SELF
MOTIVATION: HOW TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF
If you want to excel in life, self motivation is
essential. You must know how to motivate yourself. You must be able to keep
your spirit high no matter how discouraging a situation is. That’s the only way
to get the power you need to overcome difficulties. Those who are discouraged
in difficult times are certain to lose even before the battle is over.
The question is: how do you motivate yourself? Here
are several tips I’ve found to be effective to build self motivation:
1. Have a cause
I can’t think of a more powerful source of
motivation than a cause you care about. Such cause can inspire you to give your
best even in the face of difficulties. It can make you do the seemingly
impossible things.
While other causes could inspire you temporarily, a
cause that matters to you can inspire you indefinitely. It’s a spring of
motivation that will never dry. Whenever you think that you run out of
motivation, you can always come to your
cause to get a fresh dose of motivation.
2. Have a dream. A big dream.
Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I
seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I
be.
Karen Ravn
Your cause is a powerful source of motivation but
it’s still abstract in nature. You need to make it concrete in the form of a
dream. Imagine how the world will be in the future. Imagine how people will
live and work.
Having a dream is important because it’s difficult
to be motivated if you don’t have anything to shoot for. Just think about
people who play basketball. Will they be motivated to play if there is no
basket to aim at? I don’t think so. They need a goal. You need a goal. That’s
what your dream is for.
But just having a dream is insufficient. Your dream
must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It
must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.
3. Be hungry
Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for
it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the
obstacles that will invariably come your way.
Les Brown
To be truly motivated, you need to have hunger and
not just desire. Having mere desire won’t take you through difficult times
since you don’t want things badly enough. In many cases, hunger makes the
difference between the best performers and the mediocre ones.
How can you have hunger? Your cause and your dream
play a big role here. If you have a cause you care about and a big dream
related to it, you should have the hunger inside of you. If you think that you
are losing hunger, all you need to do is to connect again to your cause and
dream. Let them inspire you and bring the hunger back.
4. Run your own race
I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I
only try to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Comparing yourself with others is an effective way
to demotivate yourself. Even if you start with enthusiasm, you will soon lose
your energy when you compare yourself with others.
Don’t let that happen to you. You have your own race
so how other people perform is irrelevant. Comparing yourself with others is
like comparing the performance of a swimmer with a runner using the same time
standard. They are different so how can you compare one with the other?
The only competitor you have is yourself. The only
one you need to beat is you. Have you become the best you can be?
5. Take one more step
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is
the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
When you meet obstacles along the way, there could
be the tendency to quit. You may think that it’s too difficult to move on. You
may think that your dream is impossible to achieve. But this is where you can
see the difference between winners and losers. Though both of them face the
same difficulties, there is one thing that makes the winners different: the
courage to continue.
In difficult situations, just focus on taking one
more step forward. Don’t think about how to complete the race. Don’t think
about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking the
next step.
6. Let go of the past
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done
what you could.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Believe it or not, one of the best demotivators is
your past. Your past can drag you down before you realize it. Your past can
give you a heavy burden on your shoulders.
The good news is it’s a burden you don’t have to
carry. Take it off your shoulder and leave it. You might make mistakes in the
past. You might disappoint others with what you did. But it’s over. It’s
already in the past and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Today is a new day and you have the chance to start
again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future
ahead waiting for you. Just don’t let the burden of the past stop you.
***
Apply these tips and motivate yourself. Don’t settle
for mediocrity. Let your self motivation take you to excellence.
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