Five Motivation Tips

1. Fire Up Your Purpose

If you have an awesome purpose, all you have to do is THINK about the purpose to feel energized.

For example, you feel lazy or tired, so you remember your purpose and BANG, you are motivated.

A great purpose drives you forward.  It can be an unlimited source of energy. It gives you passion.

Ten Questions to Help You Find Purposes that Motivate You

1. What do I really love to do?
2. What makes me come alive?
3. What am I great at?
4. What do I believe in?
5. When am I the most energetic?
6. What breaks my heart or pulls at my gut?
7. What changes do I want to make in this world?
8. What would I give my life for?
9. What am I passionate about?
10. What would I be excited to do for the rest of my life?

Three Recommendations

1. Make a list of all your purposes.
2. Of these purposes, pick one or two that motivate you the most.
3. Figure out ways you can spend more time working on your top purposes.

If you now feel powered and energized, go for it!

Three Examples

1. List all purposes:

• Pat writes, “My purposes are to design beautiful kitchens, make enough money to retire when I’m 40, lose 30 pounds, read more science books and help my brother become mayor.”
• Joe writes, “I want to raise a family, get promoted at my job, stop being a news junky, be happier, live to be 100 and expand my car collection.”
• Sheila writes, “My purposes are to double the income of my insurance office, help my kids start any career they want, play piano again, stop drinking and do more for my church.”

2. Pick the top one or two:

• Pat writes, “Help my brother become mayor.”
• Joe writes, “Raise a family and be happier.”
• Sheila writes, “Double the income for my insurance office and do more for my church.”

3. Find ways to spend more time working on your top purposes:

• Pat writes, “Reduce my work hours from 40 to 20 hours per week and spend 30 hours per week on the campaign until the election is over.”
• Joe writes, “Spend more time looking for a wife instead of shopping for more cars. Be happier by not watching any more news.”
• Sheila writes, “Double the income for my insurance office by working nights and weekends so I can triple my church donations.

2. Do What You’re Doing

Put all of your attention on what you need to do. Be in the here and now. Do not think about the past or the future, keep your thoughts on present time.

Think about nothing, except the work or task in front of you. Train yourself to ignore all other thoughts, like the events of yesterday, your fears, the weather, your family, body problems and so on. 

Five Ways to Motivate Yourself by Getting into Present Time

1. It’s easy to get out of bed if you first clear your mind. If your attention is clouded by the past (like a dream or a memory) or the future (like a fear or a difficult task) you may prefer to stay in bed. Give yourself a gentle kick by shifting your attention to present time. Feel the sheets on your skin. Watch a clock. Enjoy the present moment and then go do what you need to do.

2. If you hate doing what you are doing, you will never be motivated. Your attention is probably on something more enjoyable you will do in the future. Shift your attention from that future moment and take a closer look at your present moment, and find something interesting about it. Even if you hate the work or the moment, you can make it more enjoyable by just doing what you are doing right now.

3. If you worry you will fail, you lose all motivation. Decide to let the future take care of itself because you cannot control the future. Instead, focus on what you are doing as you CAN control the present moment.

4. When you feel lazy or unmotivated, shake your head and focus on improving what you are doing. Be faster or more precise than ever. Get more work done per hour. Have more concentration than everyone else around you.

5. You wear many “hats.” Your work hat, family hat, party hat, cleaning hat, investment hat and so on. If you wear one or more hats that are not needed right now, you lose control of your attention and ruin your motivation. So mentally remove all your hats and relax. Do not put any of them back on until you’re in present time. Then put on just ONE of your hats; the one you need to wear right now.

3. List the Benefits

A great way to motivate yourself is to list and review the end results, not the task or the difficulties. As the stress of the job hits you, remember what you get out of it.

Ask yourself questions like these.

• “What’s in it for me?”
• “What are the benefits I get?”
• “If I do the task or work, what end results will I earn?”
• “Why should I jump in and do this?”
• “What benefits might I get in the future?”

Four Examples

1. Task: Exercise every day on a treadmill.

You keep skipping your treadmill time, so you make a list of benefits and tape the list to your treadmill.

“More energy, longer life, stronger heart, better digestion, strong blood flow, opportunity to think about everything, feeling in control of my body. “

Each day, you ask yourself, “Is now a good time to get on the treadmill?” You then think, “I’ll read the list first.” As a result, you feel more purpose and less laziness. You get on and start up the machine. As the exercise gets difficult, you read part of your list and feel happy to continue. When you finish, you feel great!

2. Task: Get out of bed with enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, getting up is a difficult chore until you list the benefits of the day, in your mind, before you open your eyes.

“I get to have fun with my daughter, the weather is beautiful, I might earn a $500 bonus today, I get to listen to some awesome new songs in my car, but first I get to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee.”

You now feel excited to get up.

3. Task: You need to work eight hours every day at a job you hate.

Every day, you feel exhausted half-way through. This makes you want to quit and do something else. You list the benefits of your current job.

“I like getting paid. If I do a great job, I’ll get more money. I’ll be proud that I can do good work even though I am not fond of the work. The more I just face it and do it, the easier it gets. I can become better at this job than anyone else. I can then take over the department and help my team enjoy the work.”

Suddenly, the job is not a drudgery . . . as long as you keep the benefits in mind.

4. Task: You need to face and handle a difficult person.

You write up a meeting plan and include these benefits at the top.

“By the end of the meeting with Joe, we’ll either be happy to work together, or he’ll be leaving. Either way, I’ll be happy.”

Joe tries to cancel the meeting, but this time you have a benefit in mind. You are motivated to insist on meeting. Then during the meeting, you feel stressed by Joe’s nasty comments and want to just quit, but you remember the big benefit and you persist. By the end of the meeting, Joe decides to leave. You are both happy with his decision.

Recommendations

1. Write down a task or job.

2. List all the benefits and results you will get from doing it. What’s in it for you?

3. Review your list whenever you need an extra boost to do the task or job.

4. Play a Bigger Game

When you feel bored, tired or lazy, the last thing you might want is ANOTHER challenge. However, it might be EXACTLY what you need.

Inc. Magazine surveyed 435 CEOs to find out what motivated them. According to the survey, 2.8% said motivational recordings got them excited. 1.8% said live events or seminars motivated them. 3.9% said taking time off gets them going and 3.2% were motivated by prayer.

However, the biggest category of all, 63.9%, said they are motivated by, “Finding a new challenge within the business.” They found new games to play.

This means your biggest source of passion and motivation may be sitting right in front of you.

Find Out by Asking Yourself Questions Like These

• “Am I being challenged enough right now?”
• “If I took on a bigger responsibility, would I feel excited?”
• “How would I feel if I could do twice as much as I’m doing now?”
• “What new challenge can I take on as part of my current work?”
• “What bigger game might be fun and exciting for me to do in this place?”

If taking on a bigger challenge is exciting for you, it’s what you need to feel motivated. Go for it!

5. Get Physical

Instead of thinking about a task, constantly planning the steps or talking about the job to various people, DO something.

Thinking, chatting, researching and planning can be valuable, but they do not motivate you like taking ACTION.

Even small physical acts can get your engine started.

Five Motivational Physical Actions

Actually DO one or all of the following until you feel motivated:

1. Get into motion! Grab something to do and do it. Walk fast and talk fast until you feel energized.

2. If you only have a few things to do right now, do not take your time or move slowly. Do them with speed and energy. You might discover some terrific new things you can do.

3. Take up more space. Spread out your papers and devices. Stand and pose like a superhero.

4. If you are just too tired or lazy to get going, just think about getting up and doing something. Imagine yourself in motion until you feel the urge to do so. Then get up.

5. Play an upbeat song and participate! Tap your foot. Bob your head. Conduct the music with your arms. Sing along. Play air guitar. Dance.

VIDEO: Click here for a great song to fire you up!