3 Quick Tips To Help Ignite Your Motivation
Motivating yourself to be productive and on track to meeting your targets and goals is a never-ending process. The longer it takes you to achieve your goal, the more motivation you’ll need.
The truth about motivation is that it’s just a starting point. For example, every year on New Year’s Day, millions of people make a resolution to lose weight and get fit.
The promise of a new beginning at the start of the year is the impetus which motivates them to sign up for a gym membership and workout daily.
However, action is work and within 3 weeks most people realise that the work required is not that fun at all.
By March, most of the gyms are empty. Gone are the motivated people who wanted to transform their bodies. The only gym goers who remain are the ones who have been training day in and day out for years.
The difference between the former and latter group is that the former relied on motivation to get started – but lost it along the way.
The latter relied on habits to keep going and when they’re about to slack off, they add a spark of motivation to ‘restart their engine’ and just carry on.
The key to staying on track is to not only use motivation to get started, but to also form positive habits that align with your goal.
When you notice that you’re losing motivation, you MUST reignite the passion you initially had when you decided on that particular goal.
Here are a few quick tips to follow:
1. Be Productive
You want to find the best possible ways to achieve your goals and be productive without wasting time and effort running in circles.
Trying to lose weight? You’re better off with short 20-minute high intensity interval sessions rather than jogging on the treadmill for hours.
Trying to create content for your websites? You may want to outsource your graphics to a professional rather than struggling for hours to do them yourself.
By doing what’s most important, you’ll be less likely to become fatigued. The more energy you have, the more motivated you’ll be.
2. Have A Vision Board
Place a vision board in a prominent place in your room/office. Pin up pictures and quotes that inspire you and are aligned with your goals.
Look at the vision board daily and know why you’re doing what you’re doing – and what you’re trying to achieve.
Change the location of the vision board once a month. Getting too used to seeing it in the same place can cause you to be numb to it and you’ll ignore it over time.
When the board is on a different wall, suddenly it’ll grab your attention again, and motivate you once again.
3. Take Regular Breaks
You’re always in a battle to beat fatigue. We all have a finite amount of energy daily. The goal is to use it wisely and last the distance.
Instead of working for 5 hours straight without any breaks, you may wish to take a 20-minute break every 90 minutes or so.
Studies have shown that most people lose concentration after 90 minutes. The short break will revitalise you and you’ll be able to do another 90 minutes of focused work after the break.
So, you might actually be able to work for 4 90-minute sessions and get more done in 6 hours without feeling exhausted than you would working 5 hours straight, but being drained by the time you’re finished.
Productivity and focus will help you get more done and you’ll feel better and more motivated when you see your achievement for the day.
Besides these 3 tips highlighted above, there are many others that can help fire you up. There are too many to list here, but what matters is that you apply what works best for you.
Rest assured that there will be days when you’re feeling down. Knowing how to rally yourself to keep going will make all the difference and it’s one of the key skills that separates the winners from the masses.
“Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” –Theodore Roosevelt