Tip #1 – Exercise
This might seem like a strange way to get motivated, but it is possibly one of the
most effective ways. When we are out of shape and carrying around a few extra
pounds, it becomes much easier to feel worse about ourselves.
Indeed, not exercising can take a serious toll on your self-esteem. It can also
make you feel generally lethargic and physiologically uncomfortable. And when
you do, it becomes harder to focus on your work, your goals, and your personal
relationships.
So, get exercising! Even if you don’t shed all of that extra weight, exercise will
make you feel happier and less distracted.
Tip #2 – Improve Your Diet
As with exercise, adhering to a better diet can help to motivate you, even if you
do nothing else. The reason for this is that improving your diet will regulate your
blood sugar, improve your focus, and alleviate any physiological distractions.
With fewer distractions, you will able to bring your full talents to bear on any
project. You will see better results; and this will encourage you to work harder on
new projects.
In addition to the direct effects on your productivity, you are also likely to find that
your mood will improve once your diet improves. You may find yourself becoming
more optimistic; and less bogged down in the challenges your project presents.
Tip #3 – Plan Your Morning
One of the most important parts of getting motivated is planning your day. I
suggest you consider starting with the following schedule, which many
successful, motivated individuals follow:
1. Wake up early. Perhaps earlier than you are accustomed to.
2. Eat a nutritious breakfast.
3. Do light exercise (such as jogging) for 45 minutes.
Beyond that, you can schedule your day however you decide. But the first three
steps are important ones. If find yourself getting off on the wrong foot each
morning, you’ll probably find that your bad mornings will pass through into bad
days.
On the other hand, if you follow these steps, you’ll significantly improve your
chances of having a good day. You had a good—but not too filling breakfast—
and you already got your exercise out of the way. You also woke up early, so you
didn’t lose precious morning hours to sleep.
Tip #4 – Time Your Daily Activities
One good way to get motivated and accomplish your goals is to find ways to
become more efficient; and then to do them. For instance, let’s say that each
day, you have to do mailings for your business.
When you first started doing this, you probably thought a lot about the process.
But after a while, you locked yourself into a routine; and started doing everything
automatically.
If you find yourself doing this now, it might be a good idea to start keeping track
of how long it takes you to do these routines. For instance, if it takes you 15
minutes to re-organize your work area at the end of the day, then time yourself to
see if you can do it faster. Challenging yourself to do this will get you in the habit
of thinking new ways to improve how you carry out these daily routines.
Tip #5 – Find Out When You Work Best
Earlier, I mentioned that many successful and highly-motivated individuals wake
up early, eat breakfast, exercise, and then shower. You may try this and find that
it works for you, too; however, you may alternatively find that it doesn’t work for
you.
If it doesn’t work for you, it’s no big deal. The key is to find what works well for
you; and to do it. If you work best very late at night, then work late at night. Don’t
burn yourself out by working all day at a slow or moderate pace, only to have
nothing left when you reach your peak working hours.
As a general rule, it is a good idea to experiment with your schedule, find out
what truly works best for you, and then stick to it.
Tip #6 – Get to Know Yourself Better
When it comes to getting motivated and achieving your goals, few things are as
important as truly understanding who you are, what you want, and how you
respond to various situations that life presents you with.
So, get to know yourself better. Next time you make a plan for the day, think
about whether you have carried out similar plans in the past; and, if not, why you
weren’t able to do so. This will help you to gain a better feel for how you are likely
to respond to this plan if it is implemented.
Over time, if you make a conscious effort to do this, you will begin to understand
yourself better. You will not only know what makes you fail, but how to overcome
it. And you will not only know what makes you succeed, but how to ensure that it
is always present.
Tip #7 – Write Your Goal Down
One good way to encourage yourself to accomplish your goals is to write them
down on paper. Until you do this, you will never convince yourself that your goals
are concrete, inflexible, and something worth accomplishing.
However, once you write them down, you have no way to escape. You can
simply look at a document on your computer or on the piece of paper you wrote
them on; and you can see exactly what your goals were. If you aren’t
accomplishing them, you can hold yourself accountable.
So start writing your goals down. As soon as you have them on paper, you also
have a way to hold yourself accountable—to make sure that you are living up to
your own standards.
Tip #8 – Reward Yourself
One of the best ways to motivate yourself to achieve goals is to provide yourself
with tangible incentives for doing so. For instance, if you work at a sales-based
commission job and you want to push yourself to sell more, then you may want to
commit yourself in the following way:
If you make over a certain amount in commissions for the week, you will spend
25% of everything you make over that amount on something for yourself; or on a
nice evening with your significant other.
You might immediately think: “that’s a lot to spend on a weekly basis.” But the
point is this: if you can encourage yourself with good incentives to not only make
as much as you would normally make, but more, then giving yourself that
incentive not only makes you richer, but it also finances nice evenings with a
special person in your life.
Tip #9 – Think in Shades of Gray
Often, when we think about goals, we either think “either I will accomplish this
goal in one week or I will never accomplish it at all.” Unfortunately, things don’t
always work out this way. More often then not, we’ll run into a snag when we
attempt to accomplish goals; and we’ll need to reformulate our plans accordingly.
And this is precisely why it is important to think in terms of shades of gray, rather
than black or white (success or failure). If things don’t work out this week, it’s
okay. Take stock of your progress; and then figure out how you can do things
differently over the course of, say, the next week to ensure that you don’t miss
that goal again.
Tip #10 – Tell Others About Your Goals
When it comes to accomplishing your goals and staying motivated, it is important
to employ “commitment devices.” A commit device is any strategy that will give
strong incentives to adhere to your commitment, even when there is no third
party enforcing that commitment.
One good commitment device you can employ is to get others involved in your
goals. Tell them about your goals; and tell them what you’re going to accomplish
and when you’re going to do it.
Now, when you’re attempting to accomplish your goals, you’ll have a built-in
mechanism reinforcing your efforts: shame. If you fail to accomplish what you set
out to do, you’ll have to report this to others; and look stupid as a result.