21 Quick Motivational Tips That Get You Moving!
When you are feeling lacklustre and needing some inspiration to get going, here are my top tips for pulling yourself out from the slump of procrastination:
Be Grateful of Your Efforts. Every night before you go to sleep, think of 3 things you have achieved during the day, no matter how small.
Be on Show. By being public, you have a binding commitment to entertaining and satisfying others. I am not going to say this is a healthy situation, however, it is certainly a motivating one.
Break Tasks Down into Small Steps. What’s the best way to eat a large pizza? Slice by slice. Think of your outcome and work backwards from its achievement, one step at a time until you get back to the very first step.
Celebrate Steps of Success. Healthy rewards are naturally best. Walk around the block after a half hour of writing. Do some stretching after finishing your finances. A small, simple pleasure is the best reward.
Compete with Yourself or Another. There is always competition around, and if you want to succeed in your area, you cannot run away from this fact. Set up milestones of being ahead of your expectations or the efforts of others and move toward them. The secret is to keep the competition healthy, not stressful, nor all-consuming.
Create or Join an Accountability Group or Partnership to help keep you supported, focused and motivated. There are plenty around and you can even arrange your own through online sites like ‘Next Door’ or ‘Meet Up.’
Design a Vision Board and place it where you can see it first thing in the day. Cut out pictures from magazines, newspapers or internet printouts, of what you aspire to achieve and stick them on your vision board. Paste on your favourite quotes from your favourite role-models.
Have a Driving Purpose. Use the ‘Pain and Pleasure’ Principal. We tend to move away from the things that cause us pain and toward the things that are pleasurable. How will I feel when I’ve completed this? In what way will I improve by getting this done? How will I feel if I don’t try? What are the consequences for not doing this now?
Hold Your Horses! Start slowly and gently and you are less inclined to burn out and begin to hate what you are doing. Increase your limits and expectations incrementally. You are not going to be able to instantly run a marathon if you have not built up the fitness foundation for it.
Just One More. Always go that extra mile, say to yourself, ‘Just one More’ and see how much further it takes you.
Make a Progress Chart. All you need do is list the days at the top of your chart and the tasks to the left of your chart. Use ticks and crosses and try and get 3 ticks in a row, that’s 3 days of doing the ‘right’ thing.
Never Skip More than Two Days in a Row. If you miss a day, know that you have to get on with the skipped task on the next day. Don’t let the little child inside of you avoid responsibility.
No Quitters! Examine why you wish to avoid or give up a task. Usually, we don’t like to be out of our comfort zone or there are too many easy temptations in our environment. This situation will take discipline and willpower. Remember, you must eat your vegetables before having your dessert.
Patience is a Virtue. Things take time in order to see results. Whatever you do, don’t give up on the first hurdle, everything becomes easier with practice. We go through stages of learning and beginning starting with unconscious incompetence, then conscious competence, and finally unconscious competence when things become more automatic and easier.
Seek Help. If you don’t know how to do the task yourself or need a little confidence, we have the most incredible free resource to learn new things, the internet. Use YouTube or any other online source. There is a guide for nearly everything in human existence, and it’s free.
The First Step Can Be the Most Difficult. For Everyone! Know that once you start, your momentum will build. I always think of competing athletes who wake up early every morning and train, go to work or study, then train again in the evening, no matter what the weather is like.
Use Your Imagination. Visualise the results of completing the task and how you will feel. Now imagine how you will feel if you don’t get it done. Then re-imagine the feelings of having completed the task again.
Positivity is Key. You must be positive and know that you can at least try “What is the worst that can happen?” and even if it does, how much does it matter? You have learned something new from experience and that is what life is about!
Get Energised! Do one minute of jumping jacks, running on the spot, jumping or using the skipping rope. Shake yourself out of the dullness and lethargy that comes with being de-motivated.
Read a Motivational Quote from a website like success.com
Read a Great Book from a Great Author such as Anthony Robbins or Elizabeth Gilbert.
My own book, “Each day New you” has 69 practical motivational exercises, including daily preparation and daily actions to get you moving.
For my books on Mindfulness and Minimalism, please click on this link