Five Tips To Improve Your Motivation

For most people, the main hurdle preventing them from reaching their long-term goals is motivation.

It can be very difficult to remain motivated and consistently put effort into a project — particularly when you don’t immediately see some kind of pay off.

In this article, I’ll share several essential tips for remaining motivated as you strive towards achieving the long-term goals in your life.

What is motivation?

Motivation refers to any needs, desires, and wants that significantly influence your behaviour.

Physiological motivations are the most basic forms of motivation.

For example, a physiological motivation like hunger will prompt you to look for food.

More complex motivations are required to achieve more sophisticated goals like losing weight or working late to finish a challenging project at work.

Motivation can come in both positive and negative forms.

Some positive motivations for losing weight including being healthier and more attractive.

A negative motivation might be the fear of not fitting into the wedding dress or tuxedo you have already purchased for your wedding day.

The most powerful motivations tend to be positive.

If you feel excited, passionate and positive about a goal, you can jump into it with both feet and work towards it more consistently.

In some cases, you may need to identify and foster your own positive motivators for long-term goals.

If you are trying to get fitter, you may need to identify the unique motivating factors which will help you get your butt to the gym every week.

This might include motivations like “living longer” “looking better”, “getting stronger”, “spending time with friends” and so on.

What motivation can achieve

Motivated people can achieve almost anything.

You only have to look at the achievements of remarkable people like Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein or Leonardo Da Vinci to see the great things that motivated people are capable of.

Becoming a highly motivation person can completely transform your life, helping you achieve incredible things in both your work and family life.

Tips for improving your motivated

Focus on small goals

One of the simplest techniques for improving motivation levels is to focus on the small goals that help you achieve larger goals.

As you achieve these small goals, you will gain momentum, like a boulder rolling down a hill.

This will continually boost your motivation levels and help you achieve the more difficult long-term goals that you have.

Let’s say you want to be a healthier person.

Don’t just jump on the bike and go for a high-intensity 50 kilometres ride.

Your body won’t be used to exercising at such a high intensity level, leaving with you with very sore muscles the next day (which may immediately drain your motivation levels).

Instead, start with a 5 minute bike at a low intensity.

Just roll yourself around the block a couple of times.

You will feel fantastic after a short ride.

Make a note of the duration and distance of your ride in a journal, along with how you felt after completing the ride.

If you are attempting to lose weight, you could also jot down your current weight.

The next day, go on a 7 minute bike ride.

When you come home, jot the results down in your journal again.

As you wrack up these small victories, you will gradually improve your fitness and obtain the positive benefits associated with physical fitness.

If your motivation levels drop, you can read your journal to remind yourself of how much you have accomplished and how good you feel after a ride.

Establishing a track record of small victories will give you the confidence and motivation to persevere.

Identify your motivations

It’s important to be very clear about the precise motivations that are behind your goals.

Use a journal to jot down your goals and “why” you want to achieve them.

Do your best to attach additional positive motivators to each of your goals.

Let’s say your goal is to get fitter and lose some weight.

What are your motivations?

Most people might say “to be healthier” and leave it at that.

However, there are some other powerful motivators available if you want to use them.

For example, some of the following motivators might apply for you.

“I want to lose weight because…”

• I want to be physically attractive so I can find a romantic partner
• I want to be physically attractive for my current partner
• I want to feel strong and fit
• I want to avoid diseases like obesity and diabetes
• I want to live longer
• I want to be alive for my children and grandchildren
• I want to perform better athletically
• I want to travel and need to physically fit
• I want to compete in a triathlon
• I want to fit into an old pair of jeans and so on

Make a note of your personal motivations in your journal and regularly refer to them for inspiration.

Narrow your focus

Most people have multiple goals that they are interested in pursuing.

While this is commendable, having too many goals at once can make it more difficult to achieve anything at all.

Your goals may have conflicting motivations or you may find it difficult to fit everything into your day.

Deal with this dilemma by focussing on the three most important goals in your life to start with.

Consider these goals a starting point.

Once you have achieved one of the goals or you have made significant progress towards achieving it (for long-term goals), add more goals to your list.

Having fewer goals can make it easier to move forward and build solid momentum.

This initial momentum will make it easier to remain motivated.

Commit publicly and be accountable

Share the details of your goals with your friends, family, and colleagues.

This will improve your motivation levels as you will be afraid of failing and looking bad in front of others.

Be specific about the goal you are sharing publicly and post details of how close you are to achieving it.

If you are interested in losing weight, for example, post your current weight along with your goal weight on a notice board at work.

Some of the people close to you might even begin to give you encouragement as you get closer to achieving your goal.

Do it with friends

Staying motivated on your own can be difficult.

If you can find other people who are on a similar journey, you can work together towards achieving your goals.

Having friends along for the ride makes remaining motivated much easier because you can perform some activities together, inspire one another, and discuss the challenges you face along the way.

Forming the habits that help you reach your goals is also easier if other people are involved.

Thanks for reading Five Tips To Improve Your Motivation.

Which techniques help you remain motivated?

Leave a comment below to share them with others.