Motivation is the difference between getting things done and watching an entire season of your favorite TV show continuously. It is the driving force by which humans achieve their goals. Whether you are trying to complete a project or trying to lose weight, sticking to your goals isn’t an easy task. There is a big mountain that blocks you from executing your ideas. This is where Motivation plays its game. I shall be discussing about the components of motivation and some of the strategic methods to achieve those components.
THE MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEM
The problem with most of the people is that they’re not willing to lay the groundwork. For example, you know you should be working on getting things done rather than mindlessly scrolling through facebook or going on a TV series binge. And yet, you just don’t feel like doing it. This is mainly because the ACTIVATION component of the Motivational system is weak. Let’s look at some of the strategic methods to strengthen your motivational systems.
STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE YOUR MOTIVATIONAL SYSTEMS
1] START WITH “WHY” [ACTIVATION COMPONENT]
This approach has been used by many successful people, personality development gurus and great leaders. They follow something known as the GOLDEN CIRCLE APPROACH.
Start asking WHY and find your purpose before starting any task. By finding out your WHYs, you will automatically develop an instant and intrinsic motivation.
2] THE GOLDILOCKS RULE [INTENSITY COMPONENT]
Human beings love challenges, but only when the intensity of the challenge is in the optimal zone of difficulty. Imagine you are participating in a running race. In the first round, you have a 10 year old kid as your competitor. Wait! It’s too easy to win right? You lose interest when the difficulty is way below your level. Suppose you get Usain Bolt as your competitor in the second round. Now, you will get discouraged as the level of difficulty is damn high. Whereas competing with your friend who is in the same level as you seems fine.
This shows that every person has his own zone of difficulty. Not too easy, not too hard, but JUST RIGHT. To discover the BEST FIT task for you is to, BEGIN. You cannot know if the task is too easy or too hard unless you BEGIN.
Once you’re in a state of flow with the task, make sure you keep persevering. Don’t quit until you become a master at it.
3] STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULE NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE WAYS ARE [PERSEVERANCE COMPONENT]
Having a busy day? Or having a bad day?
Do not have enough time for workouts? Go for a small walk.
Do not have enough time to read a book? Read a couple of pages.
Do not have enough time to write an article? Write a paragraph.
It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you don’t stop. -Confucius
4] HABITS AND WILLPOWER [FROM THE MOTIVATION EQUATION]
- Keep Remainders – Use the modern day apps such as todoist, evernote, Google keep to remind you of your schedule and to make sure that you’re not going off-track.
- Reward yourself – Maybe you can allow yourself to watch an episode of your favorite TV show or play a video game only when you have completed the task.
- Remind yourself of the consequences – By reminding yourself of the consequences of not getting things done, you automatically force yourself into completing the task.
- Understanding mastery – Whether you are trying to master a new skill, or trying to go to the gym for an hour every day, drastic results are not always achievable. This gets most of the people demotivated and when they try to get back on track, they find themselves having less willpower. This discourages them and they quit. But to become a master at anything, one has to be ready to face Ups, Downs and sometimes even a No-Progress-Period in life. Pushing forward even during the not-so-pleasant times is the only way to achieve your goals. Sometimes you have to go through the hard times just to realize how strong you are.
- Take good care of yourself – This image is for you!
The post Motivational strategies to improve your lifestyle appeared first on Enriching Ideas.
