The 10 keys to self-motivation

Motivation is necessary to achieve your goals. But... how do we motivate ourselves?

Many people believe that to achieve goals you just have to be hard-working and disciplined. This is a half-truth: in reality, only when we are truly motivated are we capable of achieving our goals, only when we are truly motivated are we able to achieve certain goals..

Motivation is the key to understanding why human beings remain tenacious in pursuing certain achievements that do not bear fruit in the short term. In this text we will explain you some keys, tricks and tips to help you to tips, tricks and advice so that you can understand how human motivation works and you can have a small guide to achieve everything you propose in life.

The 10 psychological strategies and keys to motivate oneself

Here are some ways to motivate yourself effectively, whatever your goal may be.

1. Never forget to think positive

Keep in mind that your thoughts will have a decisive influence on how you approach each step you take.. If you face each day with a positive outlook on things, you will be able to move towards your goals. If, on the other hand, you are a negative person to whom everything seems impossible, you will do nothing to improve.

Your inner speech is one of the key factors in motivating you. We all have a little inner voice that can help or hinder us. We must learn to manage its influence and be aware that our mental state is the key for us to set goals and achieve them. If you have too many negative thoughtsIf you have too many negative thoughts, it is time to eliminate them and replace them with thoughts and beliefs that work in your favor.

• To achieve it: "7 techniques to erase negative thoughts from your mind".

Never underestimate the power of positive positive thinking when you are trying to motivate yourself.

2. Keep a personal journal that reflects your progress.

If you are not a very methodical person, this trick can be very useful. One of the keys to motivating ourselves to achieve a goal is to to become aware of the progress we are making in the short term.. Thus, we perceive that our efforts are paying off and therefore we are more likely to move forward. It is good to break down your work into different mini-goals that provide an incentive to keep battling.

If you like to write, a good way to track your progress is to write a small diary in which you explain what you have done during the day and what your progress has been.. This way you can see how close you are to your goal. It is also interesting that you write down both the positive (progress, good feelings, etc.) and the negative (mistakes you have made, ideas for improvement)... We recommend you to be rigid and update your diary every day at the same time.

In addition, with the emergence of smartphone applicationsyou can keep a diary of your progress almost automatically in certain areas. For example, if your goal is to run five kilometers in the shortest possible time, there are apps that monitor your activity for you. In this way, you can you can have a lot of information on your computer to give you feedback. feedback about your performance and progress.

3. Imagine yourself achieving your goals, every day.

A highly effective psychological trick: mentally visualize the result you want to achievefor several minutes and in great detail. Just close your eyes and enjoy imagining how you perceive the moment of success and satisfaction in what you have set out to do. How would you feel, with whom would you share it?

The more and better you know how to imagine that moment, the more motivated you will stay and the longer you will stay motivated.. If you practice this mental image for five minutes a day, your success will be closer.

• Read more: "The 7 habits of really effective people".

4. One day you can fail... but not twice.

Human beings are deeply flawed. If one day we fail to make progress, we should put it in perspective. We all have a bad day when laziness paralyzes us. But the golden rule is this: you can fail one day, but not two days in a row..

If the previous day you did not manage to feel motivated to carry out the daily actions that bring you closer to your goal, the second day is key. Don't let laziness or any other excuse boycott you on that second day as well.. You can not lose two days in a row because then you would be carving a mental precedent that justifies your future laziness.

• To know more: "The 10 excuses that unproductive people always use".

5. Healthy competition among friends is a great source of motivation.

We all love healthy competition, especially when we surround ourselves with people who make us feel good. This predisposition to competition can be very useful to motivate us to strive for our goals..

If you know a family member, friend or co-worker who has similar goals to yours, you can "recruit" them to have a healthy competition that can help you both. Week after week, you can catch up on who has managed to run the most miles, smoke the fewest cigarettes.smoking fewer cigarettes, getting more sales, doing more push-ups, and so on.

However, this should be an incentive, not a burden: your goals should be weighted and should be equitable with respect to the other person.. For example, it would be absurd for someone who is just starting to run to compare himself with a professional long-distance runner. The key is not to constantly compare yourself, but to lean on each other to keep moving forward, and for each of you to achieve your own goals.

6. Prepare your mind for the down times.

Along a long road, you may go through good times and bad times. In these moments when things do not go as we would like them to, certain defeatist thoughts and the irrepressible urge to abandon the ship may come to mind. the ship.

Do not be afraid when these thoughts come to you, as it is completely natural that from time to time they arise and invite you to stop fighting. If you are aware of them, you can manage them so that they do not affect you. For every down moment you experience, have a strong reason to keep fighting.

• You may also find helpful: "25 short positive phrases to live every day with optimism".

7. Make a list of your reasons to stay motivated.

Let's go deeper into the previous point. If you know your reasons that push you to keep pulling the cart and striving every day, you have much to gain. This is the perfect antidote to excuses, laziness and mental hijacking..

Many people motivate themselves by thinking about their loved ones. Other people approach it from a more individual sense or because of the great intrinsic motivation intrinsic motivation they feel towards the activity they practice. Whichever way it is, it is good that you write down on a piece of paper what your motivations are..

8. The importance of a good advisor

When you pursue a dream, it is likely that other people have already achieved it before you. Having the support of a person with a long experience can be key to explain some tips and to explain you some tricks and reflections so that you can achieve what you propose.

You can also look for courses or seminars of people who talk about what you are interested in. You should not underestimate the knowledge that other people can give you. In our society, almost everything has already been invented. But nevertheless there are few people who have the ability to innovate and look for new ways to solve problems.. If you are able to soak up a lot of knowledge from different sources, you will probably be able to motivate yourself and stay on the right track.

9. Discover your true passions

This is basic. When we genuinely enjoy an activity, we get to have a state of Flow that allows us to perform at our best until we lose track of time. Earlier we talked about intrinsic motivation: is the motivation we feel for the pleasure of doing something..

When we manage to discover what we are passionate about and we are lucky enough to be able to dedicate ourselves to it, our intrinsic motivation will allow us to face the task and the day to day in a really effective way, our intrinsic motivation will allow us to face the task and the day to day in a truly effective way.. If, on the other hand, we do not like what we do and therefore do not have a good dose of intrinsic motivation, we can only be motivated thanks to extrinsic motivation. extrinsic motivationthat is, if we have incentives (economic or otherwise) to move forward.

Therefore, it is important that you choose your life based on what you like to do, since you will be more motivated.

• Discover the importance of dedicating yourself to what you like: "Gladwell's law of 10,000 hours of experience".

10. Get inspired by the little things of everyday life

The key to motivation is to be a person open to the world and find inspiration in small, everyday details. details. Inspiration can be found in almost anything.

It will not only allow you to motivate yourself in a given moment (which is also true), but also to keep you motivated for long periods of time.

And you, how do you motivate yourself?

Here are our ten thoughts on how we can motivate ourselves. But each person is different and surely there may be other tricks and different strategies. We invite you to share them with us in the comments area.