Seven steps to self-motivation

Are you actively working towards a goal? Have you achieved it? No? Why not? What’s holding you back?

The answers to these may range anywhere from “external factors” to “not enough time” or “not enough skill” to even “just didn’t have the time”.

Granted, these may very well have played a role in your lack of progress but let’s be honest, it was most likely a lack of motivation.

The thing is, when you are driven and resourceful enough, you can pretty much accomplish anything. You simply need to amass the willpower to overcome the obstacles or challenges standing in your way. That’s a good start!

What is self-motivation?

It’s the inner force that keeps you moving without any outside influence from people or situations, for example. It’s our internal drive to achieve, produce, develop, and keep moving forward.

When you think you’re ready to give up, self-motivation kicks in and tells you to keep pushing. It’s what transforms the “should do” to “must do”. Think about the most successful people – be it in life, in the world of sports or entertainment, or otherwise – what do they all have in common? They all have an undying passion and hunger to succeed. Where does that hunger or passion come from? Exactly!
Self-motivation can be a very powerful tool – it will help you push through your fears and meet goals that you have set your mind on.

Why is self-motivation essential?

When it comes to achieving anything in life, you ought to have the ability to ‘turn on’ your self-motivation. Relying on others to motivate you or feeding off their energy isn’t necessarily the best way to achieve it. You need to tap into your own self-motivation mechanism, cultivate your own inner strength and draw on it when the time comes.

Creating self-motivation means creating a deep sense of self-confidence in yourself that is not influenced by any external events and/or experiences. By building an entire belief system of motivation, you’ll become unstoppable.

What drives self-motivation?

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting!

To create self-motivation, you have to know what you want, what your goals are, and why you want to succeed. Once you know the what and why, you will be more motivated than ever to stay on track, especially when things get tough.

You must also assess the emotion and meaning you attach to your successes and failures. If faced with a setup, what do you say to yourself?

If you keep repeating in your head I"’m not good enough", then that’s not going to get you anywhere. So, when you’re trying to self-motivate, think about the positive place you want to go to – this will help you get things done and block out that nagging voice that tells you it can’t be done or that you’re not good enough.

Have you ever noticed how you physically feel when you’re motivated? Your energy levels, your body language, your state of mind – this is what you need to maintain consistently!

After it’s all said and done, the key thing to remember is to start your success journey today a year from now you will wish you had started today. 

7 self-motivation techniques for reaching your goals

1. Find your meaningfulness

The goals you set need to have meaning, they should inspire you. What is your purpose for achieving those goals, beyond the usual material wants? Set inspiring goals and connect them with your purpose – boom! You’ll find your self-motivation.

2. Be responsible for your life

The difficult thing about creating self-motivation is that you have to do it. You need to be responsible for identifying the obstacles that are blocking your self-motivation and stopping you from completing goals or creating an action plan for self-motivation.

It’s easy to blame others or even situations, but at the end of the day, it’s just you. Take charge now and start visualising success. 

3. Visualising success

Visualising success partially has to do with how you will feel when you start your journey – this is a great tool for self-motivation as it gives you something to look forward to. It’s kind of like a priming exercise you might do every morning. And by doing so, you will effectively bridge the gap between action and procrastination – you are, in a way, priming yourself for success.

Adding something as simple as a morning walk or run can help you visualise success, particularly if it’s outdoors where there’s so much to get inspired by. The process of exercising or continually moving can rewire your mind: oxygen starts to pump faster throughout your body, your blood flow increases, your senses become more acute – it’s a powerful stimuli that will help you visualise success.

4. Re-evaluate your goals

It’s easy to lose inspiration even if you are focused on your purpose and vision. When that happens, take a step back and re-evaluate your goals. If you are still searching for your ‘meaningfulness’, you might need a new 'why'. Creating new goals is always a good idea under circumstances like these – by continuing to make an effort you will keep making progress.

5. Managing your time

Are you managing your time effectively? Sometimes, all you need are the right time management tools and strategies. Creating an action plan is a good way of making progress – write down what you want, why you want it, and the steps you’re going to take to achieve it.

Whenever things get challenging, you can refer to your action plan, where you’ll be focusing on achieving one goal at a time. This is one of the keys to maintaining self-motivation! So, try not to multi-task too much as it may diminish your focus and result in lost energy. Handpick one goal at a time, concentrate all your energy on completing it, and then move on to the next one.

6. Create empowering beliefs 

You have to believe that you are a self-motivated individual otherwise you may never be able to create the self-motivation you need to succeed.
Turn negative beliefs into positive ones – rewire your mindset to explore empowering beliefs, which means transforming negative thinking into positive self-talk.

7. Reward action

It’s always good to aim high but at the same time, your goals need to be realistic – in other words, smarter goals. Set out rewards for yourself when you achieve those goals.

In fact, set out rewards for yourself every time you make progress towards the larger goal.

After it’s all said and done, the key thing to remember is to start your success journey today a year from now you will wish you had started today.