The first moment in the day when you need motivation is when you need to get out of bed. The day begins, you need to do something, and the first step you need to take is to get out of bed. If you have absolutely no desire to do what you need to do that day, the temptation is often very strong to sleep on for just 10 more minutes or just 1 hour. If you actually feel like doing what you are going to do, then you pretty much jump out of bed. But what causes you to get active and get going?
To know what motivation is, how it works and what you can do to motivate yourself you should read this blog.
What does motivation mean?
Motivation is a reason you have for behaving yourself in a certain way. For example, staying in bed may be due to the reason you don't feel like doing the work you need to do, such as mowing the lawn. Blegh!
In more serious cases, you stay in bed because you are afraid you cannot do the work you need to do. Motivation may then be low due to the reason you lack confidence in your own ability.
In more positive cases, you get out of bed right away because, for example, you are working to support your family, or because you are saving for a vacation, or because you do want to have a good relationship with your in-laws (in case you have to get out of bed for family visits on weekends).
So motivation is the underlying reason why you are doing (or not doing) what you should be doing.
Intrinsic motivation
There are multiple types of motivation, namely intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. For example, if you jump out of bed to work for your family you are motivated to go to work by external factors. Your family is then that external factor.
However, you jump out of bed because you enjoy working. Because you enjoy challenging yourself, whether that is to write a good report or be the fastest/best to lay the tiles in a bathroom, then you speak of intrinsic motivation. Something in your mental state then causes you to be motivated to jump out of that bed.
The effects of motivation
Motivation can go two ways. On one hand, you can be highly motivated to achieve certain goals and take a step every day to reach those goals. If you fail once, you regret it, but you get back up and continue again.
Then you can also suffer from a lack of motivation. Studies you don't finish, jobs are often of the lower social class (if you believe in the social ladder at all) and you keep living in that tiny apartment (or even worse with your parents). Maybe you are ashamed of this, but admitting that you are ashamed is a step too far.
After all, not taking steps is also a way to not have stress. You don't have to worry that you will fail, but unfortunately your world doesn't grow either. As a result, instead of feeling happier by avoiding stress, you often feel unhappier. After all, your world remains small because of this. Precisely because you see in your surroundings that people do dare to step out of their comfort zone and get further in life, you are confronted with that as well.
This can also lead to clinical depression or major social anxiety in some cases. For example, you get a lot of stress from whatever is affecting your little safe world.
When family and friends suggest you take steps, you can also become more stressed about it because you anticipate it. The annoying thing is that when you succeed you actually become happier, and with small steps it is not difficult. However, if you have little motivation, this can sometimes be hard to admit.
Still, taking a step is something that causes stress at first and then when it succeeds you actually become joyful. This, in turn, can give you more motivation. This also makes taking the next step easier again.
Motivating Yourself
So motivating yourself is very important for growing your world and preventing worse problems such as depression or other social anxieties. One reason why it is difficult for many people to motivate themselves is because they see a mountain of work between where they are now and where they want to be. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take that will make you not look up to that mountain of work so much.
Break down your goal into sub-goals
One way to make that mountain of work smaller is to break it down into subgoals. Yes you want to become a millionaire, but maybe being able to save/invest 50 euros every month is a good first step.
By turning your goal into subgoals, every time you achieve a subgoal you have a moment you can be proud of and a moment you can reward yourself. This makes the mountain more like a series of hills, and you know you can rest on each descent to the next hill.
Socratic Motivation
Socratic motivation is something that often happens in the workplace when mistakes are made. This is a good technique when you fail to get something done for once. Just like in a Socratic Conversation, the why question is asked, this time it does not have to be repeated several times.
Previously, if you made a mistake at work you were scolded and warned not to do it wrong again. With the Socratic motivation method, you are asked precisely why it went wrong. This is the first step you can take toward improving yourself to avoid the mistake.
In doing so, you can ask managers or yourself what are possible solutions to avoid the mistake in the future.
This method ensures that you will not go home feeling guilty, but with hope that you will do better next time.
Make a habit of something
Need to motivate yourself to do something daily? Then you can motivate yourself with a 30-day challenge. This challenge allows certain behaviors to become a habit. In fact, learning a new habit takes about 4 weeks.
By hanging a schedule or monthly calendar on the wall, you can put a cross on that day every time your goal is achieved. The fuller the schedule gets, the fuller you want it to get.
This can help if you just challenge yourself to get right out of bed every day when the alarm clock rings. Or make it a goal to read a page from a book every day or to do something every day to achieve your goals.
Visualize your goal
Another way to boost your motivation is to visualize your goal or the effect of your goal. By bringing this image before your mind's eye, you can quickly become motivated to get back to work.
Finding it difficult to visualize the goal? Then a hypnotherapist can help you with a guided visualization.
Reward small steps
Rewarding yourself occasionally is important to have something to look forward to. You can do this every week or every month if you have done something in that time frame to achieve a subgoal. It depends on your own motivation how soon you should want to reward yourself.
Do the hardest work in the morning
If you start the day with the difficult tasks, you often have the most tedious work done before lunch. Then in the afternoon you can enjoy working on the easy stuff.
Start the morning with something you enjoy
Do you like tea? Hot chocolate? Eating waffles? Start the morning with a little moment of enjoyment. At least then you'll already have the motivation to get up out of bed.
Improve your self-confidence
Do you feel like you just can't do it and that's why you put off the moment of failure or success? Then it is also important to improve your self-confidence. A hypnotherapist can help you identify your beliefs that prevent you from being truly motivated. Then he/she can use several techniques to change these beliefs so that your motivation is improved.
This often has a positive impact on your self-esteem and ability as well.
Want to learn more about mental techniques to increase motivation? Then come to the playshop or read the book Break Free.
Sources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/healing-and-growing/201801/failure-launch-the-wheel-motivation
http://theleanwayconsulting.com/socratic-method-a-great-way-to-motivate-employees/
