We all know that motivation doesn’t last, and this is why we must make it a habit so that we don’t have to rely solely on willpower and motivation to get things done. In this article, I will share with you the 7 motivational habits that drive the most highly successful people.
Develop these habits, make them yours, and incorporate them into your life, and you will never feel the lack of motivation again.
One of the most common reasons people fail to achieve their goals or reach a greater level of success in life because they lack consistency.
For instance, we all want to have a slim and fit body, but most people are overweight. We know that we need to exercise and enroll in a healthy diet plan, yet, we don’t do it.
We fail to stick to our plan. We want to save more, but we end up spending all our savings. We want to build a successful blog or write a great book, but we just fail to stick to our goals.
This is why motivational habits are important.
You don’t want to rely on motivation alone because motivation comes and goes. If you take action only when you feel motivated, what will you do when you’re not feeling motivated?
People are not lazy, they just don’t know how to develop the right habits to motivate them to achieve greater success in life.
So, here are the 7 motivational habits you should consider developing:
Visualization is a very powerful tool that can not only motivate you, but it can also remind you of what you want, therefore, keep you on track all the time.
Successful people visualize their dreams and goals all the time. They envision the success they want consistently in their minds. And this is why they are so motivated to act.
One of my favorite singers, Avril Lavigne, once said in an interview that when she was young and before she got famous, she would imagine singing on stage and performing a live concert in her room.
You have to use your imagination and visualize the success you want. You must keep the dream alive in your mind.
The same happened to Jim Carrey, the famous Hollywood actor. Carrey once told Oprah in an interview that he would visualize things coming to him. He also said that envisioning the success he wants made him feel better.
Jack Nicklaus is a retired professional golfer. He is considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. And the amazing thing is that Jack Nicklaus dedicated a large part of his career success to visualization. This is what he said…
“I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie.
First, I ‘see’ where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes and I ‘see’ the ball going there: its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is this sort of fadeout, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images to reality.”
Hence, practice visualization every day. Make it your habit.
See the success you want to achieve every morning before you start your day. Envision achieving your goals whenever you’re free. Become a dreamer and see yourself living the life you want.
Once you made this your habit, it is difficult NOT to feel motivated every day.
Action Step:
Envision the success you want every day. The more you think about your dreams, the more likely you’re going to take action and attract the desired results into your life. Use tools like vision boards to help you visualize better. Learn to create a vision board here:
Vision Boards – The Ultimate Guide to Creating and Living Your Dream Life
Here’s another motivational habit you can develop to maintain your drive – positive self-talk. You may refer to this as positive affirmations.
Do you know that we constantly talk to ourselves at any moment? I’m not saying that you talk to yourself out loud, but rather, we constantly have inner conversations with ourselves.
The moment we sit down and do nothing, we will start thinking and talking to ourselves. In fact, self-talk can happen at any moment.
No matter what you are doing, from running, sporting, watching movies, eating, to when you’re talking to someone, you’re constantly firing off thoughts in your head.
And because we constantly talk to ourselves, why don’t we choose to talk to ourselves in a positive way that can motivate us?
Successful people think differently. They talk to themselves differently.
When they don’t feel like doing the work, they tell themselves in their head to just do it, and they did.
On the contrary, people who procrastinate tell themselves that they are tired, and they should do something else that is much more comfortable. As a result, they procrastinate on things that they supposed to do and go and watch the TV.
Positive self-talk is a powerful method you can use to motivate yourself. So, make it a habit.
First, create a few positive mantras. Next, repeat them in your head whenever you are idle.
How you talk to yourself will determine how you think. And how you think will affect your mood and feeling. And your feeling will determine your action.
Thus, think positive good thoughts and talk to yourself in a motivational manner.
Here’s a great book you should read: What to Say When You Talk to Your Self
Action Step:
Create your own positive mantras and affirmations. If you need ideas on this, check out some of my examples here. Try to practice and repeat these positive self-talk so that they become the first thoughts whenever you face difficulties.
For example, I love one of the quotes from The Rock where he says “Try me” instead of “Why me”. So every time when I face problems, I tell myself, “Try me”.
How often do you celebrate your wins? I love how Oprah puts it:
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”
Highly successful people understand that celebration is important to develop a habit.
Think about it, if you take action and write a 1,000 words article, but you don’t feel good and celebrate it, do you think that you will feel good to want to do it the next time?
Imagine you and your team have just hit your monthly target, you feel great, you celebrate with your team, you high-five each other, arrange for a great dinner and everyone gets to enjoy the fruit after the hard work.
Guess how you and your team will feel when you guys are given another target to hit? Will you feel driven and are ready to take on the challenge? Or do you feel lousy because you have another target to achieve?
People lack motivation because they don’t feel good about doing the work. They look at the work as something boring, mundane, and tedious.
However, when you incorporate fun and celebration, suddenly the work becomes exciting. You start to look forward to getting the work done because once you get the work done, you can celebrate.
This is why it is important to make yourself feel good about your work. You want to make the celebration your motivational habit.
You want to feel good about your wins, your victories, and your progress.
If you want to learn how to celebrate your wins the right way, check out these 2 articles below:
Action Step:
Make it a ritual to celebrate your wins. No matter how big or how small your wins, celebrate. Every time I completed a task, I will say “yes” and feel the excitement. You can do so too.
Remember, the more you celebrate, the more you have in life to celebrate. When you feel good about your small wins, you build up the momentum to achieve bigger wins.
Recharging yourself so that you feel energetic again is another motivational habit that most successful people have.
I love this article from Michael Hyatt about taking power naps. This is what he wrote in the article:
Let’s be honest, do you think you have enough sleep each day?
We all know that sleep is essential for our physical and mental health, but very few of us know how important it really is.
According to SleepAdvisor.org, an adult requires about 7 hours of sleep each day.
When you are fully rested, you feel energetic, and motivation can come easily when you need it.
Sleeping at night is one thing, another thing is recharging yourself during the day.
When you’re tired, you should take a power nap to replenish your energy and restore your mental power.
I do take power naps whenever needed. When I’m working at home, usually I will take a power nap of about 15 to 30 minutes. I will just lie on my couch, close my eyes, and sleep for a while.
And every time after I wake up, I find myself to be more energetic, alert, and ready to execute and able to perform with productivity.
So, don’t underestimate the importance of recharging yourself. If you are tired and exhausted, it is difficult to summon your willpower and feel motivated to work at things.
Here’s a good article that can help you:
10 Easy Methods How To Recharge Yourself For A Fresh Start
Action Step:
Get enough sleep whenever possible. Take a power nap during the day when needed. More importantly, learn to recharge and replenish your energy. If your battery level is low, it is impossible to perform at your peak.
You charge your phone every day, right? So, why don’t you do that to your own body? Take a rest, relax, chill, and live with passion!
Here’s the interesting part, if you want to improve what you do, you must be able to measure it. Meaning, in order to achieve greatness, constantly review and measure what you do.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.
Think about losing weight. What is the first thing you do if you want to lose weight? You measure yourself on a weighing machine.
The same goes for building a successful business. You need to know your statistics and how your business is doing so that you can make amendments to improve.
People who don’t review their results will never know what is working and what is not, and thus, they can’t make changes to improve their life.
When was the last time you review your life? When was the last time you ask yourself if this is the life that you want to live?
You see, when you do a review, you will understand your progress and results. And when you know what you do is not getting you the results you want, you can change.
Too bad that too many people don’t measure their life. They don’t review their goals. They set their goals for once and then just forget about them.
And then they wonder why they fail to achieve their goals at the end of the year.
Never let this happens to you. Make it a habit to constantly review life and measure your progress. Here’s an article to help you with this:
How to Measure Your Progress to Effectively Achieve Your Goals
Action Step:
Review your goals every single day, preferably at the end of each day. Reflect on the things you have done and then measure your progress. Change your strategy or plan if things are not working out.
The more you review your goals, the more you will find out what works and what don’t. This is how you can improve to become better and better each day.
Do you know that goal setting is a skill? The more you practice it, the better you get. And the better you are at creating and achieving your goals, the more successful you can become. This is what I share in Goal Setting Formula masterclass. You should check it out.
Do you know what highly successful people have in common? They read a lot. This is surely one of the most simple and effective motivational habits you should develop.
I read about 2 books a month. And I dare say that reading has changed the way I think, the way I live, and has changed my life.
Reading, especially business and personal development books, has inspired me. Reading gives me insights and has driven me into taking action.
For example, when you’re feeling lost and have no motivation, read motivational books like The 10X Rule and The Compound Effect, you will be motivated by them.
HuffPost shared these in their article:
The article also mentioned a study conducted on 1,200 wealthy people and discovered that they all have one pastime in common – reading.
Successful people understand that books are a gateway to learning and knowledge. They don’t just read anything, but educational books and publications.
Let me share with you a little secret – what do successful people read about most of the time?
According to this article on FastCompany, successful people are obsessed with biographies and autobiographies.
In other words, successful people like to read about the success stories of other people.
So, what are you waiting for? It is time to develop the habit to read.
Action Step:
Make it a habit to read. Schedule a time to read each day. You can spend 30 minutes to an hour to read. In my case, I read every night before I go to bed. And I also read whenever I’m free.
The key to sticking to this habit is to time-block your schedule to read. Don’t just say that you want to read, plan and make time to read. Here’s a great article you should read:
6 Practical Tips to Help You Cultivate a Reading Habit
Finally, make it a habit to constantly optimize your environment. Our environment often plays an invisible role in shaping our life.
The environment you’re in continuously influences how you think, feel, and act. It impacts almost everything from how motivated you are to how productive you can be.
If you don’t believe in the power of the environment, try to read a book in a noisy wet market. Try to focus on working while your colleagues are chit-chatting at your back.
And Jim Rohn was right when he said, “You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with.”
Your environment, which includes the people you mix with, your friends, family, colleagues, your surrounding, and how things are oriented around you, will affect you.
For example, if you make friends with people who smoke, there is a high chance that you will end up a smoker too. The same goes for drinking and every other habit.
You want to create an environment where you can win. You don’t want to be in an environment where it will distract you when you try to work hard.
I suggest you read this article from James Clear where he explains how choice architecture works in our daily life.
There was a study conducted by a physician called Anne Thorndike. Thorndike and her team wanted to improve the eating habits of hospital staff and visitors.
And so, they started by changing how drinks were arranged in the room. Thorndike and her team place more bottled waters in the cafeteria, from the refrigerators to the counter table.
After 3 months, the sales of soda decreased by 11.4% and the sales of bottled water increase by 25.8%.
This study has confirmed that our environment plays an important role in determining how we live, and thus, affect our life.
When snacks are visible on the table, you will snack more. When your goals are visible such as if you put your vision boards in front of your workstation, you will tend to be more motivated to work on your goals.
Do you get it now? The people you spend the most time with and your surroundings play a vital role in shaping your destiny.
Action Step:
Evaluate the people you spend the most time with. Are they supportive? Are they negative people who complain and blame all the time? Mix with people who are positive and who have big dreams. At the same time, try to spend less time with people who are negative and people who will talk you out of your dreams.
Look at your surroundings. Are they helping you in achieving your goals and living the life you want? If you want to lose weight, do you keep snacks on top of your kitchen table? Create positive action triggers to remind yourself of what you need to do more of. And create negative action triggers to stop your bad habit behavior.
If you want to learn more about building good habits that will make you more successful and getting rid of negative habits, read this book, Atomic Habits:
Motivation comes and goes and we can’t rely on just motivation alone. Thus, we need to learn how to develop motivational habits that get us going, regardless of whether we feel like doing it or not.
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