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Getting motivated and staying motivated is not that easy, especially when you are constantly faced with challenges that keep you feeling down. When the going gets tough and when you feel like quitting is your best option, stop. Quitting is never the best option.
Staying motivated even when there does not seem to be any reason for you to feel motivated is truly difficult, but it is not impossible. Think about it. What good does wallowing in misery do? Will it help you achieve the goals you set for yourself? Will it make life any better?
Instead of focusing on the bad things in life, institute a paradigm shift and focus more on the good things that have been happening to you. There will be times however when you will feel the pressure of what’s happening to you and you feel the strong urge to give up. On days when you feel emotionally, mentally, and physically spent, you can keep yourself going and getting to your goal by using these motivational tips:
- Imagine Yourself Achieving Your Goals
The power of imagination can be a strong motivator for a lot of people and it can be a strong motivator for you. Imagine yourself reaching the pinnacle of success, getting to your goals after all your hard work. How does it feel? It feels great, right? When you feel that you’ve reached your goals and when you visualize yourself reaching the success you are aiming for, you end up with a renewed sense of purpose.
This technique works not only because of the great feeling that you get when you imagine yourself achieving success. It works also because you see your goal in sight and you see that it is possible to reach. It also gives you the confidence you need to see things through, which helps people perceive you in a different light.
2) Surround Yourself with People Who Are Highly Motivated
What better way for you to feel motivated to continue with your quest for success than to hang out with people who think the same way? Like they say, you are who your friends are. So, hang out with those who are striving to reach their goals and those who are basking in their success. Imagine yourself reaping the same rewards as those who’ve reached their goals.
In the same note, avoid those who live in the negative zone. Those who think that the whole world is against them and no amount of trying will ever make them succeed. These negative ninnies should be removed from your life and should be avoided at all costs. Only surround yourself with those who see the light at the end of the tunnel and those who know that all their efforts will come to fruition. This will help you do the same.
3) Reward Yourself for Each Milestone You Achieve
Success is not something you achieve in just one fell swoop. It is something you get to with small victories along the way. When you achieve something that gets you closer to your goal, celebrate by rewarding yourself with something you’ve been wanting for some time. You can also celebrate by taking yourself on a short vacation, eating at a restaurant you’ve been dying to try for the longest time, or by simply giving yourself a day off.
The rewards system works. Set milestones for your dream and each time you reach one, reward yourself. Set a reward for each one or pick a reward that you want the moment you reach that milestone. Whatever you do, give yourself a prize for all your hard work. This will motivate you to keep going so you can earn that next reward at your next achievement.
4) When You’re Tired, Don’t Quit But Rest
Sometimes, all you need to keep yourself going is to stop and take a breath. One good example of this is when you are running a marathon. When you get tired, you don’t quit mid marathon. This won’t get you to the finish line. Instead, you walk instead of running. You catch your breath, grab a drink to refresh yourself, and once you’ve rested enough you can start to run again.
The idea here is to continue doing what you need to do but don’t be too hard on yourself that you don’t give yourself room to breathe. Rest when you’re tired. If you push yourself to the brink of exhaustion, quitting will seem like the only option, and your body will do the quitting for you. Rest, catch your breath, and continue on. Don’t quit.
5) See the Good In Everything You Experience
This may be a bit difficult for people to swallow. I mean, how can you see the good in the bad things happening to you or around you, right? There is a way for you to feel good even when bad things occur. What you do is to see it differently. As mentioned earlier, a paradigm shift is what you need to help keep yourself motivated. Instead of thinking that you are having a stroke of bad luck, think of it as a time for you to learn from mistakes.
Shift your thinking to see challenges as learning experiences. Think of these as puzzles that you need to solve, and once you’ve solved it, you are one step closer to your goal. Think of setbacks as a way to reassess the situation and to see where things went wrong. Think of these as detours that need to be taken in order to get to where you need to go.
6) Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
One of the biggest reasons why people quit halfway to their goals is due to comparisons they make between their peers and themselves. This is something you need to avoid. You are on your own timeline and they are on their own timeline. If your high school classmate succeeds ahead of you, that is their legacy, not yours. You have your own legacy, your own success, and it is not on the same timeline as others.
Comparing your life to those of your peers will definitely be a lodestone around your neck, so remove that heavy weight and focus in your path, not theirs. So what if they achieved success ahead of you? That is theirs. You follow your path and achieve your success. Instead of comparing yourself to them, use their success to fuel your drive to get to where you want to go. Do your thing and keep at it.
7) Enjoy Life and What You Are Doing
Find ways to enjoy whatever it is you are doing. The reward system and goal setting will help you with this. Don’t think that you will give yourself that vacation or that break or that item you want when you’ve reached the pinnacle of success. That will only burn you out and make it that much harder to reach your goals. Enjoy life, enjoy its ups and downs, and enjoy what you are doing.
Find ways to make what you do more fun, find ways to enjoy life even when challenges are in your path. You only live once and if you focus all your energies on feeling miserable because of these challenges, you add to your burden and not subtract from it. Keep going, enjoy that cup of coffee, laugh at that joke, indulge in that scoop of ice cream. You will find that enjoying each day as it comes and finding happiness in everything you do will propel you forward effortlessly than if you swim in worry.
