Secrets of Self-motivation

2021-03-08 ~ adminlife

Staying motivated can be tough for everyone. It is especially tough when you have nothing to rely on but yourself. When you are working with another person, you have them to help keep you on track. When you are working alone, you are left with nothing but your thoughts. The good news – that’s ok! In fact, if you follow these nine tips, you will have no problem tapping into the power of self-motivation.

Make a Deal With Yourself

One of the best ways to boost your motivation is to make a deal with yourself. The idea here is that you create some reward that you receive when you finish a task. For example: If I work hard for the next hour, I can take a break and do something I love.

Track Your Success

Do you know what motivates me? All the little successes on the way to reaching a big goal. This is why you should use a success log to track all of your wins. If you start to feel your motivation slipping, read through this list for an instant boost.

Start Simplifying

When you start to focus on just the essentials, you will naturally feel more motivated. Working on things that we know are important makes motivation much easier than when we feel like we are just spinning our tires working on things that don’t matter.

Set Measurable Goals

If you have anything you need to get done, you should write it down as a goal. The most important thing is to create goals that allow you to measure your progress. A goal of “I’d like to get healthy” isn’t as easy to measure as “I’d like to spend 30 mins each day working out”.

Do Something to Boost Your Energy

Our motivation is intrinsically linked to our energy levels, so if you find your motivation is lagging, try boosting your energy levels. A good way to do that is by moving around, grabbing a snack, or taking a break.

Focus On Your Self-Talk

Do you know what saps your motivation instantly? Talking down to yourself. It can be hard to break, but you should try and replace your negative self-talk with positive. The next time you feel like saying something negative about yourself – catch it and correct it.

Pump Yourself Up With Routines

Do you have any personal rituals that pump you up? If not – you should find some! This could be an energizing morning routine or something as simple as a motivational playlist.

Put It in Your Schedule

For some reason, simply setting a deadline on a task makes us more likely to finish them. No matter what you want to accomplish, give it a deadline and put it right in your schedule.

Just Act Like It

If you can’t get motivated no matter what you do, try acting like you are already. For some weird reason, when you act motivated or energized, you might actually convince yourself you are!

ACTIONABLE STEPS

Write One of Your Goals Down.

If you want to accomplish something, write it down as a goal. Remember to keep it measurable.

Add A Deadline.

Once you have your goal written down, give it a firm deadline by putting it right into your schedule.

Create a Reward.

Now you can make a deal with yourself. How will you reward yourself when you reach your goal on time?

You now have some tips to help you to keep yourself motivated and continue to grow in your life.

If you still think that this is something that you will need help with, you can contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com

To your success

Michael

Photo by Mert Talay on Unsplash

Improving Follow-Through on Your New Year’s Resolution

2020-12-21 ~ adminlife

By the time we reach a certain age, we understand the real point behind our New Year’s resolutions. It’s admirable to make real efforts to improve yourself. Yet, for many, making it past February 1^st with your resolution intact just doesn’t happen.

What can you do to ensure you follow through with your New Year’s resolution and ultimately achieve the results you seek?

Consider these suggestions:

Is your resolution realistic, specific and achievable? What about your strategy for achieving it? For example, if losing a certain amount of weight is your goal for the year, it may not be realistic for you to plan on doing it by eating only 1,200 calories per day.

- However, what if your resolution was something like, “Decrease my calorie intake by 10% each week?” Or “Eat 3 fruits daily, one before each meal.” These goals, as you can see, are more realistic, very specific in their plan and frankly, more do-able than simply saying, “Lose 50 pounds” or “Eat 1,200 calories a day.”
- If your resolution or method of achieving it isn’t realistic, change it today for better success.

Think about ways to keep your resolution in mind. Write down your resolution in your journal, jot it on a note, and place it on your refrigerator. Record it in your calendar. You can even keep your resolution written down on a paper on the front seat of your car. When your resolution is in your thoughts every day, you’re more likely to follow through with it.
Ask your spouse or friends to bring up your goal frequently. After all, people close to you want you to be successful in your goals. It can be as non-threatening as, “So, how are you doing on working toward your New Year’s resolution today?”

- Discuss your struggles, plans and daily successes with people who love you. There’s no way you can just forget about your New Year’s resolution when you discuss it often with those who matter.

Start early each day. Set up a resolution so you can do something related to the goal first thing in the morning. Since most people are at their freshest and most energetic in the morning, it’s good to be able to achieve something related to your resolution right after you get out of bed.

- If your resolution has something to do with your nutritional intake, eating a balanced breakfast will get your day off to a great start.
- In the event you’ve resolved to get more exercise, getting in 20 or 30 minutes of exercise would be a great start to your day and respect your resolution.
- Resolutions to delve more into a subject or learn a new language can be achieved by studying for a half-hour first thing in the morning.
- Plan to take a step toward your resolution in the mornings. This way, you’ll start the day off with your resolution in mind and feel positive and successful all day.

Be flexible about your New Year’s resolution. Give yourself permission to tweak your resolution as time goes by. Maybe you’re unable to drop calorie intake from 2,500 calories in a day down to 1,500. So, don’t beat yourself up if you consume 2,200 calories a day. In a few weeks, you can cut another 100 calories.

- Allow yourself to make desired changes related to your resolution gradually. The more flexible you are, the more likely you’ll achieve your resolution sometime during the year.

Staying with your New Year’s resolution as long as it takes to be successful is possible. Just apply the above strategies: make it realistic and specific, keep your resolution in mind, ask friends and family to talk to you about your goal, start first thing in the morning, and be flexible about your resolution to achieve your goal.

Stick to your New Year’s resolution to experience one of your most inspiring years ever!

To your success

Michael

P.S. If you are looking for more information on confidence and motivation you can join my Facebook groups Developing Confidence in Yourself or Confidence Coaching. For success articles you can join You Are Success Life Coach.

These groups will enable you to learn more about all aspects of confidence, motivation and success.

You can also contact me at michael@coachmichaelw.com to arrange a discovery session to Determine Your Primary Life Goal or to discover your Limiting Beliefs that can help to make your life more successful.

Feature Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

A Foolproof Formula for Staying Motivated During Online Learning

2020-08-20 ~ adminlife

Photo by David Lusvardi on Unsplash

How can you stay motivated when learning moves online? In the classroom, you have a teacher to engage you in the subject and other students to socialize with. When it’s just you and your laptop, you’ll need to take charge of your experience.

Fortunately, you have plenty of role models to learn from.

Even before the pandemic, more than 6 million students were enrolled in distance education and at least 77% of US corporations have incorporated it into their programs, according to the Online Learning Consortium.

Find a balance that will enable you to continue your education while fulfilling your other responsibilities. Try this formula for making learning effective and fun.

Staying Disciplined with Online Learning:

Set goals. Keep your purpose firmly in mind. Remember your main objectives, whether you want to finish a degree you started years ago or increase your appreciation for art.
Plan your week. Block out time for your most important activities. Tackle demanding tasks during the hours when you’re usually at peak performance.
Establish routines. Cutting down on daily decisions can make you more efficient. Adopt habits like doing your assigned readings one hour before bedtime.
Limit distractions. Focus your attention on your studies. Keep your phone and TV turned off during school hours.
Start small. Baby steps build momentum and make big projects seem less overwhelming. Break your work down into specific measurable tasks. You might spend a morning outlining your research paper or summarizing your notes.
Dress up. Putting on pants will probably make you more productive. Comb your hair even when you’re alone and off camera.
Perform reviews. Work on your study skills. Ongoing reviews of your class materials will help you to remember what you’ve studied and may help you earn higher grades.
Take tests. Research shows that practice tests are one of the most effective ways to learn. Your teacher may provide them, or you can write your own.
Create priorities. Respect your limits. If you’re adding coursework on top of your other responsibilities, give yourself adequate time for sleep and other essentials. Scratch some other items off your to do list if possible.

Having Fun with Online Learning:

Connect with others. You can still enjoy a sense of community while studying online. Ask your teacher about their communication preferences so you can stay in touch and ask questions. Participate in student chat rooms and virtual study groups.
Decorate your space. Designate an area for your school activities with aesthetics and ergonomics in mind. Display your favorite photos or a green plant. Ensure that you can maintain correct posture while reading and typing.
Reward yourself. Give yourself incentives to excel. Maybe you’ll want to order sushi for dinner each time you get an A. Maybe you’d like to spend an hour reading novels for each hour you spend solving math problems.
Play games. Make your assignments more entertaining. Challenge your classmates to some friendly competition. Invent funny sentences and songs that help you to memorize dates and names.
Take breaks. Building adequate downtime into each day will help you to reduce stress and achieve more. Take a ten-minute break each hour. Extend your lunch hour so you can go for a walk or lift weights.
Share support. Ask your family and friends for the help you need. If your kids are attending school online, do your homework together. If your coworkers are signed up for the same course, stick around for a virtual happy hour or coffee date afterwards.

Earn a degree online or use your time at home to deepen your knowledge about any subjects that interest you. Being able to motivate yourself will help you to persevere and succeed at online learning.

To your success

Michael

If you are looking to read more on motivation, you can find check out these three books:

Developing and Keeping Your Self-Motivation Strong

How to Harness the Power of Momentum for a More Successful Life

Keeping Your Motivation High to Get Things Done

How to Motivate Yourself Forever

2020-08-07 ~ adminlife

Photo by Tegan Mierle on Unsplash

Just as willpower is an essential factor in achieving success, at some point in time, discouragement and lack of motivation may hinder you from reaching your objective. And it is up to you, and you alone to devise techniques that will help you keep that drive within afire.

It is helpful to have visual goals. whatsoever that is you are working towards, make it visual. It maybe something material like a car, or a vacation you have been looking forward to for the longest time.

Take or cut out a picture of it and post it at a conspicuous place at work or at home where you can see it often. So that when you feel discouraged, this will remind you of your goal and will help you keep your spotlight.

Make a contract with oneself. According to motivational researches, people who write down to-do-lists are far more triumphant in achieving their intended goals than those people who just keep mental lists instead.

Putting something in writing somehow makes it more powerful psychologically speaking. This may also be the basis why most cultures have such a high regard in honoring contracts. In the contract, you may also include a certain reward that you will give yourself once you have accomplished the task.

After all, everyone likes to be rewarded for completing a good job. Even a simple pat on the back, “good job”, or “thank you” may do the trick to give the person the additional push to carry on, but unfortunately, these may not always be readily available. Considering that these are also essential in keeping oneself motivated, you must learn to find a way to get that encouragement on your own through pleasing yourself.

Abusive people lower your self-esteem and bring you down. Get these negative people out of your life. Surround yourself with positive people. Imitate their example. Smile amply and think happy thoughts.

These will give you a brighter outlook and lets you see a clearer picture of what you really want and a fresh mind to know what steps to take to get there. Rather than wait for things to happen, try to be proactive and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. Inactivity idles the brain and stagnates your potential to reach your goals.

Read inspirational books and literature. These will help you improve your attitude and heal your mind. A book of success stories also proves to be encouraging. You will not only learn from others’ experiences and derive confidence boosting insights from them but the story will be instrumental in motivating you to go for your goal and move ahead with your plans. If this still seems to falter, get training or education.

Oftentimes, not knowing how or where to start is frustrating. Knowledge is power. Having a clear understanding of how and where to start is empowering and it will provide the extra drive needed to hit the mark you are aiming at and follow it through.

Having enumerated all these tips and tricks to attain self-motivation, but still you seem to feel lacking that much needed drive, there is one last thing that you must try.

Whatever it is that you have been meaning to do, or wanting to achieve, JUST DO IT! Keep on aiming high and go for it! Actually getting your hands dirty best solves the problem of motivation. By “forcing” yourself to just do it, your momentum will pick up gradually as you go along and before you know it you have finished the task or have finally achieved your goal. Divide and conquer is the key.

Break down the apparently unattainable activity to small doable steps. Not only does it become less overwhelming, but seeing the “in the meantime” results will further your confidence that it can indeed be done.

Lack of motivation happens to us all, but if you do not encourage yourself to accept opportunities and be challenged, no one else will. It is most important to keep your eye on the goal, find ways to keep going, and in no time, you shall reap its benefits.

And if at the beginning you were just doing it for the material reward, you will also learn to realize that the fulfillment, satisfaction and self-achievement you derive from reaching your goal is a much enjoyable high that will keep the drive within constantly burning.

To your success

Michael

If you are looking to read more on motivation, you can find check out these three books:

Developing and Keeping Your Self-Motivation Strong

How to Harness the Power of Momentum for a More Successful Life

Keeping Your Motivation High to Get Things Done

Top 10 Reasons Why You’ll Want to Practice Persistence

2020-07-122020-07-12 ~ adminlife

Do you have persistence? Persistence is the act of working hard and trying again and again until you achieve what you’ve set out to achieve.

As long as you persist, you can’t fail!

Consider these benefits of persistence:

You’ll become an expert. Chances are that the first time you try something you might not be good at it. However, once you’ve completed the same task multiple times, you’ll soon become better and better, becoming an expert at the task in the process.

Persistence will motivate you to try harder. When you try and try, you’ll move a little closer to your goal with each attempt. This will help motivate you as it will show that this effort makes a difference.

Persistence is a sign of ambition. Only those who are truly ambitious are able to bring persistence into their daily lives. This is why the most successful people you know are also those who are most persistent.
- Most successful people have failed at least once, but this did not stop them from achieving success. With each failure, they learned what they needed to do differently the next time they tried.
- Eventually, they succeeded, which would never have happened had they become discouraged at the first sign of failure.

You’ll set a good example. Whether you’re setting an example for your work colleagues or your children, if they see that you’re not willing to give up when you face adversity, they’ll be more inclined to try harder at their own challenges.
- Become a role model and those around you will become more consistent and hard-working too.

Persistence teaches you the value of success. Being successful takes time and effort. No one ever became successful without making sacrifices and being persistent with their time and efforts.

Persistence gives you vital experience. When you’re persistent, you learn that each failure gives you another opportunity to learn. With each failure, you’ll become more resilient. You’ll also learn how you can overcome any challenge.

You become more aware of your weaknesses. To achieve success at anything, it’s important to understand your weaknesses. When you look at your failures, you’ll discover your faults and learn what you need to work on to become successful.

People judge you on your consistency. When you’re persistent, you also develop consistency. Many people look for this skill, whether in the workplace or in your personal life. They want to know that you’ll work hard to do what needs to be done on a regular basis.

You’ll learn that things that come easy bring little reward. Harder tasks may require a little work and consistency, but they offer much greater rewards. Is it not worth making that little extra effort to achieve greater rewards?
Most importantly, you’ll be able to create the life you desire. With persistence, you’ll be able to sail through life’s setbacks. You’ll seek solutions to overcome your challenges and keep moving forward to build a life that satisfies you.

Persistence is important, as rarely anything worth having in life comes without it. Most often, you’ll have to work for what you want.

Being persistent will give you the opportunity to achieve anything you set your heart on!

To your success

Michael W

Sometimes to practice persistence you need to understand your limitations and how to get through them.

This book “Identify Your Limitations and Push Through Them” can help you to do that.

It is an easy read and contains some very valuable information that can help you to live a better life.

You can find it online here: Identify Your Limitations and Push Through Them