What is motivation?

Motivation is the drive to achieve your goals or needs. It is influenced by:

• how much you want the goal
• what you will gain
• your personal expectations

Why is motivation important?

Motivation is important because it:

• provides you with goals to work towards
• helps you solve problems
• helps you change old habits
• helps you cope with challenges and opportunities

Getting motivated

Most people struggle with motivation, but it is even more challenging if you have mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. Here are some tips:

• Set yourself one specific, achievable goal.
• Think about how to include that goal in your life, what you need do to make it happen, and then put a timeframe on it (such as a week).
• Break your goal into small, easy tasks and set regular reminders.
• Use your family and friends as support – tell them about your goals and encourage them to help keep you motivated.

Ways to keep on track

• Make your goal part of your routine by using a diary or app for reminders.
• Positive self-talk is important and effective in managing depression or anxiety. Instead of saying 'I can't', say 'I can try'.
• Mindfulness helps keep you relaxed and focused.
• Start a class or join a support group. Support groups can be as effective as professional help.
• Reward yourself when you have completed a step or goal.

Ways to stay motivated

Here are some tips:

• Regularly review your goals and progress. Seeing progress is a great motivator in itself, and also improves your self-esteem.
• Continue to set new goals. Think about what you want to achieve next week, next month and next year. Tackle one goal at a time so you don’t feel overwhelmed.
• Keep the momentum up. It takes up to 3 months to develop a new habit, so keeping the momentum and routine helps it feel more automatic over time.
• Find mentors – a mentor is someone who is experienced in the habit you want to change. Finding social or support groups with the same interest can help you find a mentor.
• Surround yourself with positive people. Positive friends and family enhance your positive self-talk, which also helps to manage the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
• Use exercise as one of your daily goals to improve your mental health.

What to do if you lose motivation

Setbacks are normal, but developing resilience can help you carry on and pick up where you left off. Here are some tips to help you find your motivation again:

• Review your goals and see if they are realistic in the timeframe you have set. You may need to break your goal down further into smaller and more achievable goals.
• Remember why you wanted to get motivated or reach that goal in the first place.
• Take motivation from others – feel inspired by reading a book, talking to your mentor or friends or family who have reached similar goals to the ones you have set.
• Sometimes you just need to take a break and start afresh.

15 Ways to Motivate Yourself and Others

Motivation makes things happen.

Where there’s no will, there’s no way. One of the best ways to improve your personal effectiveness is to master your motivation and find your drive. 

If you can master motivation, you can deal with life’s setbacks, as well as inspire yourself to always find a way forward, and create new experiences for yourself, and follow your growth.

In this post, I’ll demystify motivation and give you the motivation tools that really work.  

1. Connect to your values.

This is the ultimate secret. If you can connect the work you do to your values, even in small ways, you can change your game.

One of my values is learning and growth.

I find ways to grow my skills in any situation. For example, I don’t just “call back a customer.” I “win a raving fan.” I don’t just “do a task.” I “master my craft.” I don’t just “get something done.” I “learn something new.”

2. Find your WHY.

Figure out a compelling purpose. Turn this into a one-liner.

For example, when I fall off the horse, I remind myself I’m here to “make others great.” This gets me back on track, sharing the best of what I know.

3. Change your WHY.

Sometimes you’re doing things for the wrong reason. Are you doing that task to get it done, or to learn something new? Just shifting your why can light your fire. 

4. Change your HOW.

You can instantly find your tasks more enjoyable by shifting from getting them done, to doing them right.

I think of it as mastering your craft. Make it artful.

Sometimes slower is better. Other times, the key is to make it a game and actually speed it up. You can set time limits and race against the clock. Changing your how can get you out of ruts and find new ways to escape the mundane.

5. Remember the feeling.

Flipping through your head movies and scenes is one of the fastest ways to change how you feel.

Remember the feeling. How did you feel during your first kiss? What about laying on the grass on a sunny day?

When you feel good, you find your motivation faster.

6. Shift to past, present or the future.

Sometimes you need to be here, now. Sometimes, the right here, right now sucks. The beauty of shifting tense is you can visualize a more compelling future, or remember a more enjoyable past.

At the same time, if you catch yourself dwelling on a painful past, get back to right here, right now, and find the joy in the moment.

You’ll improve your temporal skills with practice. 

7. Find a meaningful metaphor.

Find a metaphor that fuels you. Maybe you’re the “Little Engine that Could.” Maybe you’re “in your element.”

The most powerful thing you can do is find a metaphor that connects to your values. This is why I turn my projects into “epic adventures.”

8. Take action.

Here’s a secret that once you know it, can change your life. Action often comes before motivation.

You simply start doing an activity and then your motivation kicks in. Nike was right with “Just do it.” For example, I don’t always look forward to my workout, but once I start, I find my flow.

9. Link it to good feelings.

Find a way to link things to good feelings. For example, play your favorite song when you’re doing something you don’t like to do.

It has to be a song that makes you feel so great that it overshadows the pain of the task. It’s hard to tell yourself you don’t like something when it feels so good.

A similar approach is to find your theme song.

10. Impress yourself first.

This is how people like Peter Jackson or James Cameron or Stephenie Meyer inspire themselves. They make the movies or write the books that impress themselves first. They connect their passion to the work and they don’t depend on other people setting the bar. Their internal bar becomes their drive.

11. “CHOOSE” to.

If you tell yourself you “HAVE” to do this or you “MUST” do that or you “SHOULD” do this, you can weaken your motivation.

The power of choice and simply reframing your language to “CHOOSE” to can be incredibly empowering and exactly the motivating language you need to hear. Choose your words carefully and make them work for you. 

12. Pair up.

This is one of my favorite ways to make something fun. One person’s painful task, is another’s pleasure. Pair up with somebody who complements your skill or who can mentor you and get you over the humps. 

13. Change your question.

Sometimes you need to change your focus. To change your focus, change the question.

If you ask yourself what’s wrong with this situation, of course you’ll find things to complain about. Ask yourself what’s right about the situation and you can quickly find the positives and get your groove on.

14. Fix time for eating, sleeping and working out.

Sometimes your body or emotions are working against you because you’re not giving them a break or fueling them the right way.

One simple way to improve results here is to find a routine for eating, sleeping, and moving or working out that supports you.

15. Play to your strengths.

Spending too much time in your weaknesses wears you down. Spending more time in your strengths helps you renew your energy and find your flow.

Strengths are the place where you can grow your best. Find the things that you can do all day that you really enjoy and find excuses throughout your day to do more of that. Success builds on itself and this helps you build momentum.

Try out the motivation techniques to see what works for you.

At the end of the day, all motivation really comes down to self-motivation, and you get better at motivation by building your self-awareness.