You’re reading How to be Motivated (almost) all the time using 1 Simple Habit, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
You’ve probably experienced this before: You wake up in the morning and you’re just not feeling it. It’s not that you are particularly tired, or had a drink too many last night. The day ahead just doesn’t seem very exciting. Lying in bed you start reflecting: You do everything you should be doing. Your job is interesting, your relationships are intact and fulfilling, you are in great health. Logically you should wake up ready to move mountains. Yet here you are, lying in bed dreading to get up and brush your teeth. It’s a bit depressing isn’t it? By now you might be thinking, “No one is motivated all the time. Sometimes you just need to be disciplined.” Sure I agree with you. You can’t be motivated every second of your life. But you definitely can experience motivation more consistently than the average person by using a better than average approach. And I will show you in this article how to do just that using 1 simple habit. If you do apply it motivation stops being such a hassle and becomes a reliable asset that is there for you when you need it.
How you are unconsciously killing your motivation
If you are rarely motivated its because you are great at consistently killing your motivation. I don’t mean to blame you. And I know “killing” might be a bit of a strong word. But most likely you are practicing a habit everyday for years that prevents you from being motivated. It’s the habit of thinking in terms of HOW Let me explain. It starts in school. We’re assigned homework and the first thing we ask ourselves is “How am I going to complete the homework?” Then at University, exams are approaching and we immediately think: “How am I going to revise for the exams?” Later we get a job, get a project assigned and again the HOW of getting it done is our main focus. What is the task and how am I going to get it done – that’s our mode of operating in everyday life. Its what I call the habit of thinking in terms of HOW. The result of this “How am I going to get this done” approach to life is that we become very efficient task completers. Great students. Fast workers. You name it. Yet we become so occupied with the HOW, that we never take a step back and ask WHY we are doing something. As a result our motivation suffers.
How to be motivated consistently using 1 habit
We have to know WHY we are doing something to be motivated. Why do the homework, why study for the exam, why go to work? Why? Because a strong why clarifies in your mind why a task is important within the big picture of your life. To become motivated consistently then, you have to consistently reconnect to why you are doing something. Instead of approaching your everyday tasks with HOW you are going to get it done, implement the following habit: Think WHY first, HOW second. If you wake up feeling unmotivated, don’t look at your schedule and start thinking “How am I going to get it done?” That’s step number 2. Step number 1 is to think “Why am I going to do it?” and come up with a list of reasons in your head. The key here is to really hone in as to why this item is important to YOU. Not in general and not to someone else, but to YOU. I don’t have to tell you that your time on earth is very limited. And the task is there on your schedule because YOU made the decision conscious or unconscious to put it there. So why is each item on your daily schedule, why does it deserve to suck up some of your precious lifetime? The habit of think WHY first, HOW second will force you to confront those questions regularly. And by doing so you’ll get back in touch with what motivates you.
Results you can expect form this 1 habit
If you practice thinking WHY first and HOW second, you can expect two great outcomes:
- Outcome #1: You will become fast at reconnecting to why you are doing something, and as a result, your motivation will skyrocket on a consistent basis.
- Outcome #2: You will become acutely aware of what activities don’t serve a purpose in your life, and filter them out regularly.
Both outcomes are worth the tiny amount of time it takes to execute the habit. Of course it takes a bit of effort to think of reasons to do something when you don’t feel like doing it. But after some practice it will become a part of your life and in a few months you’ll look back and be surprised by how much more motivated you are on a day-to-day basis. And when the occasional laziness sneaks up on you (we’re human after all) you won’t feel helpless anymore. Instead you’ll feel confident in your ability to reconnect to what motivates you.
Felix helps his readers to learn and progress faster by making self-development simple and applicable. Visit his blog www.felixdigests.com for practical self-development advice.
You’ve read How to be Motivated (almost) all the time using 1 Simple Habit, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
