Practical Tips for Self- Motivation

Practical Tips for Self-Motivation

When it comes to feeling lazy and unmotivated of doing important things, we are all guilty.  There are always times when no matter how we push ourselves to get out of bed and start the day right, it doesn’t work and our body is resisting the mind’s commandment to get up. In these kinds of situations, we try to find ways how we can motivate ourselves so we can start with the work that needs to be done.  Sometimes  we listen to music, read  books, go out for a run and etc. hoping to find the  motivation we want. But what does it really take to motivate one's self?  I want to share with you several  self-motivating insights that works for me and can be useful to you as well.

1. Just get started
Hit the road running! One of the most fundamental Law in physics  we know is about Newton’s  First Law of motion saying that an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an external force and vice versa. This is enough to tell us that the most effective thing to do if we really want to get motivated and finish something is to start doing it! You will probably not get the motivation you need if you just sit and wait for it. I am pretty sure that all great accomplishments by the human race were possible because someone simply started doing it.

2. Be clear of your plans and goals
Clarity in your intentions means a lot. If you ever tried doing something and you have no idea about why and what you are doing it for, you feel very unmotivated to push through. Successfully planned work results to a  sense of direction giving you the energy to accomplish one goal after the other. A person with a sense of purpose is more likely to feel excited about what he is doing than a person who does not even know where he is going.



3. Be optimistic
A lot of times people  fall out of enthusiasm  probably because something negative happened and they don’t have the composure to push through the day. The reality is that nobody can avoid bad things. Everybody goes through it. So if that’s the case, is there a point to feel disappointed about it? Why bother when you know you can’t do anything about it? Problems with solutions are called “problems”, but a problem that has no solution is called a “Situation”. And what do you do with a situation? You go through it and let it pass. Let it pass and then focus your attention on the positive things that are happening on the other side. For sure there are good things around; you just need to change your perspective. Your motivation will slowly go back as soon as you fill your thoughts with positive things.

4. Productive Procrastination
This may sound odd to you, but let me first define procrastination. Procrastination is simply the act of  postponing something.  Now you see that procrastination really is not a bad thing, as a matter of fact, highly productive people do procrastinate most of the time. When you feel that you are very unmotivated to do something, it’s totally ok. You can actually take advantage of  procrastination and postpone that activity and so you can work on something else  productive that you feel like doing. This is  how productive procrastination works. For example if you are not feeling good with working on your research paper, that is ok, you can go play your guitar and learn new songs or go for a run since you have been indoors for the past few weeks and you need to burn some calories. You may have postponed your activity but then you were able to do something productive at the same time.


  
5. Do something you truly enjoy
When your body is in a lazy unmotivated state, the only way to break the ice is to jump into something is you  find   enjoyable to do. I suggest this because normally, we don’t think too much when on the things that we enjoy doing, we just do it since we like it very much. This is an effective  way to jumpstart your system and gets those sleepy nerves going. After a few minutes and  you feel you are fully awake and excited,  there is a high chance your brain is active enough to shift to some more important things to do. It is basically about finding a way to trigger your brain and then get the work done once it is in full working mode.

6. Think of your deathbed
This sound a little creepy, but this still does not make you  feel motivated,  then nothing will. Imagine yourself lying on your deathbed and you are looking back to the life you lived. Tell yourself that when that time comes, there is no turning back, so you might as well want to make great use of the time you have right now to avoid regrets in the future. This will remind you that wasting precious time waiting for something external to motivate  you is a big big mistake.


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