introduction
Several years ago a marathoner was asked what kept him motivated to complete the final leg of the race when all he wanted to do was quit! The answer he gave did not involve talent or luck; rather, he stated, “I think about taking the next step”. This philosophy embodies the essence of daily motivation; it’s often created through small consistent actions rather than being loud or dramatic. In a world filled with goals (better job, health, money, relationships) the difference between creating a goal and achieving a goal is usually one of motivation. If there is no motivation, the best-laid plans will turn into unaccomplished dreams.
The purpose of this article is to discuss some very practical ways you can develop daily motivation through three main areas: developing disciplined routines; improving your mental attitude; and creating a conducive environment for success.
Create Systems of Daily Actions that Reduce Unnecessary Effort
Motivation is commonly thought of as a temporary burst of energy, but actually it acts more like a system: when your day is structured, you’re less dependent on mood and more dependent on momentum.
Behavioral psychology studies show that developing habits (i.e., creating a routine) decreases the mental exertion it takes to act — once a behavior has become a habit, there’s much less resistance to performing that behavior.
Why Habitual Behaviors Will Continue to Provide Your Motivation
In contrast to temporary enthusiasm, habitual behaviors will help anchor your progress. Habits provide a method for continuing to persist with activities even when you don’t feel motivated.
Examples of simple strategies to develop habits which help maintain motivation:
Start with very small tasks.
If your goal is to exercise an hour-a-day, start with 10 minutes. Completing small tasks demonstrates progress to the brain and will encourage you to repeat that behavior.
Add New Habits to Existing Habits.
For example, after you’ve had your morning coffee, spend a few moments reviewing your goals. Known as habit stacking, this method will help strengthen consistency with each behavior as you develop a new habit.
Keep Track of Your Progress By One Method Or Another.
Whether you use a piece of paper, a digital tracker, or any other medium you choose, the act of tracking streaks will reinforce your motivation.
Real World Example:
Many successful authors set a goal to write 300 words per day. That may seem unremarkable at first, but after a year, that equals a tremendous output. The key is not the difficulty of the work, but the ability to maintain consistency, which is facilitated by creating a habitual practice.
How This Is Different From Traditional Perspectives on Motivation Etc.
Motivate Yourself with Clear and Meaningful Goals
When your goals are unclear, it’s hard to be motivated. The mind loves specific goals that have a reason behind them. If you’re working towards a specific goal and you know why you’re working towards it, then your efforts will have direction!
A number of studies on goal setting have shown that specific and difficult goals are much more effective in improving performance than setting general intentions.
Use Your Goals to Drive Your Daily Actions
Your motivation will increase when your goals relate to something important in your life, as opposed to just what everybody else expects of you.
Consider some techniques that will help you to focus:
Establish the “why.”
It’s nice to want a promotion, but if you want it to help your family be stable, you have a much stronger reason.
Break down your large goals into daily actions.
If you set a large goal but don’t have a plan, it will remain an unfulfilled wish.
Imagining yourself accomplishing your goal will increase your motivation.
Many athletes use visualization techniques to improve performance because the brain is very responsive to visualizing success.
For example:
A person wants to start a small business, instead of stressing out over the big project, they choose one thing each day to accomplish that will lead towards the goal — such as researching their market, refining their product or developing partnerships. As they get closer to having completed everything for opening day, their motivation continues to build.
Differentiation From Common Thinking:
Many people rely on outside pressure to motivate themselves — deadlines, competition / comparison, and meeting others’ expectations. While this will get people taking action, what can keep you motivated for the long term is intrinsic motivation, which occurs when your goals align with your values. When you set and work towards a goal based on your values, persistence begins to feel much less like hard work.
Design An Environment To Support Your Motivation
Often, when we lack motivation, we blame ourselves. The truth is that our behavior is significantly influenced by our surroundings.
Your environment can serve either as a drain on your focus or as an assistance to the ongoing studies of your focus.
Make Success The Default.
Stop relying on willpower alone to make the best choices possible; instead, change your environment in such a way that you have less friction when making those good decisions.
Examples of simple ways to upgrade your environment include:
Reducing distractions.
Removing unnecessary notifications. One full hour of being solely focused will out perform three hours of being distracted.
Ensuring that you are surrounded by individuals who are also motivated, as motivation is socially contagious and surrounding yourself with focused people will raise your own level of ambition.
Having reminders of your goals near you. Having a goal written out and placed where you will see it during the day will help to reorient your mind back to your goals multiple times a day.
Celebrating your progress. Whether it’s acknowledgement from someone else or just yourself, the act of acknowledging your progress will result in dopamine release, creating a payoff and reinforcing your productive behaviour.
For example, remote workers that create a dedicated area to work are often more productive than those who work from their couch. Once the brain associates the physical boundaries of a workspace, it then recognizes the need for your best performance.
How This Strategy Differs From Tradition
The traditional perspective assumes that motivation is dependent upon self control. The environmental design perspective takes this idea and flips it on it’s head, considering that the person is a product of the environment they are in and using that fact as a tactic to provide you with even more ways to be more productive, without forcing you to become any more motivated than you already are.
calculation
Reaching substantial objectives is seldom accomplished by one grand inspiration; it’s more commonly a gradual growth spurred by daily encouragements—the ability to decide to keep going one step at a time.
Here are 3 principles that enable that process through:
1) Structured Habits help to lessen resistance and provide consistency in making progress.
2) Specific, Purposeful Goals provide a sense of direction for what effort should go toward.
3) Supportive Environments help to safeguard focus and energy.
To use motivation as a constant instead of a random occurrence, combine the above three strategies.
The call to action
Get going today, but to get started, don’t go too large to begin with; settle on one habit that correlates to your ultimate goal, along with a few reasons why it is important to you. After this, change your environment to create an ease of habit development instead of making it difficult.
Keep in mind that motivation is much more about building a life where doing things becomes habitual instead of waiting for the “right” feeling to act upon.
The future is generally most inclined to reward those who display consistency — versus simply being present for “sometimes.”
Start where you are right now — select one small step to take today, and continue building off of that momentum tomorrow.