Daily Motivation
- Yes You Can!
Daily motivation needn't be an uphill struggle if you make certain changes - here's how.
Firstly, if you find yourself continually procrastinating instead of doing what you know would be more fruitful, have a look at
this article on procrastination
first. Okay, so you know what you want to do, but it feels like a chore. You know you can do it, but there's almost a low-level resistance. The first question to ask yourself is "do I really need to do this?". It may sound trite, but sometimes we do things out of duty that don't do us any favours. It may be a good time to consider whether the path that you're on is really doing justice to the person that you are now. Sometimes we don't have the luxury of changing careers, homes or personal responsibilities, but we can still consider ways of steering our lives in more fulfilling directions. If your heart's not in something, look at ways you can 'rebrand' a task so you can see a bigger picture - maybe your efforts benefit others who would be nothing without you, or your work will improve your life in the longer term. Assuming you 'have to' do something on a regular basis, here's an insight into how humans work: We learn how to do something, and when we do it often enough it becomes habitual. Almost everything we do daily is a habit in one form or another, and this automatic behaviour actually frees up the mind to acquire new experience. Think about tying your shoelaces, brushing your teeth or even walking across a room - complex sets of actions that once learned, become effortless. Learning usually involves repetition - doing something over and over until it becomes hardwired in your brain. This is the key to daily motivation - use the same mechanisms that serve you so well in other ways. Specify an environment that lets you know it's time to do the task - maybe a certain time of day, wearing a certain item of clothing or sitting at a certain desk.Sometimes it helps to have a prop that you can use as a signal that "it's time to go to work" - for instance, a bottle of water, an open briefcase or a specific song on a media player. Every day, set things up the same way, then do your daily task. Be strict with yourself to start with, as all habits take a while to settle in. Remember, repetition leads to hardwiring in your brain. I know, you're wondering - how long will it take to become a new habit? As with most new behaviours, when you can do this for 30 days (with the occasional day off) you will be over any 'hump' and it will no longer be something you have to convince yourself to do. If your daily motivation task is something you 'have to' do anyway, why not make it into an effortless habit? And there's a bonus too - habits consume much less willpower, giving you more energy to devote to other interests.
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