100 Ways To Motivate Yourself: The Motivation Manual – Ebook Preview

1. Ask Yourself “Why?”

If you don’t thoroughly understand why it is you want your goal, it will be all too easy to give up before you reach it. When times get rough, which they most likely will, you will need something to fall back on. Therefore, you’re going to want to ask yourself the extremely important question of “Why is this goal important to me?”

Dig deep for your answers too so that you get a better understanding of why you believe that the goal you’ve set will better your life. For instance, if your goal is to save enough money to buy your first home, why is that important to you? Is it because home ownership is a symbol of adulthood or do you want to start a family and can’t properly do in the tiny one bedroom apartment that you are in now?

The more you know about your “Why?” the easier it will be to reach your goal.

2. Find Your Passion

When you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, it can be very difficult to stay motivated. That is why it is so important to go about reaching your goal in a way that magnetizes you, drawing you closer and closer to it.

One way to find your passion is to create a plan that includes other things you care about a lot. For example, if you’re trying to lose those last 10 pounds but are having a hard time fitting in your daily exercise, enlist the help of your kids.

When they ask you to play kickball in the yard with them to help you burn more calories, it’s going to be pretty difficult to turn them down because you care for them so much. Your passion for them will make it easier for you to get to your goal.

3.Write Your Goals Down

Not only does writing down your goals increase the likelihood that you will achieve them, but the written list serves as continual motivation as well. Keep it in your wallet or purse where you can see it every time you open it, or place them in a frame on your office wall so they are in your view each and every day.

Reading your goals over and over again reinforces with your mind that they are important to you. It reminds you of what you want to achieve in your life, building your drive and determination along the way.

4. Draw Strength from Motivational Speeches

Along with reading inspiring quotes, listening to motivational speeches has the same positive effect. They can get you pumped up while driving to work, motivate you while out on your run, or simply inspire you when you are relaxing and taking in the good vibes. Upload them to your MP3 or buy CDs and play them in your office or car.

If you have internet access, you can also watch motivational videos. It is a great way to get yourself excited about the challenges that you face, encouraging you to go outside your comfort zone and achieve great things!

5. Enlist the Help of a Support Group

There are going to be times where you find it especially difficult to motivate yourself. You get stuck in a rut and can’t seem to find your way out, which is where a support group can become invaluable to your growth and future potential.

Whether you join an actual support group created for a specific cause or simply enlist the help of well-meaning family and friends, this type of community can help. To have someone else cheering you on, someone who can pick you up when you fall and make you smile when you’re feeling down makes you realize that all things are possible because you’re not in this alone.

6. Start Small

Even though your dreams should be larger than life, you want to start small when accomplishing them. If you bite off more than you can chew, tackling too much at one time, you’ll not only have motivational issues that could slow your progress, but you’ll likely give up all together.

Take your huge dream and break it down into smaller pieces so that it doesn’t overwhelm you. For instance, if your goal is to be an internationally known motivational speaker, your first step may be to create a message that you want to send. From there, you might want to develop a signature and start delivering it to local agencies. Once known in your area, then you can increase your geographical location, finally reaching your final goal—one small step at a time.

7. Share Your Goals with People You Trust

One study conducted by the Dominican University of California found that people who wrote their goals down AND shared them with a friend accomplished them an astonishing 76 percent of the time! Essentially, telling others about what you intend to do increases your motivation to want to reach your goals, greatly increasing your results.

Just make sure you pick someone that you trust so that you feel comfortable sharing your thoughts, feelings, concerns, and struggles with them. Some good options include your spouse, best friend, clergy, or life coach.

8. Visualize Your Success

This particular motivating option is used by Olympians across the world to help them earn the gold, professional athletes who want to win the championship, and emergency response personnel that strive to survive life-threatening incidents. Visualization is very powerful as it trains your To engage in visualization mind to take the necessary actions without having to do them physically.

Simply find a quiet place to sit, close your eyes, and image yourself engaging in the behaviors that will help you reach your goal. For example, if your first priority in life is to earn your college degree, imagine yourself going to class, studying at home, and even getting a tutor if you need one. Engage all five senses in your imagery, making it more real so your mind recognizes it as valid.

9. Set a Kitchen Timer

If you’re the person who drags your feet and can come up with 100 reasons why you don’t want to do the things you need to do in order to reach your goal, this one is for you. Set your kitchen timer for a mere 10 minutes and commit to engaging in a behavior that will get you closer to your goal for that limited amount of time. Once it dings, you can go back to whatever you were doing (or not doing) before. But chances are you won’t.

Usually, it is beginning a task or project that is the hardest, so once you’re engaged, you’ll likely work well beyond your intended timeframe. And if you don’t, at least you still did something that gets you closer to where you want to be.

10. Remember What You’re Teaching Your Children

Our children are powerful motivators. Even if you don’t have the strength to do things for yourself, you’d still do almost anything for them, which makes them great inspiration when you’re attempting to live the life you want to live.

Be their role model and teach them how to go after what they want. Let them know that they should never settle when they are capable of so much more. Walk the walk so they learn that they can do anything too!

If you don’t have children, just imagine what you would want shown to your own children, or the other children in your family.

11. Dream Big

Sometimes your motivation can lag simply because you aren’t challenging yourself enough. It’s like the child in school who is advanced academically but gets into trouble because the schoolwork is too easy. Could this be the case with you?

Take a look at your dreams and ask yourself whether or not they scare you. If they don’t incite at least a little fear, then they may not be big enough. Create a goal that makes you nervous and smile at the same time. One that does both of these things will keep you interested and excited along the journey, making reaching your goal better than ever.

12. Read Inspiring Quotes

Sometimes you need a little help from others to spark your motivation. Seeing the world through their eyes and sharing in their revelations, you may come to view the world in a different and more positive light. You can gain insight from their thoughts and opinions, potentially changing the way you see yourself, and others.

A few inspiring individuals who have offered many quotes that inspire include Maya Angelou, Walt Disney, Leonardo Di Vinci, and even Dr. Seuss. Of course, we all connect with different people, so take the time to search out the ones that speak to you most. You’ll likely find one or two that seem to resonate with you based on your background and experiences.

13. Use Fear to Your Advantage

As Henry Ford once said, “One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.” So, think of all of the people you either know or famous people you have heard of in the news who have used fear to their advantage, accomplishing great things as a result.

A great example of this is Joel Osteen. He was once afraid of speaking in front of even a small congregation, yet now he shares his sermons with 40,000 Lakewood Church attendees and millions more via a live broadcast every week. How did he do it? He believed in himself and he practiced his speeches until he felt more comfortable, which is exactly what you can do to overcome your fears too!

14. Create a Personal Contract

When you sign a written contract, what does that mean? You’re bound to its terms, right? So, why not sign a contract with yourself, committing your time, effort, and energy to reaching your goals within a certain timeframe?

If you think that you would bow out of it since you’d only be making a promise to yourself, you can ask a friend or your coach to sign as a witness. This reinforces your desires to make positive changes, serving as continual motivation to do what you said you would do because now there is someone who will hold you to it.

15. Accept Responsibility

One of the worst things you can do is blame others for where you are in life. Not only does it deflect the responsibility away from you, but it also disempowers you. It takes your control and puts it in someone else’s hands, which isn’t where it needs to be if you are tackling a personal development goal.

Instead of thinking and believing that others are the cause of where you currently are in your life, choose to take full and complete responsibility for all of your actions (and inactions). When you start owning up to your own self-defeating thoughts and behaviors, you realize that the power to change is within you. That’s good news because you’re the only one you can control anyway!

16. Prove Others Wrong

Is there someone in your life constantly telling you that you’ll never achieve your goal? That you’ll never be good enough, smart enough, thin enough, rich enough, or any other “enough”? Well, it is time to prove them wrong!

Don’t let someone else’s beliefs become your own. Show the people around you that their limitations are not your limitations. Use their negative force to lift you up versus letting it hold you down.

17. Don’t Get Stuck in the Comparison Trap

Put most any person on the beach in a swimsuit and the first thing he or she will do is start comparing themselves to others. Even if they have some great physical attributes of their own, their attention will go to the areas they dislike the most. Talk about deflating!

When you’re in a situation where you begin to think about how you stack up to others, stop yourself. We all have positive and negative attributes and you’ll get much further ahead focusing on the things that you’re most proud of.

Besides, the goal isn’t to be better than someone else. It is to be better than you were yesterday. That’s a much better comparison to consider and to strive to beat.

18. Have Pride in Yourself

How do you feel when you are proud of yourself? If you’re like most people, you feel ready to conquer the world! That is the exact feeling that you want to find and keep, using it to propel you closer to the goal that you long to reach.

Make a list of all of the things you are proud of yourself for achieving. They may be larger items, such as graduating with honors or saving a life, but they may also be smaller, yet still important accomplishments such as buying a stranger a cup of coffee or pulling your elderly neighbor’s weeds.

When you feel unmotivated and ready to give up, pull out this list and read it over. Then decide to put your greatness to work so you can do more!

19. Recognize the Discomfort You Currently Feel

It is often said that people are most motivated by pleasure or pain. However, if you’ve been avoiding the pain or telling yourself “it’s not that bad,” then you’re missing out on the opportunity to use your discomfort to advance you forward.

Spend a moment and admit how not reaching your goal has affected you. Realize your pain and make a decision to never let yourself get to this point again. Let your pain motivate you.

20. Ease Your Worries

Are you distracted from your goals because you are worried about something else? For example, do you have a health issue that is causing you a concern, or are you having problems with your marriage that you can’t release from your mind? If there is something that is taking up all of your mental resources, dealing with it head-on is a great way to get your mind back in the game.

Make a doctor’s appointment to address your health condition or see a marriage counselor for help getting your relationship back on track. Do something to ease your worries so you can focus on being a better you. Once you do, progress will be made more swiftly and with more ease.

The Motivation Manual: 100 Winning Ways To Create Lasting Motivation

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