It’s Monday morning. The alarm goes off. Do you know how to be encouraged at that moment? What is the first thought that comes to mind when you open your eyes?
Are you excited to get up and go to work, or are you dreading the day and week ahead?
Regardless of your response, ask yourself this question:
“What makes you feel careless?” What makes you feel negative or positive about your upcoming Monday? If you want to know how to get motivated, keep reading.
What exactly is motivation?
You probably know people who have been doing the same thing for years and seem to have no problem staying stagnant. Whether it’s their marriage, work, or personal endeavors, they seem to be doing just fine without moving toward anything “better.”
On the other hand, I’m sure you also know of people who are positive, focus on goal setting, and constantly push themselves to the top. Whether it’s promotions at work, starting a family, celebrating wedding milestones, traveling more, or going back to school, these people seem to be constantly making progress toward something that improves or enhances their lives.
So what is the difference between these two types of people?
What you feel you can do comes down to one thing: motivation. It is the force or lack of it that drives you forward to overcome challenges and obstacles to achieve your goals.
Without motivation, you will give up after a few failed attempts or even at the first tough challenge that comes your way. Or you will remain where you are: unhappy yet doing nothing to move forward.
Whether you realize it or not, motivation is a huge force in your life, and you need to harness it to enjoy whatever you do every day. If you find yourself thinking, “I need motivation,” there are specific steps you can take.
Unfortunately, many people generalize the word motivation. We tend to think of either being motivated or not being motivated as a simple “yes” or “no” state.
Motivation flow
To feel motivated, you must dive beyond the surface. Reading a motivational quote, being encouraged by your friends or mentor, or writing a to-do list won’t help you build sustained motivation in the long run.
You can think of the motivation we need to get like the sun (self-sustaining and long-lasting) which provides a constant flow of energy to all life on earth. Like the sun, your “motivation engine” has different layers starting at the core and extending to the surface. The surface is what you see, but the real process is driven by the core (your inner motivation); And that’s the most important part.
If you can create a self-sustaining motivation engine, you will find more meaning in your life and enjoy every minute you do, making your roles and responsibilities less of a chore.
Let me help you better understand this motivation flow by breaking the motivation engine into 3 parts:
Core – Purpose
Support – Enablers
Surface – acceptance
outer layer: surface
The outermost layer, also called recognition, includes any form of external recognition that can give you motivation. It can come in the form of respect or recognition, such as compliments and compliments.
Or it can be emotional support through encouragement, feedback and constructive criticism. It can also be an affiliation with mutual partners or friends who share the same goal or burden with you.
One recent study showed that “benefits had a positive effect on work motivation, but there was no significant relationship between rewards and job satisfaction”.
Therefore, it’s important to recognize that rewards motivate you, but they won’t make you happy when they’re unnecessary. This is usually what you see on the surface when you look at others. You see the outward recognition, respect, and recognition they receive.
Middle layer: Support
In essence, the second layer of the motivation engine (also known as enablers) supports your goals. They can magnify the motivational core you have or accelerate the momentum you’re building. Basically, they create favorable conditions for things to go smoothly.
If you want to know how to find motivation, positive enablers are key. This can include friends and family or any support network you have created in life.
The innermost layer: the core
But the most important thing and the real driving force behind your motivational flow is your innermost core, your purpose. Your purpose is what separates the motivated from the unmotivated, the accomplished from the underachievers, and the happy from the unhappy.
At the core of your motivation is your purpose, which is sustained by two things: having meaning and moving forward. With these two as a foundation, you have an energy source that will feed you motivational energy indefinitely.
Maintaining your primary motivation – your purpose
It’s simple to make sense of. If you want to learn how to find motivation, ask yourself: Why?
Why are you pursuing a specific goal? If the reason is vague or unclear, your motivational strength will be the same. Motivation gives you the energy to do something, and that energy needs to be focused somewhere. So without meaning, there is no direction to focus your energy.
But having a meaningful purpose doesn’t mean you’re going to change the world or have a big impact on society. The secret to meaningful work is simple: it must add value to something or someone that matters to you.
One study suggested creativity as a possible route to meaning: “Many of the basic concepts that work on the meaning of life, such as coherence, significance, and purpose, or the desire for symbolic immortality, can be reached through creativity. activity”
Next is getting forward movement. In short, this means to keep moving. Like a snowball, making progress creates motivation and momentum. So to keep this going, you have to keep moving.
The good news is, your progress doesn’t have to be huge for you to recognize it. Small progress can be encouraging as long as they keep coming. Just like driving a car, you can get really impatient if you come to a complete stop. But, even if you move slowly, it decreases as you move forward.
Creating a simple progress indicator like checklists or milestones is a great way to visualize your small (and big) achievements. It prompts your brain to recognize and acknowledge them, giving you a little boost of motivational energy.
This is why video games are so addictive! They are full of progress indicators everywhere. Even if the progress is completely virtual, it can still trigger the motivational centers of your brain.
How to get daily motivation
Find out what drives you today
Why not take a moment today and do a quick reflection on where you are right now? Pick one aspect of your life that you would like to move forward with.
For example, it could be your current job. Start with your why. Write down your reasons for why you are in the job you are in. Then, think about the core of your motivation: your purpose. Write down what gives you meaning in your job, and what are some of the things that help you move forward in life.
Once you have those facts, it’s time to make a comparison. Does your current job help you make progress toward that goal you wrote down? If so, you are on the right track. If it doesn’t, or if you realize that your life isn’t going where you want it to, don’t panic. There are tools that can help you get through this.
Do your best not to focus on the negative. Review your goals and aim yourself in a positive direction, even if that means starting small.
Change your approach and don’t give up
When something doesn’t feel right, it’s always a good time to take a moment and look for a different approach if you want to learn how to get motivated.
You may be doing everything correctly and efficiently, but such an approach is not necessarily the most motivating. Often, you can find a number of obvious modifications to your current approach that will change your experience and open up new possibilities.
That is why it is so common to say “one way or another” – if you really want to achieve your goal, there is always a way; And for the most part, there is more than one way.
If an approach doesn’t work for you, find another one and keep trying until you’re motivated and find one that gives you the results you want.
Track your progress
Everything you work on can be easily broken down into smaller parts and stages. For many big or long-term goals, it’s natural to break down the process of accomplishing them into smaller tasks and milestones. There are several reasons behind doing this, one of which is to track your progress.
We automatically track our progress with many activities, but to stay motivated, you need to recognize your progress, not just track it. Tracking means noting that you have reached a certain stage in your process. Recognition means taking the time to look at the big picture and realize exactly where you are and how much you still have to do.
For example, if you are going to read a book, always start by going through the table of contents. Being familiar with the chapter headings and remembering their total number will make it easier to track your progress as you read. It’s also a good idea to confirm how many pages your book has before starting.
It is human nature to always want something to happen in the short term or all at once. Even if we break down complex tasks into simple actions, we don’t feel satisfied until everything is done and the task is complete.
In many cases, the task is so overwhelming that such an approach will drain all motivation from you long before you have a chance to reach your goal. That’s why it’s important to always take small steps and recognize positive progress. This is how you can keep yourself motivated in the long run.
Reward yourself
Feeling regret doing something? Dread the idea of working on a task? Hate the whole idea of working out?
From the beginning, agree on some deliverables that will justify your rewards. As soon as you achieve one of the agreed-upon outcomes, take the time to reward yourself in some way. This creates extrinsic motivation to help you feel motivated in the long run. For some tasks, taking a break and resting for a few minutes will do. For others, you may want to grab a fresh cup of coffee and even treat yourself to dessert.
For even bigger and more demanding tasks, reward yourself by doing something more enjoyable, like going to a movie, taking a trip somewhere nice, or buying yourself something. The more you reward progress, the more motivated you’ll feel to reach new milestones.
Final thoughts on staying motivated
Happiness doesn’t have to be a vague term or an illusion that you constantly chase with no end in sight. By finding your true motivation, you’ll be one step closer to realizing your happiness and finding meaning in everything you do.
You’ve tried many solutions to help you stay motivated and found that none of them really have any effect. That’s because they only bring about incremental changes, and permanent change requires a holistic approach. It requires more than focusing on one area of your life or changing one part of your routine or actions.
You want to make a fundamental change, but it feels like a big, unknown territory that you can’t handle at this point in your life.
The truth is, taking your life to the next level doesn’t have to be so complicated. So, if you want to take the first step towards achieving your life’s purpose, it’s time to learn how to find motivation!