You know you need to write the article, but all you do is just sitting in front of your computer and do nothing. Instead of working, you watch YouTube and waste your time on Facebook. Does this happen to you a lot?
No matter what you want to accomplish, be it at work or in life, you need the motivation to do so. Without motivation, you will feel lazy and you just don’t want to do anything.
One of the reasons most people fail to achieve their goals is that they lack the motivation to take consistent action. They set a goal to lose weight, but they only stick to their plan for a week. They decided to build a successful blog, but they only work on it for a few days.
This is why learning to master your motivation is important to your success. And here are the 10 simple things you can do to get your motivation back right away:
1. Remind yourself of your purpose
You’re not feeling motivated because you lack a strong purpose. Think about it, why do you do what you do? When your purpose behind what you do is empowering and exciting, you will make it happen. Regardless of whether the task is easy or tough, when your purpose is clear, you will have the motivation to push forward.
Hence, revisit your purpose. Remind yourself why you started in the first place. Let your purpose drives you. This is important especially during these times when things are tough. With the current Coronavirus disease still lurking at large, many people have lost hope and forgotten their directions.
Hence, you want to remind yourself of your purpose and focus on your “why”. When your “why” is strong enough, you will have the motivation.
Extraordinary people have a strong and emotional purpose for their dreams. They’re excited when they think about what they are about to accomplish. That is why they have all the energy to work on their goals and to achieve them.
Read: Why Clarity of Purpose is Important to Success and How to Get It
2. Remember the rewards
Are your goals exciting enough? Oftentimes, we do something because we wanted to get the reward. Why do you want to build a successful business? Perhaps, you want to be financially successful because you want to drive your dream car or because you want to give your family a better living place.
The key is to focus on the rewards that you desire. Be it to travel the world in business class, to drive a Ferrari, or to own the bungalow by the beach, you must not take your eyes away from the rewards.
Let what you want motivates you and keeps you going. After all, they are the reasons you started in the first place.
Read: How to Reward Yourself for Your Hard Work and Effort
3. Get an accountability partner to push you
When you try to do things all by yourself, you will find it difficult and lack motivation. Therefore, do it with someone else.
For instance, you will find it challenging to exercise in the gym alone. There’s no fun in it. So, you need to get a partner to hold yourself accountable. Furthermore, it will be more fun to exercise with a friend than to do it alone.
Thus, get an accountability partner to boost your motivation. Let your partner support you when you lack the motivation.
Read: 7 Easy Ways How to Hold Yourself Accountable for Your Goals
4. Listen to uplifting music
Do you know that listening to music can change your mood? Plenty of studies have shown the impact of music in our daily life. So, what you want to do then is to listen to uplifting music when you need the drive.
When you listen to your favorite tune, it makes you feel better and your mood becomes good. You feel the energy flowing in you and you start to have the motivation to work. Hence, tune in to your favorite songs or listen to some uplifting music to boost your level of motivation.
Check out this YouTube video below. It is one of my favorite inspiring music that I will listen to whenever I needed a little push.
5. Change your environment
Changing your environment is another great method to get your motivation back. Most of the time, when you’re feeling no motivation, you just need to change the environment.
For instance, when I have no motivation to do my work, I will just take my laptop and go to a quiet café and work there. It helps.
Do you know that environment plays an extremely important role in determining your success? Read this article below to find out:
Read: How to Change Your Environment to Create Better Success in Life
6. Start with an extremely small and easy task
Do you want to know how to get the work done? Just focus on the extremely small task and get it done. Do one thing at a time.
The key is that you want to build up your momentum. When the momentum is there, you will become unstoppable and have all the motivation to get the work done.
However, to build up your momentum, you need to take action. And the best way to do this is to start small. Ask yourself, “What is the one small thing I can do right now?” And then do it.
When you focus on the small and easy task, you lowered your resistance to doing the work. If the task is quick and easy, usually, you don’t need much motivation. That’s how you build up momentum to get all the work done.
Read: Why Start Small? The 5 Important Benefits of Starting Small
7. Reward and celebrate your progress
Rewarding yourself for your progress is an extremely powerful method to boost your motivation for future work. When you praise and compliment someone, you make them feel good. So why don’t you do that to yourself?
Celebrate all your wins, even if it is just a small win like a 5 minutes work or successfully making a phone call. The key is to reward yourself so that you will feel good and want to continue to work harder.
Just like what Oprah used to say:
The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.
Read: 13 Ways How to Celebrate Small Victories and Make Progress
8. Take a quick and short break
This may sound counterintuitive, but trust me, there will be times when you take a short break is more effective than continue to work on the task when you have no energy at all.
Sometimes, when you are so tired and feel no motivation at all, taking a break can actually help you recharge your energy. If you choose to press on, sometimes you will suffer burnout.
Read: The Importance of Taking a Short Break According to Research
9. Move your body and exercise
Your body is created to move. Sitting on the chair the entire day will make your body stiff and it drains your energy. So, when you feel sleepy, lack of energy, and no motivation, just move your body.
You can go for a quick exercise if you want to. Else, just move your body and do some simple stretching. It refreshes your mind and makes you more alert.
Check out this article from Healthline.com: The Top 10 Benefits of Regular Exercise. The article mentioned that exercise makes you happy, improves your mood, and boost your energy level, which eventually helps you get your motivation back.
10. Increase your commitment
Here’s another great technique to get your motivation back quickly, increase the commitment for the work that you want to accomplish.
Let’s face it, you procrastinate on a task because you can. You delay the task until the last minute when you have no choice, you get it done. The point is that we only feel the pressure to work when there is a commitment.
When we put in 100% commitment, we will get the work done, no matter how tough it is. Therefore, raise your commitment toward the work that you want to get done.
One easy way to do this is to make a public commitment. Share with someone about what you want to do and when you will complete it. Plus, get him or her to check on your progress. When you do this, you put yourself on the line. You become more committed to doing the work.
Here’s a good read from Success.com: 5 Things Successful People Commit Themselves to Doing
Conclusion
Motivation comes and goes. It is very normal that there are days when you feel totally motivated and you get all your work done. And there are days when you feel no motivation at all, and you just want to do nothing.
If you want to achieve your goals, produce outstanding results, and accomplish great success in life, you need to master your motivation. Apply these 10 easy tips above to get back your motivation when you need it.