HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED
Motivation is a prick. It comes and goes. It’s unreliable. It cannot and should not be depended on.
Motivation is like an emotion in that our surroundings, our lives, our brains, they all give us motivation or can take it away. It’s our choice, of course, whether or not we’re motivated. Few, though, create motivation. Few create scenarios where they can’t help but be motivated. Most sit and wait.
They perform great when they’re motivated but they’re so seldom motivated that they don’t often perform up to the standard that their potential could have them perform.
You should not aspire to be more motivated. You should aspire to create motivation.
1. Practice positivity.
Actively find things that you appreciate. Every day write down 3 things that you appreciate that have happened within the last 24 hours.
It’s the act of training your brain to find opportunity. Most people dwell on despair, winners actively find and act on opportunity amidst crisis.
2. Plan your day, week, year.
Being motivated is more about habit than emotion. In The Power of Full Engagement, Tony Schwarz and Jim Loehr delve into how our brains can be programmed to create motivation and energy.
When we habitually do the same thing we get programmed to ‘get up’ and ready to do the task. It’s like waking up at the same time every day. At first, we need an alarm. After a week or so – or more – we begin to wake up at (or earlier) than the time we once set our alarm to rise at.
This is no different with working out at the same time than with waking up at the same time. Have a consistent plan to your day. Write at the same time every day and the muse won’t be something you have to chase, but something that meets you when you sit down to tell stories.
3. Read history, not self-help.
History provides proof about what can be done. It’s evidence of possibilities. It’s also a guide to what to avoid, how men in the past have made their mistakes, and where opportunities lie.
History repeats itself. It’s incredible how true this statement is. No matter the period, humans have won and lost due to similar circumstances. Knowing how to win, knowing how big-thinkers created something from nothing isn’t just motivating, it’s inspiration based on fact, not on weightless sentences that provide brief instances of inspiration.
4. Get 8 hours of sleep.
Being sleep-deprived is akin to being drunk. We perform at about the same level. Now, eight hours isn’t a must, some can go off of 6 or 7, but knowing how much sleep you need is important. Get it. Get enough sleep so that while you are awake, you can focus and perform at your best.
5. Be in peak physical condition.
It’s difficult to be motivated when you’re not healthy. Too many ignore the health aspect to being an optimal performer – and that’s what you’re trying to be. It isn’t a motivation, per se, that you’re after, but the ability to perform at a high level.
If you’re fat and out of shape, you’re putting one more barrier between you and what you want to accomplish.
Habits are also important. If you don’t workout, if you don’t eat right, how do you expect to do the right things in your other endeavors?
6. NEVER stay safe.
Excitement, more than motivation, will give you the energy you need to do great things. It’s excitement that most of us lack, and we think that we’re not motivated.
You cannot be excited about safety or ease. You need to push yourself, to set higher goals to be excited. When you’re excited about the possibilities of what you’re aiming to accomplish, you’ll feel more motivated than ever.
7. Know exactly what you’re doing in every moment.
Before I go to the gym every morning I start something. In the past I’ve come back from the gym and wasted time not knowing exactly what I should be working on. By starting something before I go I come back and continue doing what I was doing before I left.
It isn’t motivation, necessarily, but it’s motion.
Stagnation is a killer. That’s how we open our internet browser and begin wasting time. That’s how we lose an entire day in our quest, which eventually leads to a life wasted.
8. Be disciplined.
In The Lost Art of Discipline, we go over how discipline removes barriers and how a lack of discipline puts more barriers between you and who you need to become to reach the goals and dreams you want to accomplish.
Discipline is avoiding things that pull you away from your potential, and adopting things that bring you closer to realizing that potential.
Those who are supremely motivated know what they want, they aspire for greater things than the average fella, but they’re also supremely disciplined. They know that to rely on the feeling of motivation is a horrible way to live, and that creating the habits and the lifestyle that fosters motivation is a far better way to be.
9. Review your biggest goals every day.
Back to being excited…
When we set a big goal, we get excited, but we lose that excitement a couple weeks after when what we do has become routine.
Set massive goals, but keep them close, keep them in mind, continue to feel the energy that comes from possibilities.
10. Track everything.
Know exactly where you are in relation to where you want to be at all times.
Too often we lose motivation because we feel like we’re not doing well enough. Feelings don’t matter. Numbers matter.
Know where you want to be. Figure out how to become the man worthy of that life, job, degree of excellence. And then keep track of how you’re doing. Know how much you spend, save, invest. Know how many words you write a day. Know how much more business you’ve created this month versus this month a year ago.
I’ve seen this first hand. I’ve thought I was doing a lot worse than I really was simply because I wasn’t measuring what I was doing.
11. Never envy. Never compare yourself to someone else.
Your path in life has to be your own path. You have to focus on your own shit. Someone else’s path cannot be your focus. It pulls you away from what you’re doing and it removes any possibility of having the positive, alive, motivated mindset you need to win at your idea of success.
NEVER look at someone else, at what they’re doing, and get down on who you are or what you’ve accomplished.
Make a point to not even think about what others are doing, not even your competition, nor your allies.
Do your own thing. Live your own life.
About The Author
Chad Howse: Chad’s mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live.
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#11 is certainly something I find myself doing from time to time. More often than not, because I always find somebody doing a better job than I am at something. Whether it be in the gym, at work, financially, or just something else altogether. I chalk it down to being hard on myself, but it’s a fine line between that and actually putting the blinders on to focus on my own goals.
Brilliant post, btw, as always, Chad.
thanks brother