Motivational Monday #4

Happy Monday J With all this rain around I am sure many of you are struggling to get motivated for the day ahead…I know I would have preferred to stay in bed and given half the chance, I would be back there right now! But, duty calls so in today’s Motivational Monday piece I thought we might touch on ways to harness and promote motivation.

Ask yourself “Why?” Why are you doing this particularly dull task? Focusing on how unbearably boring it is wont make you get through it any easier, but if you reflect on why it is important, it may just raise the energy stakes a few notches (eg – working on a Sunday (bluck!) at double pay rate (yay!) to save up for an overseas holiday (double yay!!)) Focusing on the positive elements will enhance your enjoyment and consequently your motivation for the task at hand.

Fake it ‘till you feel it. I like this one because it is a little trick we can play on our minds that works unbelievably well. If you feel unmotivated, jump around, mover your body and get excited as though you genuinely are motivated. Hopefully the momentum will start to help the positive energy flow from there.

Apply the 10 minute rule. If there is a task that you are dreading the thought of starting, just give it a go for 10 minutes. You will often find that once you’ve started it, you’ll be questioning yourself as to why you were so hesitant in the first place (I use this rule with the gym all the time…getting there is the hardest part). If after 10 minutes you are still not into it, set the task aside and give it another go later.

Break it down. Sometimes starting a huge task, like writing a book for example, is difficult because we focus on how remarkably huge the task is. Instead, what we should be doing in an effort to motivate ourselves, is breaking things down into smaller, simpler and more manageable sized tasks. This helps because when you know something is achievable, you are more likely to get on with it and get it done. Success builds on success so once you have accomplished one of the smaller tasks, the next won’t seem so difficult and before you know it, the huge task is done!

The power of positive thinking. This is undoubtedly the most important element of motivation because as you think then so it is. If you spend all your time telling yourself how rubbish you are at a particular task or that you are never going to reach your goals, then of course you wont. But, if you let go of negative thinking and focus on positive self-talk, a whole world of opportunity will be available to you. The power of positive thinking is something I am very passionate about so perhaps next Monday I will dedicate a whole blog entry to this topic…stay tuned J  

Well I hope you can draw on at least one of these motivational tips to get you through the day. Even better, I hope that these tips have inspired you to tackle many areas of your life that you need a little more motivation in. Good luck xox