation slipping. The gym is no longer as attractive as it was and the car seems so much easier than walking. You need to re-discover your exercise motivation. But just how do you do that?

1. Remind yourself of the benefits of exercising.  What do you want to achieve? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to build strength or stamina? Do you want to deal with anxiety and stress? Exercise can help with all these things, so whatever it is that is your motivation keep that in mind.

2. Set yourself some goals. Goals will improve your motivation because you will have something to aim for and you will see yourself progressing towards that goal. Success will increase your motivation to exercise. Your exercise goals need to be ‘SMART’: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed.

This helps in several ways specific goals will show you what you need to achieve enable you to take practical steps towards it such as doing specific exercises to tone certain muscle groups.

Measurable goals keep the end in sight so you will not feel like you are on some interminable treadmill. Your goals need to be achievable and realistic so that you can be successful.  Timed targets allow you to maintain your motivation as you feel there is an end to all this effort.

3. You need to make exercising fun. You are more likely to persevere at exercise that you enjoy, so pick exercises and sports that you like and vary them so you are not bored.  Join a club or an exercise class and make exercising a social thing where you meet new people and make friends.

4. Try exercising with friends and family, again so it is a social thing but also so that you have people to encourage you along the way.

5. Don’t be discouraged. You will miss some workouts and have times when you really don’t feel like exercising. Don’t feel guilty about that and don’t use it as an excuse not to go back to your exercise routine. Just make another date to exercise. Think of how well you have done so far and just get right back to it.

6. Be prepared for peaks, troughs and plateaus. Your exercise regime will not always go well and you will not always see results. Don’t worry about that, it is quite normal. Just keep going and things will improve.

7. Put exercise in your schedule. Exercise really needs to become part of your life, which is why organized classes can be a good thing. If you don’t make a date and time to exercise, you will be more likely to find excuses not to exercise and the more times you miss exercising, the less motivation you will feel to start exercising again.

If you follow these few simple guidelines you should be able to maintain your exercise motivation and see great results from your exercising.

You may not find it easy to achieve your goals and you may not achieve them quickly, but if you really want that goal, it’s worth persevering over, so you’ll need to develop your self motivation and here is how you can do that.

1. Keep Focused on your Aim

You need to keep in mind your aim. That will help to maintain your self motivation and also make your efforts more efficient as they can be directed towards your aim.  Seeing yourself progressing towards your goal will help to keep you motivated.

2. Get the Balance Right

Your aim is important, but you are much more than that. Keep yourself a rounded, happy person who is good to know and fun to be with, by keeping your goal in perspective with the rest of your life. Even when things go wrong and you hit an obstacle, bear in mind that not everything in your life has gone wrong. That will help your self motivation as you will not be so easily discouraged.

3. Re-assess the Positives

Try writing down one thing you enjoyed doing today; it can be a big thing or a small thing.  Next write down something that you like about yourself. That ought to get you to see the bigger picture and give you the self motivation to move forward again. Once you’re moving forward again, you’ll re-discover your motivation even more.

4. Imagine Yourself as Successful

Visualize yourself as having achieved your aim. How different would your life be? What could you have that you don’t have now? That doesn’t have to be material things; it can be more time with your family, greater choice of who you work for, being your own boss, being healthier etc: anything so long as you want it.

That’s where you regain control of your life and your self motivation again, because miracles don’t happen. Only you can achieve your aim. Once your aim is clear again you can see what you need to do to achieve it and you have something you need to do again: that’s where your self motivation comes from.

Now put your list aside until tomorrow. Give yourself a break and let your subconscious mind mull over your list, working out what you will do next towards your aim. You’ve earned the break and you’ll be amazed how much more productive you’ll be when you come back to work.

5. Put Your Plan into Action

Once you’ve given yourself a short break you need to put your plan into action again.  You’ve done it before and you can do it again. Find just one thing that you can do today towards achieving your aim and do it. Success at completing a task brings its own rewards and you will regain your self motivation to keep on trying.

So, to sum up, to regain and maintain your self motivation, you need to make sure that you’re following the right aim for you and that you’re clear about what you want to achieve. Set yourself targets along the way and make them achievable in the short term so that you keep meeting with success. Reward yourself and enjoy it; that will help to maintain your self motivation.