Get Rid of Your Lack of Motivation Once and for All

How do you motivate yourself? Some ways to motivate yourself are by realizing that motivation is optional, believing that if you get going you are more likely to get motivated, and open up your mind. Suit up and show up for life and keep a positive attitude; to increase your self motivation remind yourself, the next time you feel unmotivated, that it doesn’t matter that you aren’t feeling like doing it, get up and do the next right thing, and find three positive things about whatever it is that you are working on and use them for motivation.

Have you ever been in a job interview, and had the interviewer ask you if you were “self-motivated?” Have you ever wanted to answer with something like, “Who else, exactly, would be motivating me?”

Most of us do things every day like go to work, for ourselves or someone else, and do the work in front of us to do, whether we want to or not. Before that we got out of bed, got dressed, ate breakfast, took a shower, brushed our teeth.

All of those things take motivation, and if you’re not self-motivated, who’s motivating you? I know a freelance writer who tells people, “If I don’t work, I don’t eat, and I really, really like to eat.”

So it’s not a question of whether you’re self-motivated. Of course you are, when you’re motivated at all.

The question is, how do you motivate yourself? How do you get going on that project when you just can’t seem to “get motivated”?

1. Realize that motivation is entirely optional. You do not necessarily have to “feel like” getting up and taking a shower. No one always does. You just have to be committed to do it, whether you want to, whether you feel like it, or not. Just do it, as the slogan goes.

2. Believe that if you get going, you are more likely to get motivated than if you stand around waiting for the motivation. Action often brings motivation; sloth often brings more sloth.

3. Open your mind. If you get up and get going and are waiting on motivation to come from action, there is something else you can do. You can have as completely positive an attitude as possible. I know it may be hard at times, but I can promise you that if you feel good about what you’re doing, if you can find even just one good thing about what you’re working on and how you’re doing it, you will get motivated more quickly than using any other technique.

The great thing about these techniques is that you can use this three-step sequence over and over. Remember you don’t have to “feel like it.” Get up and do it anyway. Suit up and show up for life. Try to keep a positive attitude. Find one thing to praise or feel good about.

If you just follow this plan, you’ll be very pleasantly surprised by the change in your “motivation level.” Not only will you get the things done that you need to get done, but you’ll get them done more easily and with less effort, and have time to do other things you’d rather be doing, that you can get motivated about more easily.

We’re all self-motivated; some of us just know more about how to motivate ourselves.

How can you increase your (self) motivation?

• The next time you feel unmotivated, remind yourself that doesn’t matter.
• Get up and do the next right thing.
• Find three positive things about the task you’re working on, and use them to motivate yourself.

Thanks to Coaching 4 Lesbians for including this post in the Carnival of Healing, to Widow’s Quest for featuring this in the Carnival of Positive Thinking, to Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog for inclusion in the Carnival of Small Business Issues, to Working at Home on the Internet for including this in the Working at Home Blog Carnival, and to Positive and Successful Lifestyle Tips for featuring this in the Carnival of Inspiration and Motivation.

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