7 Ways to Increase Motivation
Yesterday, I was talking to a friend of mine who owns a gym and found out an interesting fact. She stated that the first week of the New Year the gym is packed but by the second or third week most if not all of the new members are gone or have cut back drastically on their exercise. They ran out of motivation.
Now this behavior not only stalls many would be exercisers. Lack of motivation will also slow down or stop a dieter or a salesperson or anyone else who wishes to succeed in some way. The behavior is the same regardless of the context. Lack of motivation is the key difference between success and failure.
Following are 7 great ways to increase motivation and stimulate success:
- Stay positive. By focusing on positive thoughts you create energy and stimulate activity. If you have a hard time with “glass half full” thinking, take up meditation, self-hypnosis or prayer.
- Taking action will help gather momentum to move past procrastination- a motivation killer. Many people think endlessly about exercising or making a sales call, but never get up and take action. Lack of action and over thinking is the definition of procrastination.
- Take responsibility for where you are now and decide to move forward. Taking responsibility gives you power.
- Use better self talk. Let go of de-motivating language like try, why, can’t, but and hope. The language you use in your mind has a powerful effect on mood and energy.
- Never rationalize bad behavior, realize it is simply a lie you tell yourself to avoid unpleasant tasks.
- Focus on the goal and make it exciting and a stretch. The goal needs to inspire. If your emotions are not engaged there will be no motivation.
- Find a role model and use their path to success to give you a template to succeed. This is a great way to get ideas from someone who is already successful at something you wish to achieve and helps move you past the fear of failure and fear of the unknown.
