Your mind controls your psyche, and it is the same place self-motivation comes from. However, competing in this space are stress, fatigue, unending responsibilities, and so forth which makes self-motivation challenging. According to clinical psychologists, lack of motivation can exacerbate an existing mental health disorder. This information is vital considering that 2019 statistics indicated that 1 in every 5 Americans has a form of mental disorder. Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom, primarily because of the existence of interventions to kick-start your self-motivation journey. Read more about these here.
1. Be deliberate about your decision to stay positive
Staying positively minded is the firm foundation you need to motivate yourself. Positivity is a mood-management strategy you need to grasp from the get-go. Admittedly, external factors can make it challenging to remain on this crucial path, but with self-discipline, it is possible. A positive attitude to life does not necessarily equate to being a carefree individual. On the other hand, it is a recognition of an inner strength to face life’s challenges. Additionally, being deliberately positive-minded means a mental resolve to see the good in any unpleasant situation.
For example, did you lose your job due to the employment havoc brought on by the pandemic? Instead of sulking and thinking your world just came to an end, see it as an opportunity to reflect on your career. Believe it or not, your current unemployed status can present the perfect moment to enrol for a professional program or change career paths altogether. As stated in some notable quotes by Albert Einstein, never judge yourself by what others can do or are already doing. You have your inherent talents to get you out of unemployment. Therefore, by staying positive-minded, you can face anything with a clear mind.
2. Reward yourself whenever necessary
Another way to motivate yourself is to set personal reward techniques for challenges you manage to overcome. The human mind naturally feeds off reward and recognition, so the sooner you adopt that, the better it will be for you. Naturally, rewards feel good and knowing that you achieved something heightens the sensation even further. Can you remember the last time you won something for yourself and subsequently felt overwhelmed because you recognized how much work put into it? If you doubt how to reward yourself, this is an example to give you a fair idea.
Set weekly tasks and promise yourself to complete them before the end of the week. When you do, you can opt to give yourself a well-deserved spa day. The objective behind rewarding yourself is to fuel the personal drive to accomplish a feat. The very thought of something exciting waiting for you upon completion of set targets is an effective motivational tool
3. Avoid brooding over problems
Brooding is one of the first signs of early-stage clinical depression. Indeed, everybody broods over personal problems at some point in their lives. However, the secret to coming out of it safely is not allowing it to progress any further. The worst kind of brooding is when you’re dealing with a seemingly minor problem. It is the kind that ends up with you spending days and weeks in frustration. As a solution, whenever you’re faced with something of the sort, help yourself with these tips.
First, ask yourself if the problem is surmountable. If it is, look to resolve it without causing harm to your mental state. Secondly, if the issue is unmanageable, consider it as one of those things people have no control over. Understanding that you will not have everything under your control is a crucial step to avoid brooding.
4. Develop and live by a personal mantra
A mantra is a statement or slogan regularly uttered to boost the psyche and improve reactions to situations. People who live by their personal mantras willingly do so because of how valuable they perceive these words. Here are a few examples of personal mantras you can adopt and speak into your day:
- “I live each day to conquer my fears.”
- “It will be a good day because I choose for it to be so.”
- “Every mistake is an opportunity to correct the wrong.”
These personal statements help keep your mind focused on the goal. It doesn’t matter if you adopt someone else’s mantra or searched for it on the net, or developed one for yourself. The most important thing is for that mantra to mean more than just words to you. By using this, you would have armed yourself with the right tools to remain motivated each day.
