How to keep yourself motivated
Original Writer- Editor in Chief, Pick the Brain
Keeping yourself motivated can be a struggle no doubt. Drive is constantly murdered by negative thoughts and worries about things that haven’t even happened yet. The thing that separates successful people from people who fail is the ability to stay motivated and keep moving forward.
To be honest there really is no simple solution for this problem even after getting motivated again there will always be those negative things that try and drag you down and squash your motivation. The thing to be constantly working towards is learning to understand your thoughts and how they drive you emotions. You have to learn how to nurture motivating thoughts, focus at the task at hand, and you’ll be able to achieve anything you set out to.
3 Most common reasons why we lose our motivation
1- Lack of confidence: if you don’t believe you can succeed, then why are you trying?
2- Lack of focus: if you don’t know what you’re working towards, then is there really anything you want?
3- Lack of direction: if you don’t know what to do, how can you be motivated to do anything at all?
How to boost confidence
The first way to lose your motivation is a lack of confidence. When you lose your confidence it is usually because you’re choosing to focus on what you want and are neglecting what you already have. When you only think about want, your mind will create reasons and excuses for why you aren’t getting it. This creates negative thoughts.
The way to steer away from these thoughts is to focus on gratitude. Set aside time to focus on the positive things in life. Keep a mental list of your strengths and accomplishments. Most of us have a tendency to take our strengths for granted and focus on our failures. Learning to feel grateful will help you to realize how competent and successful you already are. This will rejuvenate your confidence and help you get motivated to accomplish your next success.
When you think negatively your mind finds examples and distorts reality to confirm your beliefs. When you really believe that you deserve success, your mind will generate ways for you to accomplish it.
Developing Tangible Focus
The second way to kill your motivation is lack of confidence. Don’t focus on what you don’t want, focus on a tangible goal. Normally we think in terms of fear, afraid of being poor, afraid of being alone, afraid of losing respect. When you focus on your fears, it feeds on itself and grows and drains you.
Focus all of the energy you’re wasting on fear on a well defined goal. When you set a goal, you have a set of actions or a step by step process in place that will assure you reach that goal. The key is moving from an intangible desire to concrete, measurable steps.
By focusing on a positive, attainable goal instead of an ambiguous fear, you put your brain to work. It instantly begins devising a plan for success. Instead of worrying about the future you start to actually do something about it. This is the first step in motivating yourself to take action, when you know what you want; it motivates you to devise a plan to achieve it.
Developing Direction
The final piece in the motivational puzzle is direction. Focus is the ultimate goal; direction is how you get there. Having a lack of direction will make you lose your motivation because without that step by step process, you’ll succumb to procrastination. The key to finding direction is identifying the activities that lead to success. Make an action plan that focuses on the activities that lead to big returns on your goals
