Motivation we all need....

It seems some people can just jump out of bed and move mountains. Some of us can barely move the covers off of ourselves in the morning. Are some people just naturally self-motivated, or are they trained to be so?

While it may have bearing on your personality type, there is no reason why you can’t get self-motivated and achieve all the goals you set out for yourself. It’s really about believing in yourself.

Getting Motivated

We all have goals, whether it’s to finish your degree, build custom birdhouses or learn Spanish. It’s so much easier to start tomorrow. Many of us use the new year to start our new diet, exercise regime or art class. We often fail.

We fail because we allow ourselves to fail. But all we need to do is take the first step.

Make a Plan

Setting a date for the goals to start gives you time to think about it more and time to prepare yourself. Knowing the start date is important. It plants it in your mind.

Prepare To Win

If you are trying to quit smoking, perhaps, then once you have a start date, you can start making preparations. Change the habits you are trying to break. Make it more difficult to smoke.

Don’t smoke until noon the first week, then 2 pm the next. Don’t smoke indoors and limit how many you can have during the day. Don’t carry matches or a lighter.

Learn All You Can

Read all about what it is you want to achieve. The more you can find out about it, the easier it will be when you start.

Revisit Your Goals Daily

It’s a good idea to have visual aids to remind you of what you are after. Perhaps you want to work from home. When you think of some of the benefits of that, write them down where you can see them. Colorful post-it notes are a great reminder.

Keep in mind the things you don’t enjoy about your situation now, as the negative aspects are just as motivating as the positive ones. Make lists, like, No More Commuting, or No More Barb and her cat stories.

Talk To People in the Know

Ask questions about your goals and find mentors. Start hanging around people who are already doing what you want to do. Is running a marathon your goal? It’s all baby steps, one day at a time.

Find people who are at the same level as you, so you can all train together. Sometimes that extra boost of motivation from someone else keeps our self-motivation moving forward. You may be a good influence on someone else who needs it, too.

Acknowledge and Own Your Setbacks

We all slip up, we all fail and we all miss the mark. That isn’t the important part. The important part is how you bounce back. The only failure is never trying. Trying and missing is just a reason to come at it from a new angle.

Learn from these setbacks. Don’t beat yourself up over it all. Learn what you need to and start again. This can also refer to losing the motivation. It’s fine. We all need a break. Take them, enjoy them and keep going. Let it teach you, not define you.

Reward Yourself

It doesn’t have to be a big reward. But make a point of celebrating milestones in your goals. If you are on a weight loss journey, treat yourself to a new blouse or jacket. It will make you feel good to wear a size or two smaller and you will love how it looks and feels on you.

You can’t wait until the very end to celebrate. Acknowledge your success and you will be even more motivated to keep moving forward. You can also set smaller goals within the main goals. They work to motivate you, as well.

Learn From Other’s Mistakes

You will have people who influence you. Watch them and learn all that you can. But don’t just learn from their success, but their setbacks, as well. Everyone has them. How do other people respond and bounce back?

It’s just as important, if not more important to see others have setbacks. It should be a good lesson for how not to proceed. Again, it’s not the setback that matters, but how we move past it.

Get Moving

It all starts with the first step. All of it. Apply for school, start building birdhouses, start cutting back on those cigarettes. Every marathon starts with that early morning walk around the block.

Be positive, keep yourself on track and ask for help. Self-motivation has to start somewhere, as well. If you can do it today, you can do it tomorrow. You can’t jump the mountain today, but you can still do it eventually. Keep trying and you will succeed.