picture of motivation

 

secret to selt-motivation

When I sat down to write this piece, I thought the “slant” was pretty obvious. There are, after all, only a few things that truly motivate us to move in one direction or another: fear, money, love, and hate. (See also: 25 Ways to Get Motivated Today)
The key to self-motivating, then, is to find a way to apply those triggers on a day-to-day basis, thereby “tricking” ourselves into getting things done. Unfortunately, this kind of self-manipulation will only produce limited results because when you get right down to it, you’re either motivated to do something or you’re not. Some of us thrive on setting goals and then seeing what we can accomplish, while others don’t feel that thrill at all. Maybe you just haven’t found your passion yet, or maybe there’s not enough fear or money to get you moving. Whatever it is, the “fire” has yet to be lit, and only you can be the one to answer why.
That’s when I realized that my original slant for this article isn’t really the slant you need. I mean, we all know how to bite the bullet and get something done when we have to. But what about when those powerful prompts simply don’t exist? Or worse, what happens when you have to overcome those motivators in order to move in a different and conceivably better direction?
Truth be told, it’s much easier to motivate us to fail or settle than it is to motivate us to succeed. We’ll stay in unsatisfying jobs, for example, because we need the money and we have bills that must be paid. We’ll stay in equally unsatisfying relationships, too, because we’re simply too afraid to leave and venture out on our own.
As a result, much of what we don’t accomplish isn’t because we’re not motivated; it’s because we’re being motivated in a different direction Therein lies the real question — how can you overcome those traditional motivators to steer your life down a better path?
Well, in true Wise Bread fashion, I’ve come up with a short list of hacks to help you get out of your own way. Here they are, in no particular order.

Eat That Frog

This is something that I picked up from Simple Truths, and it’s become my mantra for getting things done. Eat that frog simply means to tackle the worst job first (eating the frog), and then the rest of the day is, well, cake.
For my daughter, that means doing her math homework. For me, it means cleaning out my office. But once we’ve done those horrible, distasteful jobs, everything else on our to-do list looks much more appealing.
For this philosophy to work, you have to be willing to rip off the band aid and jump in. You know that it’s going to sting a little, but you also know that the pain is temporary, and once it’s done, it’s done. The same is true with those things in life that we don’t want to do. Maybe they’re painful and unpleasant, but if we can just plow through them, we’ll ultimately be glad we did. And everything else that follows will seem simple in comparison to choking down that frog.

Face Your FEAR

I’ve seen a number of different acronyms for the word FEAR over the years, but there are a few that I think were created specifically with self-motivation in mind, and they work together seamlessly to hold you back and minimize your growth.
The first is Frantic Effort to Avoid Reality. Let’s face it — we’re creatures of habit. We don’t like change, and we’ll resist and struggle desperately to stay within our bubble, even when we might actually want or need whatever results the change might bring.
As part of our Frantic Effort, we Find Excuses And Reasons that we can’t do whatever it is we need to do. These excuses and reasons help us justify putting the thing off indefinitely, while we create False Expectations About Reality. This is where we really excel.
We have a knack for making mountains out of molehills, and then allowing those seemingly impossible set of circumstances to influence our decision on how to move forward. The truth is often much less dramatic than we make it out to be in our minds, but we’ll allow these False Expectations to keep us from something to the point that Failure (is) Expected And Received.
Now, what’s really interesting about this scenario is that when we do fail — or fail to try — we’ll say it was out of our hands. We knew this was going to happen and there was nothing we could do to avoid it.
The funny thing is though, our success never stood a chance against our FEAR, and we could have saved ourselves a great amount of worry and stress by just announcing to the world that we weren’t even going to attempt this particular step in our evolution.
But then, where’s the fun in that, right?
So before you work yourself into a frenzy, see if you can face your fear instead. What is it that you’re really afraid of? Are there truly absolutely awful things that could occur, or are you just setting up those False Expectations?

Break It Down

Sometimes it's not fear or disdain that holds us back but rather, the feeling of being overwhelmed. And using my office again as an example, I can say with certainty that this sensation is almost guaranteed to induce procrastination.
For whatever reason, my office seems to be the place that acts as a catch-all for things that don’t yet have a place to go. As a result, I have piles of books and boxes and bags that accumulate mysteriously in the corners, and if I don’t stay on top of it, those piles can grow rather quickly.
Cleaning out my office, then, can sometimes be exhausting before I even get started. I won’t deny walking in on occasions only to look around and walk right back out. The key to success in these instances is to find a way to remove that feeling of “impossibleness” and the best way to do that is to break the job down.
Maybe I clean one pile a day or start by simply cleaning off my desk. Whatever it is that I decide, I do that job and then I move onto something else entirely. Knowing that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel makes it easier to tackle the mess, and seeing that one clean area also serves as an inspiration to keep going until its all done.
Now, facing a big job isn’t the only thing that can cause you to feel overwhelmed. It can also happen when you’ve stepped too far outside your comfort zone. Yes, pushing the envelope and expanding your horizons is a good thing. But push too far too fast, and you lose your ability to reason and analyze. This causes you to feel besieged by confusion, and you’ll end up walking away from the project or opportunity almost every time.
The solution is to get around that feeling of being “lost” by applying the same milestone strategy to navigating your unchartered territory. Figure out what knowledge you would need to regain your comfort level, and then break it down into digestible chunks, just like they did when you were in school. You wouldn’t try to master complex physics equations on the first day, for example. Instead you’d start with a basic introduction into your new area of study. The same is true here, and applying this small-steps method will allow you to move forward with confidence.

Reconsider Your Path

All these self-motivating techniques aside, there is one final suggestion that perhaps should be applied before you try any of the others. Here it is — if you find that you’re frequently not motivated to do the things that need to be done, maybe you should be examining the things you’re supposed to be doing, and then consider doing something else on a regular basis instead.
We spend a lot of time just going through the motions, believing that we have no choice in the matter and must resign ourselves to the task(s) at hand. If this is how you talk yourself into making your bed each morning, then that’s probably a good strategy but if it’s how you talk yourself into getting out of bed everyday, then you should probably dig a little deeper.
Life should offer at least some excitement and adventure along the way — enough in fact, that we don’t mind so much about all those little things that make up the mundane part of our existence. If you’re finding that the mundane drastically overwhelms the adventure, then no amount of motivation will make you see it differently.
The solution, then, is to find something that doesn’t require so much motivation to get it done…something that lights that fire and gets you excited without any extra effort on your part.
Do that, and you won’t need to worry about self-motivation…and this article will have done its job.

six ways become more self-motivation

Do you find it tough to work towards your goals – even when you know they’re worthwhile? Perhaps you’ve tried to push yourself forwards with willpower ... but it hasn’t worked.

Instead of willpower, you need more self-motivation. That way, you won’t run out of energy – and you might even find yourself enjoying life more!

Here’s how to become more self-motivated:


#1: Spend Your Time on Tasks You Enjoy
If you have a choice about what you’ll spend your time on – perhaps what job you’ll take, or what you’ll major in at college – then choose something that you’ll enjoy. Going for a job that pays a little more, or a major that sounds a bit more prestigious, isn’t going to help you stay motivated.

Even if you’re working in a job that you dislike, you probably have some control over the tasks you take on. Can you ask to be involved with a new, interesting project? Can you volunteer to help your manager with a particular piece of work?

#2: Take Pride in What You’re Doing
Some activities can seem pretty futile. Perhaps you’re a small cog in a big machine at work, and it’s tough to see how your contribution matters. The truth is, it does make a difference – your company wouldn’t have hired you in the first place if it didn’t.

It’s easier to be self-motivated when you take pride in what you’re doing, and you do it to the best of your ability. Whether you’re cleaning the house or dealing with customers, you can consciously decide to do your very best.

#3: Think About the Outcome
In an ideal world, every task would be its own reward. Of course, it doesn’t always work like that. You’ve probably got a bunch of tasks on your list that aren’t especially interesting or enjoyable – but you want to get them done anyway because they’ll take you towards your goals.

Try focusing on the outcome: that qualification at the end of your degree course, or the money you’ll have if you stick to your savings plan. You might even want to find an image that helps represent this outcome (the job you want to have, or the car you’re planning to buy) and keep it close to hand.

#4: Be Careful With Your Use of Rewards
Some people motivate themselves with rewards: Once I’ve answered these emails, I’ll have a chocolate bar. This can be helpful if you really need to push yourself through a particular task – but if you do it too often, you’ll find yourself relying on the reward instead of your natural motivation.

Think instead about the rewards inherent in the task itself: Once I’ve answered these emails, I’ll feel on top of things or Answering these emails helps me to keep our customers happy. Instead of seeing the task as yet another item on your list, think of its real impact on you and others.

#5: Learn Something New
We’re all natural learners – it’s how we survive. “Learning” isn’t just for children and students: it’s something we do throughout our lives. If you’ve ever struggled to figure out a new piece of software and had an “aha” moment, you’ll know how good it can feel to learn something new.

If there are specific areas in your life where you feel very unmotivated, is that because you’re not confident? You might hate cooking, writing, exercising or some other task, because you know you struggle to do it well. Taking the time to learn about it could really boost your motivation.

#6: Stay Focused While You’re Working
You might be motivated to start a new task ... but if your attention wanders after five minutes, you’re going to struggle to keep that motivation going. Every time you switch to something else (like Facebook or your phone), you’re breaking your concentration.

Stay focused on one thing at a time – even if that means turning off your internet connection or blocking websites that distract you. If you keep stopping and starting, it’ll seem like your task is dragging on forever – it’s much more motivating to make steady progress.

motivation quotation from the expert.

“When you do what you fear most, then you can do anything.”
― Stephen Richards

“Dare to love yourself
as if you were a rainbow
with gold at both ends.”
― Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams  

“To dream by night is to escape your life. To dream by day is to make it happen.”
― Stephen Richards 

“The only time you fail is when you fall down and stay down.”
― Stephen Richards, Cosmic Ordering: You can be successful 

“The true measure of success is how many times you can bounce back from failure.”
― Stephen Richards 

“You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“The discontent and frustration that you feel is entirely your own creation.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“You don't have to be good at something to be liked.”
― Stephen Richards 

“Our way of thinking creates good or bad outcomes.”
― Stephen Richards 

“When you concentrate your energy purposely on the future possibility that you aspire to realize, your energy is passed on to it and makes it attracted to you with a force stronger than the one you directed towards it.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“Success will be within your reach only when you start reaching out for it.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free “Reality is a projection of your thoughts or the things you habitually think about.”
― Stephen Richards

“When your back is to the wall and you are facing fear head on, the only way is forward and through it.”
― Stephen Richards, Releasing You from Fear 

“Happiness is something we reap from the seeds we sow. Plant misery seeds and that us what you reap.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“Without desires and dreams, your thoughts do not matter and you can think whatever you want to.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“Without desires and dreams, your thoughts do not matter and you can think whatever you want to.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free 

“Every sunrise is priceless and you can experience the richness that life holds only when you live life to the full instead of just being an onlooker.”
― Stephen Richards, Think Your way to Success: Let Your Dreams Run Free           

Self motivation

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.

How To be Self Motivation

1. Understand, "self motivated" is a state of mind which we should earnestly try to be in as often as we can. The first step to understand is that this state of mind is possible, but it is generally very elusive or comes for a short span of time, encouraged by short term commitment or by a dream fulfillment process.
2. Remember that what you think is unique in your life or situation is very unique. Other people wish that they could do what you do. There are only two types of people - those who succumb to a situation, and those who overcome successfully.
3. Try to think about good things around you . Change your overall mood and then start taking small significant decisions - look for getting more facts for accurate assessment of the situation.
4. Get into positive spiral. One positive step leading to the next.
5. Remember that being self-motivated is your challenge. Do not expect any external positive contribution. If you get that, you are lucky. Looking inside on your strengths is the KEY.

be convident :)

100 inspirational quotes.

1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
2. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
3. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
4. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
5. If you can dream it, you can do it. –Walt Disney
6. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
7. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
10. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
11. We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
12. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
13. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –John Maxwell
14. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
15. The mind is everything. What you think you become.  –Buddha
16. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
17. An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
18. Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
19. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. –Napoleon Hill
20. Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
21. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
22. Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
23. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
24. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
25. Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn
26. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
27. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
28. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
29. The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra
30. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
31. Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. –Pablo Picasso
32. If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. –Vincent Van Gogh
33. There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle
34. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. –Henry Ford
35. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
36. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined. –Henry David Thoreau
37. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. –Erma Bombeck
38. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.  Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?” – Brian Tracy
39. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. – Ancient Indian Proverb
40. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
41. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
42. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato
43. Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. –Christopher Reeve
44. Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. –Arthur Ashe
45. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. –John Lennon
46. Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb
47. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. –Helen Keller
48. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. –Confucious
49. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. –Anne Frank
50. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –Lao Tzu
51. The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength not a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will. –Vince Lombardi
52. Happiness is not something readymade.  It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama
53. The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. –Arthur C. Clarke
54. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
55. If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb
56. You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. –Unknown
57. Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well. –Vincent Van Gogh
58. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown
59. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
60. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. –Walt Disney
61. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci
62. Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. –Jamie Paolinetti
63. Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes.  You are free. –Jim Morrison
64. What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. –Bob Dylan
65. I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin
66. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. –Bill Cosby
67. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
68. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. –Chinese Proverb
69. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach
70. It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
71. You become what you believe. –Oprah Winfrey
72. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. –Vincent van Gogh
73. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown
74. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.  –Ann Landers
75. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. –Abigail Van Buren
76. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. –Farrah Gray
77. Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. –Frank Zappa
78. Education costs money.  But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser
79. Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. –H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
80. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius
81. Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others. –H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
82. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. –Dalai Lama
83. You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
84. Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
85. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.
86. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
87. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
88. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. –Gloria Steinem
89. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison
90. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. –Beverly Sills
91. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. –Eleanor Roosevelt
92. Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. –Grandma Moses
93. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
94. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
95. It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
96. Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale
97. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
98. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” –Audrey Hepburn
99. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
100. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. –Zig Ziglar