How To Get Motivated.

The ability to motivate ourselves is an important factor in achieving our goals and getting what we want out of life. Yet, self motivation is not related to intelligence, and many intelligent people can have wonderful thoughts but no drive to put things into action. This self motivational drive is what produces wonderful results, and getting motivated and staying motivated is important for succeeding in anything you want to achieve.

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Self Motivation
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How To Get Motivated And Stay Motivated!

To find our motivation, you need to understand what motivation is. Motivation is a driving force and in order to accomplish anything you need a driving force. Trying to accomplish a task or reach a goal whilst lacking in motivation is like trying to drive a car with the handbrake on, the journey can be painfully slow and it’s unlikely you’ll reach your destination!

So what causes a lack of motivation? Experience tells me that people lack motivation for one of two reasons:

1. The goal or task that they have set themselves isn’t really what they want to do!
2. They have a limited mindset and do not believe that they can achieve it.

The goal that you have set has to be a strong desire, strong enough for you to really, really want to do it! How do you create that strong desire?

One of the most powerful things that you can do is to write down your goal. There is much evidence to suggest that writing down goals makes them more compelling, so that you are more likely to achieve them. Do this by creating a “vision book”, and writing your goals down IN DETAIL so that you know exactly what you want to achieve. Great tip: If you really want to motivate yourself then write down the goals as if you have already got them, for example if want to save for your dream holiday to St. Lucia, then write “I am on the beach in St. Lucia, with a pina colada relaxing in the sun to the music of steel drums”. This allows the imagination to run wild and create a vivid picture of your goal…which in turn will create motivation.

Occasionally we may find ourselves having to find motivation in order to achieve smaller tasks, i.e housework or paying bills on time etc. A great technique to find motivation for these is to ask yourself the following questions:

How will I feel when I have accomplished this task?
AND
How will it affect those around me if I complete this task?

The answers to these questions will be incredibly positive creating that much wanted desire to complete the task.

With regards to having a limited mindset, this is often a result of having negative or “limiting” beliefs. Often these are unconscious learning’s that we pick up from childhood, usually from parents, teachers or peers. I was speaking to someone only recently about this and he said to me “Yes, I agree that learned behaviour in childhood has a large part to play. I grew up the only child of a single parent whose attitude was that you're beaten before you start. I've fought against that attitude ever since but it can become ingrained, just as the opposite can”. If your beliefs are not serving you in a positive way, then choose to change your beliefs, because a belief is only something we percieve to be true. If you change your beliefs, then you can change your life.

To increase and maintain motivation it is incredibly important to surround yourself with positive people. I have made it a point in the latter part of my life to distance myself from negative individuals. They drain your energy, squash your dreams and desires and do little to motivate you. Positive and optimistic people however will energise you, bring out your potential and help you through the challenging times.

In addition to this, fuel your motivation by reading or listening to motivational material. Instead of watching the news, choose to read a book, or listen to motivational music in the car. Research shows that listening to one hour of motivational material in your car for one hour a day can actually give you the equivalent of a university degree in a few years time. My car glove box is full of motivational CD’s which I listen to time and time again, storing the learning’s at an unconscious level so I don’t have to even try to remember what’s been said. Beside my bed is a pile of motivational books, so these words are the last thing that I read before I go to sleep. Some of the most powerful motivational books that I have read are books by inspirational people such as Richard Branson, “Screw It Just Do It” being a favourite of mine.

To summarise, I feel the need to speak deep from the heart, because there was a time in my life when I found it very hard to motivate myself. Sometimes I didn’t even bother trying because I didn’t think I was capable of achieving. When I took a step back however, and looked at my beliefs and realised that it may benefit me more to believe that I could achieve absolutely anything that I wanted, then my whole world changed. Q11 Now, the word “no” doesn’t even exist in my world, and there is no such thing as “its not possible”. And because “I can’t” doesn’t exist, I am always highly motivated because I always know that “I can”.

Finally, the most important lesson that I have learnt in life is to DO WHAT YOU LOVE every single day, because the natural motivation will already be there. I have found that the more I do what I love, the more motivation I have in all areas of my life.

My passion is to spread my learning’s with others so that they too may live incredible lives, so writing this blog was easy for me, because it’s what I love to do. Do you think I had to motivate myself to write this? Not at all, I couldn’t wait to begin. On top of that I could keep writing for hours, but time to sign off now and save some for next time!

About the Author

Maria Hocking is a life coach in Helston, Cornwall with a passion for helping her clients to change their lives. Since qualifying as a fitness instructor Maria has been a serial entrepreneur, starting one business after another, and finally finding her passion in life, which is helping other people achieve their full potential. Maria is also a dynamic motivational speaker and presenter with a warm, infectious, bubbly, outgoing personality, who gets straight to the point and speaks from her heart. Maria can be contacted through her web site at www.mariahocking.com