We all know that motivation is important if we want to achieve our goals and live our dream life. We all need the motivation to execute and work on our goals. But what if you lack motivation? What can you do to fuel your motivation and push yourself to get the work done?
Motivation is easy when the tasks we want to do are enjoyable.
For instance, think about playing games, watching movies, or heading to the beach or go shopping.
We all love doing those things and we seem to have no problem with motivation when it comes to doing those things.
However, let’s be real: some tasks are not as enjoyable and getting yourself motivated can be challenging.
And this is what separates the successful from the unsuccessful.
The successful know what to do and they choose to do the work anyway even if they lack motivation or don’t feel like doing it.
On the other hand, the unsuccessful choose to procrastinate whenever they don’t feel motivated.
So, what can you do to boost your motivation so that you can work on your goals and do what you are supposed to get done, done?
Here are 5 little tricks that I constantly used to fuel my motivation whenever I needed it:
1. Revisit your purpose
I bet you have heard this a gazillion times. But let’s be honest, this is the main reason that makes people do what they do.
Think about it, two persons can attend a workshop about building an internet business, but only one person takes action.
Why? The reason is because of commitment.
The one who is more committed decided to make it a goal and then create a plan and follow through.
On the contrary, another person who attended the same workshop is less committed and he decided to do nothing.
So, what makes one person more committed than another? Purpose.
Your “why” determines your level of commitment.
For people who have a strong and emotional purpose, they become more committed and are willing to do whatever it takes.
But for people who don’t have a strong and emotional purpose, they are less committed, and they prefer to do things that are comfortable.
When things become difficult and challenging, especially when they lack the motivation, these group of people will choose to procrastinate and don’t do the work.
Do you get it?
Hence, if you think that you lack motivation, check your “why”. Remind yourself of your purpose.
If your purpose is strong enough, it will fuel your motivation and drive you into action.
I constantly remind myself of my purpose whenever I don’t feel motivated. I reread my goals and my purpose, I look at my vision boards and think about all my “why”.
And this is how I maintain my drive in building this blog.
2. Make your first step really easy
Another little trick you can use to boost your motivation is to make your first step so easy to execute that you will do it without any hesitation.
Think about it, how much motivation do you need to brush your teeth each morning? How difficult it is to log in to your Facebook and check updates from your mobile phone?
When something is easy and convenient to do, you will do it without much motivation.
And this is how you can push yourself into taking action – by making your first step easy to execute.
For example, every time when I think about I need to write and publish articles every day, and I need to do this every month for years, it makes me feel daunting.
Instead, I make the goal of publishing easy by breaking down the process. I only focus and think about doing just one small step, which is to write down the article title and the draft.
The key is that I want to put myself into the action mode.
How difficult can it be to write down an article title and do a little bit of research to draft the subheadings?
Comparing to writing the entire 2,000 to 3,000 words article, writing down just the article title seems so much easier to do.
I bet you will also find it hard to come up with the drive to exercise. So, what do I do to make sure I exercise every day?
Again, I make the first step easy to do.
And in this case, the first step is to get change. I don’t really think about the entire process of exercise, I just focus and think about doing the first step, which is to change to my sports attire.
And once I have completed the first step, I have put myself into action mode and the momentum will start to build up.
This is how I trick myself into taking action.
I make the task so easy to do that I have no reason not to do it.
When the resistance is low, you don’t need much motivation to do the task.
I suggest you read this article to understand better about starting small:
Success Cycle: How to Leverage Small Success to Build Bigger Ones
One thing though, you have to make sure you focus and only think about getting the first step done.
You don’t want to overwhelm yourself by thinking about the entire process, which can be huge and daunting, just focus on getting the first step done.
3. Share your targets and progress
Do you know that making a public commitment helps to boost your level of commitment too?
Yes, making a public commitment, whether you share your targets or tell someone your progress, you are putting yourself on the line.
Imagine your goal is to become a full-time blogger and make a living from blogging, and you share this goal with a colleague, but not just that, you take it to another level by sharing your plan and the exact date of when you are going to resign from your day job.
How does that make you feel? Pressured? Scary?
This is exactly the kind of feeling you want to have in order to push you into taking action.
When you make a public commitment, be more specific.
The more specific you are, the more committed you will be.
Don’t just say that you wish, or you dream to be successful or to achieve your goals, be specific.
When you tell someone your plan and the exact action steps that you are going to do, you are creating accountability for yourself.
I know it can be something challenging, especially if your goals and dreams are something big.
But once you tell someone like, “I’m going to quit this job next year January to start my own internet business”, it is difficult to back out from what you said.
Once you said that, you will never want to be in the company again next year January. Do you really want to tell your colleagues, “I changed my mind and I will stick a little longer”?
This is how you can fuel your motivation and drive yourself to achieve anything you want.
Make it a public commitment so that you will have no other ways but to do it.
Read: Should You Keep Your Goals Private or Public?
4. Visualize the achievements you want
Everything starts with your mind. What you think, you become.
And you can use your imagination to fuel your motivation as well.
All you need to do is to visualize the achievements you desire and all the good things that you want.
Our minds cannot differentiate between what is real and what is being imagined.
When you watch a horror movie, you feel scared, although you know that it is just a movie and it is not real.
If you don’t believe me, just do this: Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking to your kitchen. Vividly see yourself open the door of the fridge and you take out a lemon. Feel the texture of the lemon.
Now, visualize yourself taking out a knife and cut the lemon into half. And then see yourself squeezing the lemon juice into a cup and you drink the juice.
Do you have more saliva in your mouth?
If you vividly imagine yourself doing this, you will have more saliva in your mouth because your mind makes what you imagine real.
And this is how you can manufacture motivation.
You can create motivation by visualizing what makes you feel good.
For example, if you want to have the motivation to exercise, just imagine yourself going through the process.
See yourself exercising, sweating, and at the end of the day, see yourself losing the weight and looking fit standing in front of a mirror.
You can practice visualization for any goal you want to achieve.
And like any other skill, the more you visualize, the better you become at visualizing.
Hence, the next time when you lack the motivation to act on your goal, see yourself having achieved your goals and are enjoying the rewards.
Find it hard to visualize what you want? Don’t worry, here’s a guide from Sir Jack Canfield:
Visualization Techniques to Affirm Your Desired Outcomes: A Step-by-Step Guide
5. Set up a reward for completing the task
Another easy and effective method to increase your drive for your goals is to set up a reward for yourself.
Of course, you will only reward yourself once you have followed through and do the work.
It is like the carrot-and-stick principle. When you do something right, you reward yourself.
Every time after I finished writing an article, I will reward myself either with a short session of games or I will allow myself to take a short break like 15 to 30 minutes and do whatever I like.
Sometimes I will play games, sometimes I will watch some interesting YouTube videos, and sometimes I will just do some reading.
The point is to choose to do something that you enjoy. You want to reward yourself for completing the task.
However, please make sure the reward aligns with your goals.
Don’t reward yourself with a big bowl of chocolate ice-cream after your exercise session. You don’t want to sabotage your own hard work.
Therefore, be sensible with your rewards. If you have no idea how to reward yourself, read this article:
How to Reward Yourself for Your Hard Work and Effort
Remember, you want to have something to look forward to.
Not all tasks are enjoyable, but still, you need to get them done. And this is when reward can be really powerful and effective.
Imagine you have to work on getting the images done for your website, but you don’t really like do the work. Use the reward system.
Once you completed your daily tasks, you can reward yourself with something smaller.
As for achieving bigger goals, you can reward yourself with something bigger and more exciting, like a 3-day vacation or getting yourself a new laptop, etc.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to fuel your motivation to do anything, you just need to play the game right.
Like how successful people did, they are not born with unlimited motivation, but they know how to manage their motivation well.
And you can do that too.
Do you find these 5 tricks helpful in boosting your motivation? Let me know in the comment section below.
