We all love setting goals. We set goals for ourselves at the start of the new year, at the beginning of every month, and even at the start of each day. But how good are we at accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves?
More often than not, we begin working towards our goals with a lot of enthusiasm and eagerness. But somewhere along the way, we tend to lose interest.
The one thing that can bring you back to course is motivation. When motivated, we tend to enjoy what we do without it feeling like a burden.
This one is for those days where you feel the need for some extra motivation!
Ways to Motivate Yourself
1. Celebrate The Small Wins
At first, your small wins might seem exactly like that – as if they’re small and insignificant. However, the truth is that the small wins matter as much as the big ones do. They’re instrumental in creating a sense of encouragement and can often play a significant role in motivating you.
Let’s take, for example; your long-term goal to save enough money for you to be able to travel.
Maybe you find it hard to save money because you’re a spendthrift, and you always spend all your money without saving any. But today, you saved a small amount of money. Celebrate this.
It doesn’t matter if what you saved was a small, insignificant amount. The truth is that you made an attempt to save your money, and that is a first.
Celebrating your small wins can boost your confidence, make you happy, and basically motivate you to work towards your bigger wins as well.
2. Take A Break
We all have a limited span of attention. Either we get bored of the task at hand, or our performance gets impacted. What can help is a break in between.
If you’ve been working hard on something and feel yourself slacking off or losing interest, it could be an indicator that you need to take a break.
Lay back and relax at regular intervals. Maybe you could take a power nap or step out and take a stroll. You could even call a friend and catch up for a bit or watch a short show.
In addition to this, consider taking a long break as well. For example, if you’ve been working on a particular project for months on end, maybe take the weekend off and go on a short vacation? It could even be something as simple as a road trip or a short trek to the outskirts of your city.
Taking a break re-energizes you and gives you a sense of renewed strength and motivation to come back and deal with your task.
3. Organize Your Day
When you organize your day, you first get a clear idea of the tasks at hand. You’ll know what has to be done and how you can incorporate a systematic approach to your daily schedule.
What it also does, is that it can save you a lot of time. When you deep dive into your day without a plan in mind, you tend to go with the flow, miss out on a few tasks, or take up too much time on just one particular task.
However, if you organize your day right at the start or maybe the previous night, you can prepare yourself mentally to wrap up specific tasks within a particular deadline you’ve set for yourself.
You can use the help of an organizer or notepad to jot down your tasks for the day. Write them in order of priority. There are plenty of online resources and fancy tools that help you organize your day in fun ways.
4. Ask Yourself “Why”
- What are you working towards?
- For what goal do you need the motivation for exactly?
- Is it to complete an ongoing project?
- Or is it for a weight-loss mission?
Somewhere along the way, you lose the enthusiasm to keep going, and this is why you need to keep yourself motivated.
When you find yourself lacking motivation or interest, ask yourself “why” this goal was so crucial in the first place. Remind yourself how much you’re going to benefit from it once it has been accomplished.
You’ve been working towards something, and you’ve probably come a long way from where you started. In all that rush to get there, you might have forgotten the reason behind why you’re even doing what you’re doing in the first place!
5. Give Yourself Rewards
What makes a reward special is that it is only given when you’ve earned it. Rewarding yourself, mainly after you’ve just finished a task, can be one of the best ways to motivate yourself.
There’s also a science attached to it – your brain associates reward with positive emotions. When you reward yourself, your brain begins to associate this with a good feeling, which in turn motivates you to earn more rewards. You’ll soon link all your hard work and subsequent rewards to a pleasurable feeling!
6. Get A Buddy
Get a buddy who has the same interest in mind, so both of you can achieve your goals together. For one, it can be fun and exciting to have a companion who shares the same interests as you do. Secondly, if you slack off, your buddy can help encourage you or help you through the lows, and vice versa!
You can be the support system your buddy needs (and the other way round, too), and when you pose as the person who is supporting the other, you’ll see that you end up motivating yourself as well.
It also helps to have someone who understands you by your side when you want to rant!
7. Start Your Day Early
The night owls may not like this, but the fact is that the earlier you start your day, the better your chances are of staying on top of all your work.
You are most productive in the early hours of the day, so why not make use of it to the maximum?
Finish all your essential work earlier in the day, when your levels of motivation are at their highest. Once you’ve got all the crucial things out of the way, you’ll have time to include fun activities or enjoy some time to relax.
Waking up early can help lower your stress levels and manage time better. You won’t have to deal with rushing early in the morning, forgetting things, or not meeting your deadlines if you wake up earlier than usual.
If you’re not in the habit of waking up early, you could start by simply waking up thirty minutes earlier than you usually would. Eventually, you could start your day with the rising of the sun, which is the best time to wake up.
8. Break Your Goal into Smaller Ones
The whole idea of setting goals for yourself is to create a clear path and a sense of direction, so you can achieve what’s on your mind.
There’s always that one big goal that you’re heading to, and that is great. However, when you have a big goal in mind, working towards it can get monotonous at times. To deal with this, you can break your goal down into smaller ones.
It’s great to chase your big dreams, but allow yourself to work on the small ones you set along the way as well. It keeps you grounded and prevents you from feeling overwhelmed.
9. Focus
No matter how small or insignificant, when you’re working on something, make a conscious effort to focus on it entirely.
We live in such a fast-paced world, where everything is at our fingertips, making it easy to get distracted. Now, more than ever, it is crucial for us to be mindful of what we’re doing, so we can give it our best.
Focus paves the way to thinking clearly, better problem solving, reasoning, and decision making.
10. Cut Yourself Some Slack
Life is all about highs and lows. There will be days when you are full of enthusiasm and motivation, waiting to slay all your tasks and work toward your goals. But there will also be days when you can barely make it out of bed, let alone brace for what the day has to offer.
On days when your energy levels are low, you will need an extra push to keep you going.
However, it is essential to remember that you’re only human. And it is incredibly normal to feel out of it on some days. Don’t beat yourself up about it when that happens.
Cut yourself some slack, do how much you can, and give it your best shot. Pushing yourself over the limit constantly can lead to burnout and cause a lot of stress, and that is something you do not want to deal with.
Don’t forget that the goals you have in mind were set by yourself, for yourself. So don’t go about comparing yourself to others. It’s okay if someone else is getting there faster than you are. What matters is that you put your best foot forward!
How do you motivate yourself? Do you do something fun and exciting? Let us know!
About the Author
Ramya Karamsetti is a contributor to StyleCraze. She loves writing articles on beauty, health, and wellness and advocates using natural remedies to solve everyday skin and hair issues. When she is not writing, she loves traveling and going on adventure trips.