Remember Your Reasons
It has to start first with the answer to your whys. Why do you have to wake up early every day? Why do you have to do this laborious job that leaves you exhausted at the end of the day? Why do you have to study thick books each night?
Remember that all the hard work and pain that you conquer every day all roots from different reasons. Perhaps it’s because you want to help your family or make them proud. Or maybe you just simply want to prove to yourself that you can achieve your dreams.
Each day, it’s inevitable that the mundane tasks will leave you feeling dull and uninspired. If you can’t get out of that mindset quickly, you will be stuck in that negative emotion. You might even end up quitting altogether.
This is also the perfect opportunity for you to realize the importance of your sacrifices. Are the things you’re compromising for worth it? Perhaps if you can’t find a strong reason, then you shouldn’t kill a part of yourself from doing it.
You, of all people, know more about yourself. You don’t have to get influenced by the opinions of other people. You might end up seeing your colleagues or classmates giving up. And maybe their reasons also resonates with you that you might end up doing the same. However, you have your own reasons and inspirations. You just have to find them and keep them engraved on your mind.
Once that happens, you will realize that it’s up to you to change yourself. The world is not going to put your goals in easy mode. And no one is going to shape themselves to please you. But what you can do is you can develop yourself to adapt to different challenges. At the same time, you have your own say on how you’ll react to those changes.
Another habit that you should start is affirming your goals and personal changes that you want to happen in your life. It can be something as simple as “I want to eat healthy this week.” It is measurable and realistic enough that you won’t feel pressured when you remind yourself of it. If you want to be an effective motivational speaker for yourself, you have to be your own coach towards your goals.
Lastly, make sure that you won’t lose sight of your goals. It’s very easy to just focus on the stress and difficulty of achieving it. Therefore, you have to engrave your affirmations inside your head. Perhaps a simple quotation by your door is enough to remind you that you are on your way there.
Start Small
As I have mentioned previously, you have to remind yourself of your goals. But at the same time, be realistic about what you want to achieve. If you decide to go all the way immediately, chances are you’ll get pressured or stressed if you fail in doing certain things. Divide your goals into chunks that are doable.
Instead of saying that you want to lose weight this year daily, you can focus on what you want to change weekly. Maybe you want to start by reminding yourself to cut off sugary and fried foods. And next week, you want to insert half an hour of cardio every morning. You’ll discover that instead of convincing yourself to quit, you’ll be more motivated to finish your goals.
My concept here is that you don’t want to get stagnant. You have to keep moving, even if it’s just in small steps. Over time, even if you’re just placing one brick a day, you’ll be surprised that the wall is close to finishing. You won’t end up feeling demotivated if you didn’t reach the expectations you set. Since they are much easier to do, you’ll feel much closer to your main goal.
For example, maybe you’ve been trying to redesign your home. However, you’ve been putting it off because it feels like such an exhausting thing to do. You can start by changing your walkway using a paver sealer. A small step like this is recognizable enough to keep you motivated. Think about it, the voice in your head doubts that you’ll finish that project. However, you noticed that your walkway looks way better than before. You’ll be a much more effective motivational speaker when you see progress.
Dividing a goal into steps and chunks makes it more realistic to achieve. You only have to focus on one part at a time, so you don’t end up procrastinating. And speaking of which, dividing a goal into different steps also makes it much easier for you to notice the things that can keep you from finishing or achieving a task.
Maybe you find yourself more overwhelmed or uninspired when doing a particular task. Once you’re aware of them, dig deep on what you can hold onto to keep you from quitting. Are you feeling angry because you can no longer enjoy holidays because you end up using them for reviewing your lessons?
Perhaps you can divide your time to give yourself a breather. This way, the motivational speaker in you also gets his recharge to convince you afterward. It is worth noting that motivation is only going to be useful if you remove the factors that can stop you from believing in it. A problem that you might have ignored because it seems insignificant is enough to kill your motivation.
Do It. Now.
Perhaps the most effective quote that you can say to yourself to keep you motivated is the phrase, “Do it now.” Remember that we divided your goal into easy tasks, so you have no reason to skip them.
If you wait too long into doing something, trust me, you’ll end up not doing it. You might have the urge to start writing your book while watching your favorite movie. If so, then go ahead and stand up to do it. If you don’t, you’ll end up with different reasons not to do it.
Imagine how many ideas that you didn’t act on immediately. What if you were so close to accomplishing a lifelong dream, but you just pushed your motivational voice aside? Once the instinct kicks in, then go ahead and make it happen. Wouldn’t it’ll be much easier to stay motivated when you’ve started something? After all, being happy makes you more productive.