Can you imagine your life as you want it to be? Great!
Are you stalled in getting there? Take heart — you have it within you to succeed. These 12 tips will help.
1. Wake up with an attitude of appreciation. Why? Because you woke up! Asked “How are you today?” your answer should be “fantastic, excellent or great.” G.R.E.A.T. stands for Getting Really Excited About Today. You are excited because you woke up — you can see, hear, walk, tal Today could be your last day. Why not make it the greatest day of your life?
2. Self-motivation should begin the moment you wake up. What can you do for you? After all, you are the most important person in the world. If you can’t do something special for yourself, you certainly won’t be able to do anything helpful or productive for anyone else. Do something for you first.
3. Self-motivation is just beginning. Once you have done something special for yourself, recognize and reward yourself with juice, coffee or breakfast. It’s a small treat, but any behavior that is recognized and rewarded gets repeated. Self-motivation needs recognition. Only you can provide it.
4. Understand that no one provides self-motivation—only you can motivate yourself. Self-motivation can come from external influences that are never lasting or, better yet, self-motivation can be internal and ever lasting. Live your life from the inside out not the outside in and embrace undeviating self-motivation.
5. Make a decision. Choose self-motivation and live the life of your dreams. Do you really want to live somebody else’s dream, a combination of your dream and theirs, or leave life to chance and circumstance? It doesn’t matter what you decide. You are the decision maker and by using self-motivation you will make that decision work. Go ahead, make a decision now. Enhance your self-motivation.
6. Self-motivation is taking control of your life. You can’t control the weather, the traffic or what other people say. If you cannot control it, let it be. But there are things in life you can control. Learning to control your thoughts, your ego, your reactions and, most importantly, your attitude is all part of self-motivation. Knowing you have gained control of your outlook and approach to daily life will boost your self-motivation.
7. Get to know yourself. Question your self-motivation. What are your values? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Is self-motivation realized by focusing on your strengths? What motivates you? What demotivates you? How can you overcome them? What are your ineffective habits? What effective habits can replace them? Dig deep and answer these questions honestly as they relate to self-motivation.
8. Set aside some quiet time just for yourself every day. Set a time to reflect on self-motivation. I once took a day off work and gave myself 24 hours to write down everything I wanted to be, to do and to have. I decided that nothing was impossible and there were no barriers. I imagined how my life would be affected if everything I wrote on that paper came true. And if I didn’t write it all down in 24 hours, nothing in my life would change — I would be closing the door on self-motivation. Thirty years later I have accomplished most of those same dreams and goals. I exercise self-motivation every day.
9. Self-motivation is knowing where you want to go and what you want to achieve. You are unlikely to enjoy success without self-motivation. Success is the progressive realization of a goal and a dream. However, it is only a dream unless it is in print. Crystallization of a dream begins with writing it down on paper. Write everything from the inside out; imagine nothing is impossible. Self-motivation has no barriers, no limitations and no fears. Group, categorize and prioritize all of your dreams and learn the secret to enhanced self-motivation.
10. Review your list of dreams often. Make it a daily habit. Dreams are the foundation to self-motivation and must be written, planned, visualized and put into action. Prioritize your dreams and determine the price you are willing to pay to make your dreams a reality. The price could be effort, time, education, etc. If this form of self-motivation does not appeal to you, revisit your priorities.
11. Part of self-motivation is knowing what you want to do and creating an action plan for success. Keep each action point simple so it can be accomplished. Large tasks usually get shelved, so minimize them. When your action plan is ready to be carried out, sign your name to it. Your signature should be the strongest commitment to yourself.
12. Take action. Self-motivation is the actual doing. Thinking leads to procrastination. So stop thinking—just do it! The worst outcome is failure. You have to fail often to succeed once. Give yourself permission to have learning opportunities, which usually happen by doing and failing. You will need to employ all 12 self-motivation tips if success is in your foreseeable future.