When you feel overworked, tired, or frustrated it might be hard to stay motivated and find the energy you need to keep going. We have all been there. There is nothing wrong with feeling that way, you just need to refocus and visualize your goals to stay motivated.
Most of the time I am a pretty motivated person (I love what I do, so working on my goals makes me happy), but sometimes it’s hard to keep going because life gets in the way or my schedule is just too overwhelming. That is why I came up with some tricks to help me stay motivated and now I want to share them with YOU!
Every time I feel down or need an extra motivational boost I go over them and reset my focus and energy. I made the first part into questions so that you have to really think and analyze your feelings. The second part consists of tips that will help you stay motivated both immediately and in the long run. Hope they help!
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QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU STAY MOTIVATED
1. CAN YOU DO IT?
Let’s start with the basic tools and foundations to work towards your goals. Do you have the knowledge, tools, and time to accomplish the goal?
In most cases, the tools are out there (youtube tutorials, blog posts, online classes, etc.) all you need to do is organize your time and see what your priorities are. The learning process might be hard or slow but once you have all that knowledge you will work much faster and even spend your time in a more productive way. This learning curve will help you stay motivated because with time things are going to seem easier and you will move closer to your goal.
There might only be 24h in a day but that doesn’t mean you can use your time wisely.
This guide might help you become more productive or you can also create routines to organize your time.
2. WILL IT WORK?
When you feel down, chances are you may be thinking that achieving your goal (whatever it might be) is hard or won’t work. That’s when the amazing success stories of other people in your niche come into place- to inspire you to keep going!
At first, I didn’t like to look at those stories because I would end up comparing myself. But then I realized I could learn from them, follow their steps or incorporate some of their knowledge into my life. It was a game-changer!
I love the ones where people buy a regular van and make it into a tiny home from scratch so they can drive around and have adventures!
If your goal is a product or a tool to help others, doing “market research” could motivate you. See if people need what you are offering if it’s a product, or if they need answers about things you know about. It might reassure and help you stay motivated to know your work will be useful to someone.
4. IS IT WORTH IT?
Is your dream big enough? Do you want to go through the effort to accomplish your goal?
You know you can do it – and you know it will work – but, do you want it badly enough?
I like to picture my life once I have accomplished the goal. Then I ask myself: How do I feel? What’s different? How is this helping my family, etc?
This also dives a little into manifesting, but if you are not into that it’s ok! Imagining your future once that goal is achieved is probably the best way to stay motivated.
These are hard questions but they really get you going. I am a very visual person, so I like to put papers on the wall with all my answers so I can look at them every day and stay motivated. You can also make a mood/visual board so it is easier to picture your goals and future.
4. WHAT IF I GET STUCK?
Feeling stuck is a normal part of any process, it just means you are learning. But that feeling can get in the way of your motivation. You want to do it, you’ve tried, but no matter what, you just can’t get it.
When that happens, break down the problem into smaller steps. We talk about this in our post about how to be more productive.
For example, instead of writing a 2,000-word blog post, just write down a great headline, then do the outline, then the intro paragraph, then the conclusion, then slowly start filling out the rest of the blog post.
Break your big task into smaller steps, that way you feel like you are accomplishing more, thus feel more motivated to continue.
TIPS TO HELP YOU STAY MOTIVATED
Now that you have your goals in mind, they are clear, and you are back on track, it’s time to keep the motivation juice coming!
These are my tricks to stay motivated both immediately and in the long run. I actually did most of these throughout college and I remember my study partners looking at me like I was crazy, but then I noticed they started doing the same! (I felt very proud).
1.KEEP TRACK OF YOUR EMOTIONS
Your thoughts influence your actions. If you are constantly putting yourself down, it’s going to be hard to accomplish those big goals, because you are wasting your energy on being negative.
Instead, fill your mind with positive self-talk:
- I am good enough.
- I am smart enough.
- I am a good creator.
- I don’t have all the skills YET – but I’m working towards it.
- I’m a little closer to my goal today than I was yesterday.
- I am doing my best and that’s good enough.
Positive self-talk not only can help you accomplish your goals, but it will also reduce your stress and boost your resilience. Plus it takes the same amount of effort to be negative as it does to be positive, so might as well use that energy towards your goals!
2. GIVE YOURSELF A REINFORCEMENT
You know when you were little and you got candy after doing something right or finishing something that was hard? Well… I figured if that motivated me when I was little why wouldn’t something similar work right now…
It’s simple. Think of something you like or makes you happy. For me, it is gummy worms or any type of gummy candy. Then I tell myself “after reading x number of pages I get to eat 3 gummies”. You have to stay consistent and not cheat for it to actually work. It might seem silly but after a while, you will just get into the workflow and have the reward when you finish something.
The candy strategy also works to give you energy! That sugar will keep you alert and you won’t need to keep drinking coffee.
You can use any reinforcement you like. For example 10 minutes of social media, a cigarette, cookies, etc. It just needs to be something that makes you feel better and feels like a reward.
3. PRODUCTIVE PROCRASTINATION
This one is a little bit related to the previous tip BUT instead of a physical reward, you give yourself a mental reward.
Let me explain. We all know procrastination is a thing we can’t avoid. Even if you are the most productive and motivated person on earth you are bound to have some time of “I want to do that instead of this.” So what do you do? embrace the procrastination and control how long you get to do that other activity.
For example, right before you start or after you finish an important task you can allow yourself to procrastinate for a bit. For me, Pinterest is the best way to procrastinate. I can spend hours looking at things and getting ideas, so instead, I give myself 15 minutes right before I start writing so I can have a clear head and get to work. I have the motivation that I already procrastinated so now it’s time to work. If at the end of the day I feel like I did a lot and worked hard I’ll give myself more time to procrastinate because I deserve it.
4. THE DISTRACTIONS LIST
I am a HUGE fan of lists! I make lists for everything. Needless to say, I make lists for my day, week, month, and a general to-do for random things that need to be done but don’t affect the general flow of my work or life. This helps me not only to remember everything but also to stay motivated and work on what needs to be done. Nothing more satisfying than crossing off a task!
Love lists so much that I even made a to-do list template for you in case you want to make your own.
So when I read Nick Wignall’s idea about the “distractions list” I had to try it.
The idea is quite simple. While working make sure you have a notebook or paper with something to write. Every time you have a distracting thought, idea, conversation, or anything that is not related to the task in hand you write it down. After you are done working, go down the list and see if anything is important or worth spending more time on. Then, you can think/work on that and stay motivated on what you are doing.
5. PLAN FOR SLIP-UPS
It would be unrealistic to think you are never going to be unmotivated or that your plan towards your goal isn’t going to slow down a bit. We all have times like that, so what can you do instead?
Make a plan for when you feel that way so you can stay motivated in the long run.
- You can take a break for a few hours or a couple of days.
- Don’t be hard on yourself. Refer to tip #1.
- Have someone that holds you accountable. A working buddy, a friend that has a similar goal, or even someone you can talk to about your frustrations and they will listen.
- If these slip-ups happen often then it might be a good idea to analyze why this is happening. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Maybe all you need to do is take a different approach or change your schedule.
Thank you for taking some time of your day to read our blog, we truly appreciate it. We hope these tips to stay motivated help you as much as they help us! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions and share them with someone that might find them useful.
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