5 Simple Tricks To Keep Your Motivation High
Motivation is one of the key reasons as to why people achieve great things. Even when the going gets tough some people just seem to keep going despite of the fact that all odds are stacked against them. This makes other people wonder as to whether these selected few have a super-human ability of some kind.
The answer is that these very few individuals have somehow learned and integrated a never-ending supply of motivation which is immune to all the obstacles and challenges that come along the way while they are achieving their desires.
Keeping A Gratitude Journal
How would keeping a gratitude journal help you in staying motivated you might ask. Well, it reminds us that there have been many instances in our life which were happy and joyous. Our life is not that bad as we perceive it to be. This realization of the fact that we are way better than most of the population helps us in staying motivated and achieving greater things in life.
Also, when we are feeling down on some days and our minds goes into the downward spiral of self-pity and depressing thoughts this journal comes handy and helps us to elevate our mood. When we are in a good and positive mood we can think of solutions to the most pressing problems in our life and come up with a creative solution.
Chunking The Big Dream Into Manageable and Measurable Goals
Everyone has dreams in their life. But very few seem to actually achieve exactly that which they dreamed of. Very few people out of the whole population of the world can in fact declare that “it was a dream come true” for them.
The reason that so very few people actually achieve their desired lifestyle and dreams is because they just dream it up and leave it at that stage. The people who achieve those dreams are no smarter or better off than other people. But, they have developed the ability to bring their ideal life from their mind into their physical reality by taking appropriate and consistent action.
Story: This reminds me of Dashrat Manjhi - The Mountain Man of India who created a pathway from his village, Gehlore, to other larger villages with a hammer and sickle.
When he realized that the government was reluctant to help his village and the village heads were siphoning off money meant for development he started on his own breaking the mountain bit by bit.
After about 30 years he finished creating a path and later on in 2011 the government created roadway for vehicles to ply on that route.
When an idea strikes in our mind we have to understand that we have the power to achieve that thing. If we were not able to do so then the idea would not have occurred in the first place. So, the next thing is to start using our logical and reasoning mind to create a concrete plan and set goals towards the desire that we have set.
When we set small, manageable and measurable goals and take action towards them we are making our desire and dream inevitable. It is just a matter of time when we will have achieved in our physical reality that which was some time ago just in our mind.
Taking Meaningful Breaks To Stay Focused
Although many people would pride themselves for working long and continuous hours at the task that they have been assigned, they don’t understand that our mind does need some time to rejuvenate. If we keep pressing for more and more hours without any breaks our mind and body will start losing its focus and will eventually burn out.
Just like a racing car would require frequent pit stops to refill and change the tires, your body and mind require a good amount of meaningful breaks to relax and rejuvenate. Even if you feel that you can go on without any breaks it is vital that you schedule breaks in between your working day. This helps you to keep going and keep recharging to tackle the next challenge.
Practicing Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness is the practice of staying in the present moment and not letting your mind wander on either past of present moments and creating and rerunning scenes. Most people have this habit of either running the conversation in their minds over and over again about something that happened in the past or about something which they would say to someone in the future.
This habit is detrimental to your mental muscle as it drains away the energy required to sustain throughout the day. This is a major reason why so many people feel depleted of their energy at the end of the day although they have hardly done anything at work.
Meditation helps in calming the mind and observing the events and thoughts from a detached perspective. When you observe your thoughts as a scientist, you find that your thoughts do not affect your mood. You acknowledge them and let them pass by while you are in a state of calm and serenity.
This habit will help your mind to keep fresh and motivated towards those things which are important to you and will help you to stay on track when things get tougher.
Celebrating Your Small Successes
Celebration is a form of rejuvenation to your mind and body. While most of us would feel silly for celebrating our smallest successes it is vital that we give our mind some form of reward for having accomplished something meaningful during the day.
When we train our mind to look for the reward for accomplishing something it will naturally do its best to complete the task satisfactorily and get that reward. When you fulfill the promise that you have made to yourself about the reward, you are setting up a virtuous cycle of action — reward — motivation — action.
Your mind understands and obliges to your requests as it has now experienced the fun and joy of receiving the reward for something that it has accomplished.
Giving yourself rewards by celebrating the wins over obstacles also makes your journey enjoyable, which otherwise would have be an arduous and boring. When you finally achieve your dream it will be yet another celebration in all the celebrations you had till date.
Conclusions
Applying these techniques can quickly make you keep your motivation level high enough to accomplish any task which was taking you a lot of time and efforts. It may also lead you to get so turned on by your goal that you will forget everything else and get stuck to the task.
But, life is to be enjoyed and experienced fully on all aspects. Keeping a balanced work-life ratio is the mantra to have a fulfilling and successful life and say “it’s a dream come true for me”.
