Staying motivated is one of the most common struggles you’ll have in your life. From eating better to studying harder to finally going after your dream job, motivation is the key ingredient that makes or breaks your success story.
Here’s the good news: Motivation isn’t a fixed trait! You can learn how to motivate yourself at any time and any point in your journey.
Set attainable goals
A good goal is a clear statement of what you want to accomplish in the future. It should have a deadline (or time frame) attached to it so you can track your progress toward completion. A good goal also gives you a reason for completing the task.
For example, if your goal is “Write an article every week,” then each week as part of your routine, you’ll remind yourself why writing articles is important: because they help people learn something new about themselves or their lives.
You can read some famous you are not alone quotes to cheer you up for your day.
Create a routine
A routine is simply a series of actions performed habitually. For example, you might always shower and eat breakfast at the same time every morning. Routines can be physical, mental, or emotional.
A physical routine can help motivate you because it gets your body moving and feeling good! A mental routine helps keep your mind busy so that it doesn’t focus on negative thoughts. An emotional routine allows you to connect with other people or something larger than yourself for support (e.g., spending time volunteering).
On the other hand, some routines may not be as effective at motivating us as others: eating junk food every night before bed won’t make us feel good physically; spending hours alone inside playing video games won’t help us grow socially; telling ourselves how useless we are isn’t likely to boost our confidence either!
Focus on your accomplishments
When you focus on your accomplishments, you can see that you are doing a great job and have done many things right and learned from them.
You will also see that there is always something to improve. You can do this next time with more effort or try another approach.
Focusing on the present moment is essential so you don’t waste time thinking about the past or future.
Stop being so hard on yourself.
If you’re a perfectionist, motivating yourself will be even harder. If you set the bar too high, then you can only fail. You need to accept that you will make mistakes and not give yourself a hard time.
If we could all just accept that failure is part of life, we could move on from our mistakes more easily and learn from them instead of beating ourselves up for doing something wrong.
You are neither perfect nor I, so stop pretending that your life should be perfect because it won’t ever happen!
Connect with someone who supports you
You may also want to connect with someone who supports you and will be your cheerleader. It’s even better if they’re willing to help you set goals and stay motivated.
Surround yourself with success stories
You can also find yourself a mentor. This person should be someone you respect and admire and who has achieved something similar to what you want. You get the benefits of having someone guide your progress and learning from their experience.
Lastly, this is a good time to remind yourself that there are people who have been where you are now and succeeded in achieving their dreams (or something close). It may seem like you can’t do what they did—but it is! They make the same mistakes as anyone else when starting on any journey into the unknown, so just know that it’s possible for them too!
Take one step at a time.
Don’t try to tackle the whole thing at once. The world is full of people who try to take on the whole system, teach themselves calculus in a week, or write a book without having ever written one. Don’t be that person!
Instead, think about how to break your goals into smaller steps and focus on each. If it’s an overwhelming task (like writing a book), then set aside some time each day to work on it until you’ve finished. If it’s something small (like making sure your room is clean), do that every day until it’s done, and don’t worry about anything else until then!
Conclusion
As you can see, all of these steps are designed to help you keep going and keep trying, even in the face of setbacks or discouragement. It’s easy to get stuck thinking about the big picture, but what matters is that you take one step at a time and keep moving forward. You’ll be surprised how much easier it is when you do!