Motivation is one of the most important keys to success. Most people fail to achieve their goals because they lack the motivation to do the work. They are not consistent because they fail to find the motivation they need to work on their goals on a daily basis.
I bet you have heard this famous quote from Zig Ziglar:
[ctt template=”9″ link=”8vT6I” via=”no” ]”People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.”[/ctt]
Motivation is a state. It is an emotion or feeling that you have in you. And this is why motivation comes and goes.
You can feel motivated at this moment and be in a depressed mood in the next moment. When you listen to a pumped music, you feel driven and are ready to take massive action.
But if you are distracted or overwhelmed by the work, you can quickly lose your motivation and don’t feel like doing the work anymore.
This is how and why people choose to procrastinate. They work only when they are motivated. And they choose to delay the work or let go of the work completely when they don’t have the motivation.
The good news is that you don’t have to let motivation to control your life.
In other words, you don’t have to let your emotions to control you. Instead, you can choose to control and master how to increase your motivation whenever you want to.
This is exactly what I’m going to share with you in this article. Here are 13 quick and easy tips on how you can boost your motivation fast:
1. Visualize the exciting success you want
One of the easiest ways to get motivated is to visualize the exciting success you want.
Like I said, motivation is a state of emotion. And you can change your emotion through visualization.
When you think and visualize great and exciting things, it drives you and makes you want to take action.
On the other hand, if you think of the work as something boring and mundane, highly likely, you will be turned off and don’t feel like doing the work.
It all depends on how you visualize the work/goal/action/project.
Why do you think that successful people have all the motivation to take massive action each day?
First, they love what they do. Second, they see themselves as the winner in their field. They see themselves creating an impact on other people’s lives. They visualize themselves winning the game and are enjoying the exciting results.
Athletes see themselves as a champion winning the competition. Entrepreneurs see themselves building a great business empire that changes people’s lives.
What about you? What kind of exciting success that you want?
What You Can Do:
Visualize and see yourself having and enjoying the success you desire. The key is to make it as exciting as possible.
When you see people travel to and are enjoying in Hawaii and if it happens to be your dream destination, you will feel excited when you see people are living your dream.
You create the picture in your head and you boost your motivation through visualization. So think about success all the time, my friend.
And when it comes to visualization, one the best that everyone should learn from is none other than John Assaraf. You can download his Exceptional Life Blueprint here and learn more about achieving the success you want from him.
2. Affirmations and pep-talk
How you talk to yourself matters. If you are someone negative and you keep telling yourself that you can’t do it, eventually, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Affirmations or pep-talk is a great way to boost your motivation to a higher level.
In sports, I believe you have seen players gather around and pump themselves up through pep-talk, right?
The general of an army will address his men and increase their will to fight before going into the war.
Affirmations and pep-talk work the same. The difference is that with affirmation, you are motivating yourself to work and not a group of people.
If you think that you have tried affirmation before and it doesn’t work for you, you should read this article:
How To Make Your Affirmations Work – The 5 Simple Rules To Follow
Most people get it wrong because they are doing affirmation for the sake of doing it.
Affirmation is not only a way to say something inspirational to yourself, but you have to feel the words. You have to do it with a purpose and with emotions.
Don’t just say, “I can do it.” You must say it with conviction and feel the words and emotions flowing through your body.
If you are just doing the affirmation without emotion, it will not work for you.
Besides that, you must also repeat your affirmation for at least a few times. You need to say it until you “get it”, get it?
What You Can Do:
Whenever you feel a lack of motivation, practice affirmations. Talk to yourself in a positive and motivational way to boost your energy.
Read the article I shared above and learn the 5 simple rules how you can make affirmations work for you.
And if you want to explore more on this technique, read the best-selling book by Shad Helmstetter, What to Say When You Talk to Yourself.
It is a very inspirational book where Shad shares the powerful technique of talking to yourself to program yourself for success.
3. Move your body
Do you know that motion creates emotion? Meaning, when you are feeling lousy or are having no motivation, you can change your state by moving your body.
If you don’t believe this, just do this:
Stand up and jump 10 times and then when you are done, make a fist pump!
Did you do it? If you don’t, do it now, try it. And let me know how you feel after doing this test.
You feel motivated, refresh, and awake almost at an instant. Amazing, isn’t it?
This is how when you change your physiology and your body movement, you change your state and emotion too.
Usually, most people feel sleepy after their lunch. This is especially true if you take heavy lunch and have to sit in front of your computer to do your work after that.
For me, what I’ll do when I’m feeling sleepy in the afternoon after my lunch is that I will walk around. Yes, I spend like 10 to 15 minutes to walk around the office or my house.
When you walk and move your body, you increase the blood flow and the oxygen to your brain. This helps makes you fresh and boost your productivity.
This explains why walk meeting is huge now. According to this article from Huffington Post, walk meeting can be much better than the traditional sit meeting.
“You can find many big-shot fans of the walk and talk — including Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and this guy named Barack Obama. There’s even a TED Talk devoted solely to the topic.”
What You Can Do:
Move your body. Change your action and motion to change your emotion.
When you lack motivation and don’t feel like doing the work, just change your motion. Try to jump 5 to 10 times and make a fist pump.
You can also create your own power moves to boost your motivation to the next level. Read this article:
How To Get Motivated Through Mental Conditioning Using Power Moves
4. Listen to fast-paced and uplifting music
As I’m writing this, I’m listening to my favorite music. Plenty of studies and research have been conducted on how music can affect and elevates our moods.
When you listen to sad songs, the songs trigger your thoughts and make you think about all your sad moments. As a result, you feel down after that.
At the same time, if you listen to uplifting songs, you can feel uplifted and driven after that.
According to the research published in PLOS ONE, sad music can cause negative feelings of profound grief.
On the other hand, when listening to fast-paced and uplifting music, your mood will change accordingly. It makes you feel good.
What You Can Do:
So what you can do now is simple, listen to uplifting and inspirational music that can put you in a higher energy level.
I choose to listen to music without lyric when I’m doing work where I need to think, like writing this article.
And when I’m doing more technical work that does not require much of my creativity like creating images for Pinterest, I choose to listen to songs with lyrics.
Thus, choose the right compilation for the right work. Use music to motivate you.
5. Drink a cup of coffee
You may or may not like this tip. So whether you want to use this technique to increase your motivation is totally up to you.
I believe that I don’t have to explain more about drinking coffee, right?
For me, I only drink a cup of coffee in the morning for most days. Occasionally, I may get 2 cups of coffee, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. But most days, I only drink a cup.
I believe in moderation:
- A little bit of gaming is good, too much of it is a waste of time and life.
- A little bit of alcohol is fun, too much of it can be dangerous.
- A little bit of movie can be a good entertainment, too much of it can destroy your life.
The same goes for coffee. I’m not suggesting you drink 3 cups of coffee a day. Moderation, my friend.
What You Can Do:
Make yourself a cup of good coffee and enjoy it. By the way, try not to drink coffee in the later part of the day because it may affect your sleep.
6. Take a power nap
I have heard about power nap for a very long time, but after I read this article from Michael Hyatt, I changed my view about it and now I take power naps when throughout the day when necessary.
According to Michael Hyatt, many successful people were power nappers:
- Leonardo da Vinci took multiple naps a day and slept less at night.
- Though Thomas Edison was embarrassed about his napping habit, he also practiced his ritual daily.
- Physicist Albert Einstein napped each day—on top of getting ten hours of sleep each night.
- Oil industrialist and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller napped every afternoon in his office.
When you take a power nap, it quickly restores your alertness and makes you more refresh. A nap can also heighten your sensory perception and increases your creativity.
More importantly, a quick power nap can make you more productive and more motivated.
Hence, whenever you feel tired or lack motivation, try to take a power nap.
What You Can Do:
Take a rest and a power nap whenever you need to throughout the day. We need to recharge our energy to go further.
If you have no idea how to take a power nap, read this article from WebMD and learn the 4 simple steps.
7. Find a fun way to do the work
Make your work fun. If you work is not fun, you don’t have the motivation to do it, right?
So make it fun.
Why do you think that some people are willing to stay up late to play games but they can’t find the motivation to work?
Some people are willing to wake up early for a game of golf but they are not motivated to get up early to go to work.
Think about it. Most of the time, it is because most people find that their work is not fun at all. If something is not fun to you, you will not have much motivation to do it.
I like this quote from Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Group:
What You Can Do:
Incorporate the fun factor into your work. Make your work fun and you will have a higher motivation to do it.
You just need to be creative on this make turn your work into your fun. For instance, you can create a cuter workplace, start your day with your favorite breakfast, engage in a friendly workplace competition, hang out with your colleagues, etc.
Need more creative ideas? Read this article below:
20 Genius Ways to Make Work More Fun
8. Talk to someone enthusiastic
Energy is contagious. When you mix around with lousy people, you become lousy too. When you mix around with negative people, you will end up thinking more negatively as well.
Hence, if you want to get motivated quickly, talk to someone who is enthusiastic and let his or her energy affects you.
Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. And he was absolutely right.
When you lack motivation, go and talk to people who have high energy and motivation.
You don’t have to spend the whole day to do this, a couple of minutes or a phone call can be sufficient.
Ever wonder why successful entrepreneurs have mentors and great athletes have coaches? Whenever they face with difficulties, help is just one call away.
The conversation and the topics you involve in can stimulate your thinking, which can directly affect your mood and emotion.
What You Can Do:
Try to talk to someone who is enthusiastic and let his or her energy to infect you. When you are feeling down, talk to people who have just created their victories. Talk to the winners and you will eventually be motivated to become one.
9. Change the environment
Another quick and easy way to boost your motivation is to change your environment.
The environment you are in can greatly affect your mood. If you don’t believe me, try to read a book or write an article in a noisy and busy wet market. Can you focus and do you have the motivation to do so?
Your mood can be easily affected by your environment.
For instance, if your chair is not comfortable, you will quickly lose your drive to work for long hours sitting on the chair. This is why I suggest people who need to work long hours facing their computer to invest in better and more comfortable office equipment.
Get a better chair and a good table. You will find that you will have a better mood to work after that.
Like what James Clear wrote in his blog, “Environment is the invisible hand that shapes human behavior. We tend to believe our habits are a product of our motivation, talent, and effort. Certainly, these qualities matter. But the surprising thing is, especially over a long time period, your personal characteristics tend to get overpowered by your environment.”
Try to design a motiving environment that can increase your drive to work.
For instance, I write articles from the comfort of my house for most days. But there are days when I’m feeling no motivation at all but I still need to get the articles done.
So what do I do? I choose to change my environment. I will go to my local coffeehouse like Starbucks to work there.
Your environment can shape your future or destroy it. Thus, design a supportive environment that helps you in making good decisions and taking constructive actions.
What You Can Do:
Change your environment when necessary. If your work requires you to station on your workplace for long hours, turn your workstation into a great place that can inspire you to work.
You can put up motivational posters and create vision boards to put on your office wall. The key is to turn your environment to boost your motivation.
10 Tips How to Change Your Environment for Greater Motivation
10. Get a partner or build a team to do the work
Sometimes doing everything all by yourself can be boring. And when that happens, you will choose to procrastinate and not do the work.
Do you know that getting a partner to do the work together can be a great source of motivation?
It is boring to workout alone in the gym, get a friend to do it together. If you want to build a successful business, get partners and build your own team and do it together.
Try not to do it all by yourself. If you are doing everything by yourself, you have no people to rely on when the tough time comes.
On the contrary, with a group of partners who share a similar vision as you, you are more likely to sustain because you and your partners can motivate each other when needed.
So the next time when you find that you have no motivation to work on something, see if you can get a friend to do it together with you.
It is more fun and you will have more motivation to do it. This is why a group study can be a great idea.
When you lack the motivation, find someone else who is doing similar or related work, collaborate with each other, and then do it together.
Henry Ford was not a genius, but he was definitely a great leader and he knew how to leverage on his team to build what he wanted. This was he said:
[ctt template=”9″ link=”5cacG” via=”no” ]”If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”[/ctt]
So find your partner and where you can do the work together so that you won’t feel bored or no motivation.
What You Can Do:
The solution is obvious. Do it together with someone else. If you lack the motivation to go jogging, get a friend to jog with you.
Remember, coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is success.
11. Watch a short motivational video
Another quick tip that can help increase your motivation is to watch a short motivational video.
I bet you have watched some videos where the scene or the conversation between the characters inspired you.
There are so many videos available on YouTube these days. The key is not finding the right ones, but the key is to not lose your focus and end up wasting your time on YouTube.
You want to get motivated so that you get your work done and accomplish your goals. You don’t want to get motivated to watch more videos. Remember that.
Goalcast is a great YouTube channel where the uploader constantly publishes great and inspirational videos there.
Besides that, you can also follow your favorite gurus on YouTube and let what they shared to inspire you. For instance, you can follow people like Jay Shetty, Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Brian Tracy, Dan Lok, and more.
What You Can Do:
Whenever you lack motivation, watch an inspirational video or two to get motivated again.
Remember, you don’t want to get distracted and overspend your time watching videos. Your purpose is to be inspired and to increase your motivation so that you can take massive action to achieve your goals.
And if you are going to watch motivational videos, you might as well watch this presentation on how you can achieve your goals.
12. Ask yourself motivational questions
Asking yourself questions is one of the most powerful techniques you can use to unleash your motivation and take you to the next level.
In fact, we are constantly, asking ourselves questions in our minds. The problem is that we do that unconsciously and when we ask ourselves lousy questions, we tend to feel lousy.
Thus, it is time to take charge of your life right now by asking the right question. And you can also use ask yourself motivational questions to boost your level of motivation.
Read my previous post:
10 Motivational Questions You Should Ask that Reignite Your Drive and Passion
When you ask questions like:
“Why does this happen to me?”
“What if I fail?”
“Why didn’t I?”
“What if I’m not good enough?”
Guess how will you feel after that? Not too good, right? And when you ask yourself the right questions, you can spark your motivation and reignite your drive.
For instance, when you ask yourself, “If I successfully achieved my goals, what will my life be like?”
Imagine all the possible answers in your head. If you achieved your financial goals, you become rich. You can drive your dream car and travel and visit Europe with your lover. How good is that.
Questions can work as a trigger to direct our focus and thoughts.
What You Can Do:
Ask yourself motivational questions to get motivated. And if you have no idea what kind of questions you should ask, read my previous post here.
13. Create the instant accountability
Another amazing method to increase your motivation fast is by creating instant accountability.
We tend to procrastinate when we are not accountable for the results we want and the goals that we desire to achieve.
However, when the accountability is there, we will work harder regardless of whether we feel like doing the work or not.
Think about it. When you need to submit your work on Thursday morning, most likely, you will get the work done. What if you don’t have to be accountable and you don’t have to submit the work on Thursday morning?
Highly likely, you will procrastinate until when your work is needed only to complete it.
This is what happens when we don’t have accountability for what we do. Nobody will say anything if you are not successful. You are only accountable to yourself. Thus, you procrastinate on your dreams and your goals.
You lack the motivation because you lack the accountability. Therefore, create the accountability to increase your motivation to do the work.
Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychologist once conducted a study on achieving goals and resolutions discovered that accountability is one of the most important keys to success.
In her study, 76% of the participants achieved their goals when they write down their goals, action commitments, share the goals, and also send a weekly progress report to a friend.
“My study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools: accountability, commitment, and writing down one’s goals,” Matthews said.
What You Can Do:
Create the accountability for yourself so that you can boost your motivation and get the work done.
Entrepreneur.com shared a good article on 6 ways how you hold yourself accountable. You can read it here.
Conclusion
Motivation doesn’t last and it comes and goes. You can feel motivated today and you can fall into a slump the next day.
The key to maintaining and staying motivated is to understand how it works and what you can do to boost your motivation each day.
Follow the 13 tips above raise energy and increase your drive. I hope these tips are helpful to you.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Cheers.
Thank you for this very comprehensive and detailed post!! I particularly like how you’ve structured it, please continue the good work; I look forward to your next post!