Many people rely on others to motivate them into doing something.
Self- motivation is a rarer quality, and it is also a distinct leadership trait.
Most people do things for a reward of some kind, but some people do things because they feel it is the right thing to do or they feel good about doing it or it gives them a sense of purpose.
Keeping yourself motivated can sometimes be difficult.
Study yourself and determine when you are the most active and effective.
When are you the most inactive and ineffective?
How does the time of day affect your behavior?
How does the type of activity, what you ate, the type of exercise or any particular thoughts affect your behavior?
Gain as much insight about what contributes to keeping yourself motivated as possible.
Many people think they know what they want to do, but motivating themselves to do it becomes another matter.
If you coordinate what you want to do around your life’s values, you’ll find doing anything becomes easier.
Too many people get caught up in doing so many things they don’t want to do, and they sacrifice their values in the process.
What values do you have that make you feel good or excited?
If you combine your wants and desires with the values that make you feel good or excited, it will be easier to keep yourself motivated.
Find ways to express yourself writing, drawing, talking and creating.
Remember the action is more important that the result.
Enough self-expression will keep you in the flow of life and also keep you motivated.
Since money is a big motivator with people, many people often do things they wouldn’t normally do.
Drug dealers, prostitutes, porno peddlers and “step-on- people” type businessmen make a lot of money, but they lie, cheat, steal, connive and take advantage of people in the process.
Their desire is there.
Their focus and determination is there, and they will do whatever it takes to achieve the money they are after.
Often, such perverse and decadent people also have lives filled with guilt, fear, loneliness, anxiety, hatred and anger, and sooner or later wind up losing what they acquired and dying in the misery they created for themselves, without ever guessing they created that reality for themselves! How can you create a strong desire to do what you know is better for you?
One way is to trick yourself into being motivated by giving yourself a deadline by such and such time or giving yourself a reward after you do some chore or say to yourself that you’re doing something because someone special is coming.
When 5 chubby men decided to lose 30 pounds each in one month, they decided on money as their motivation.
Each put $5,000 into an escrow account to be forfeited to the others if individual success was not achieved in 30 days.
With their desire to keep their money, each did succeed in losing 30 pounds in 30 days & each regained his $5,000 investment.
To get motivated, stimulate the senses in some way.
Male athletes perform better when watched by pretty women (their motivation is sexual).
Smelling a well prepared meal creates a motivation to eat.
Hearing a provocative concerto often creates a motivation for action.
With children, the rhythm of rock music can sometimes lock them into a reactive mode of fun action.
As an exercise in motivation, simply visualize the result you want to achieve and get yourself excited about the action it will take to achieve the desired result.
People normally have a tendency to choose a path requiring less energy, unless there is a pleasurable reward they can obtain after exerting themselves.
Stimulating the pleasure zone in the limbic system of the brain is one way to reward yourself.
It is often called fun.
Having fun requires a lot of energy and effort, but the reward is a broad stimulation of the senses in a pleasurable way.
So always add fun to your life, especially after completing difficult tasks.
Learn what stimulates you pleasurably, and create this stimulation as your reward.
As an exercise in motivating yourself to complete simple or small tasks you keep putting off, play a game with yourself.
Time yourself just to see how long it will take you to complete the task.
Afterwards, look back on it and say to yourself, “This didn’t take so long at all! Why have I been avoiding this for so long?
” Here are some other factors to keep yourself motivated.
When you do something successfully, celebrate or compliment yourself.
Reiterate positive affirmations to make yourself feel better.
Read and listen to positive motivational books and tapes.
You’ll find it easier to motivate yourself when you have higher energy, so review "Exercise -- Increase Your Energy, Increase Your Health" for ways to increase your energy.
Diversify your day and be grateful for your blessings, even the smaller ones.
Excite yourself over your day and be as happy as possible.
Describe to yourself the benefits about what you are about to achieve.
Write it down for better clarity.
Do some form of daily, physical exercise to keep yourself motivated.
Always see that your personal needs are met throughout the self-motivating process.
When you don’t sacrifice your personal needs, you are not working against yourself.
Unfulfilled needs create chaos and imbalance.