It is one thing to let yourself be motivated by others and it is another thing to be motivated by yourself. While listening to inspirational talks by speakers such as Mark Bosnich or watching motivational videos in YouTube may be effective, it is not always the best path to stay motivated for the long term. If you want long-lasting motivation, you have to learn how to motivate yourself. Self-motivation is often a struggle for most people, though. It usually just works at the start, but eventually fails, often leading to frustration and self-condemnation. If you are one of those individuals constantly struggling with self-motivation, perhaps it is because you are driven by the wrong goals. If that is the case, here’s what you should do:
Examine Your Higher Self
The first step to long-lasting motivation is examining your higher self. That means discovering your passion or calling in life and investing your time and effort in it. There is no point in trying to motivate yourself into doing something you are not really passionate about. It may work at first, but since it lacks the fuel it needs to run the distance (your passion), it will eventually fail and may even backfire. If you are doing something now that isn’t really your life purpose, it would make sense to quit it and shift your attention to what your ambitious life goal really is. It will not only save you time, money, and energy, but frustration, disappointments, and regrets as well.
Picture Your Vision in Your Mind
Once you have determined what you really want to do with your life, the next thing you would want to do is visualize your goals. The bigger your goals are the better. Visualizing your goals both in your mind and in paper makes them clearer and more real, encouraging you pursue them even more so. In one of the chapters in his book Take the Stairs, author Rory Vaden talks about visioneering, taken from the most critical aspect of creating new ideas – “vision” and “engineering.” According to him, a vision is an inspirning picture you have in your mind that propels you into action, and that the more clearly you can focus on your vision, the more it draws you to take action.
Build Your Vision Into Your Life
This is the final and perhaps the trickiest aspect of long-lasting self-motivation. Now that you know your purpose and have created a detailed map for it, you would want to build it deep into your life. Do whatever it takes to keep you focused on your goals. Review them daily, recite them, post them on the walls of your room, journal about them, discuss them with your spouse or with a mentor. This is where many people fail because it requires self-discipline. The good news is that the more you make your goals become part of your daily life, the more they become a part of who you are. This is also where visioneering comes into play. Visioneering is very powerful, because the moment you capture a detailed picture in your mind, your body responds immediately.
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