In this post, I will show you how motivation is the key to success in anything.
What is motivation? The three defining words for motivation are ‘needs,’ ‘values,’ and goals,’ because in all these situations you need to have motivation to achieve them.
An example of a ‘need‘ could be finding friends; you don’t want to be lonely and you want to talk to someone therefore, you need someone to be there. So you will motivate yourself to be brave and find a friend.
An example of ‘values’ may be something like if you want to uphold a family tradition, you’re going to be motivated to keep that tradition alive in your nieces and nephews or children.
The final example is the most obvious example of where motivation comes into play. When you have a goal in mind, you are driven to achieve that goal.
If you are looking to get motivated in life and want to begin your journey to reaching your goals, definitely check out the Mini Life Planner. 11 pages focussed on building on your self-love, confidence, productivity and organisation goals. And its all for FREE!
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Further to this, there are two types of motivation here. The first two examples are forms of innate motivation, meaning you don’t really think about it and you do it anyway because its built in you to react in those ways. Its the final example where we find loads and loads of articles, posts and quotes about.
Its because a goal-based motivation isn’t something you naturally have, its something you have to work for, its something in which you need to create discipline to achieve. Being motivated and following through on it is an achievement in itself.
From those three examples, I’m going to draw on something even more defining about them (wow, we’re really putting our analysis goggles on today).
The two main forms of motivation are:
- when you desire to gain something
- when you fear you will lose something
Keep a note of that, okay?
Now that we’ve gone through what motivation is, we’ll now look at some points of why motivation is so important, and the exact things you need to do to make the most out of the time you are motivated so that you can achieve your goals.
I did say motivation was a discipline, right?
Why is Motivation Important
It gives you energy
When you’re motivated, adrenaline is released into your body which helps you complete your goals, this means you have increased energy levels.
Goals give you purpose and motivation is the key to success. Let’s give you two scenarios:
Person A:
Goal: ‘I want to buy a house in 5 years.’
Actions:
Hardly saves any money each month for the house
Hasn’t researched what type of area they want to move into, what qualities they need their new house to have
Has no plan to reach that goal
Result: ?
Person B:
Goal: ‘I want to travel to Bali next year.’
Actions:
Puts money into savings monthly for their holiday
Researches where the best prices are, and the best value for money
Has a list of places they want to visit once they get to Bali
Result: ?
I’ve left a ? On the results sections because I want you to think about what the results for each person would be. Person A isn’t likely to get her home in five years, right?
This is a key example of motivation. When you are motivated, you will have a set of structures, schedules and routines in place so that you can reach your goal no matter what.
Why is motivation the key to success? If you simply say something and then wait around for it to happen, its not going to happen. Simple. You need to be motivated and willing to put the work in to get things done.
I’ve written a three part series to aid you in your personal development/ motivation journey: I focus on these 5 areas of your life:
1. Personal
2. Relationship with others
3. Mental and Physical health
4. Finances
5. Achieving dreams & goals
Part of being motivated is because you know you will change in some sort of way, why not focus on bettering yourself? Check out the posts!
Self-confidence and Independence: the foundations of success part 1
Self-confidence and Independence: the foundations of success part 2
Self-confidence and Independence: the foundations of success part 3
Being motivated helps you stay organised
This leads me to the next point. Motivation will bring organisation in your life.
Even if you are the most messy or go-with-the-flow type of person who takes each day as it comes and doesn’t usually have a plan, you’ll find that when you’re really passionate and motivated about something, you’ll automatically start creating steps and schedules to get there quicker.
And if you’re sitting there thinking ‘I’m a go-with-the-flow person and I don’t have a plan, but I’m still really working on my goals,’ I’ll ask you this. How far have you gone with achieving that goal?
If you’re answer is that you’re still ‘planning’ and ‘figuring everything out,’ chances are you’re just procrastinating. I’m not being rude, it’s the truth.
Having a plan limits procrastination and allows better time management amongst many other things. With your social life, enjoy it as it comes but with goals? Just go make that schedule already.
If you’re the type of person that finds it hard to get up and be productive, definitely have a read of Productivity Hack: The 5-Minute Rule.
You won’t achieve your goals without it
Person A vs. Person B, one has motivation and the other doesn’t, what do you think each of their results were? There you go.
Self motivation allows a better quality of life
When someone has a goal, in many situations they’re only thinking about the end result and not enjoying the journey there.
That’s where motivation comes into play.
The journey to the end goal can take longer than experiencing the goal or doing the work to get to that goal may need you to make multiple sacrifices.
I’m not saying that it won’t be hard work, but you can still enjoy yourself! 5 years is a long time if you’re saving to buy a house, on all those days that you would’ve treated yourself to a dinner outside, re-create that dinner at home in a budget-friendly version.
Or, if working on your dream requires you to take time away from seeing friends when you know they’re all going out (the fomo is real…), remind yourself that you’re really passionate about this goal and do things to enjoy the process like putting on some candles or some calming sounds in the background.
Remember motivation is the key to success, and that includes being motivated and sticking to your schedule even when you really don’t want to!
How do you stay motivated?
1. Find something you are truly passionate about
Let’s bring the two main forms of motivation I listed above back, motivation is defined as:
- When you desire to gain something
- When you fear you will lose something
If your goal doesn’t make your motivation feel like either of the two points above, then you’re not passionate enough about it. True motivation occurs when you have an end goal in sight that you can’t wait to reach and will affect your life in some way or another.
2. Have a plan, and break it down into small tasks
Use time to your advantage as much as you can, and use it effectively too.
Say for example, you want to create a fitness e-book and you have some really great ideas you want to share to the world but you’re not good with design, what’s the point in struggling for hours on creating a design for your e-book when you can type ‘cool e-book templates’ into google and buy the template that you most like!
That’s not cheating, that’s called being smart with your time. Yes, you may have to invest a little and give away some money, but if the information in your e-book is great and the design of it is beautiful and will attract audiences, imagine the return in profits you will get!
Research into some time management tips if you don’t know much about it. One thing I would highly suggest for you to do though is to break down tasks into even smaller tasks, the smaller the better basically. This will prevent the feeling of being overwhelmed, and make you more motivated as the small tasks will be a lot more doable.
3. Keep like-minded, supportive people around you
You are the average of the people you spend most time with. Spend time with lazy people, you’re lazy, spend time with motivated people, girl you motivated. Get the gist?
If you can find people who work similar to you and are as motivated as you, even better. Plan work days with them where you work together and finish it off with a nice meal, or maybe you could do collaborations and help each other with your ventures.
4. Celebrate EVERY single achievement
Even if the people you surround with don’t necessarily have a similar goal to you, if they’re supportive and someone you can talk to about your dreams and goals without feeling embarrassed or uncomfortable, and you feel uplifted by them, that’s enough.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a small one, celebrate that success – that’s one step closer to you reaching the final goal!
Congratulating yourself and embracing progress (rather than trying to ignore it) boosts motivation, and makes you feel like doing more!
5. Positive affirmations to keep you motivated
Positive affirmations are actually alright you know. Get passed the whole cringey feeling of saying ‘I am enough,’ ten times to yourself and understand that it doesn’t need to be cringey!
Read this to create your own set of positive affirmations. I’ve created a quick guide on how to write your own specific set of positive affirmations that will work for you, and have also given tips of how to do positive affirmations so that you can get the most out of them!
Positive affirmations have actually done wonders for many people, and who knows it could be your secret weapon to gaining success!
Always reminding yourself that you are capable of achieving your goals and that you deserve success is a daily reminder that everyone needs. When things get tough, its sometimes hard to remember why you’re working so hard, but positive affirmations and constant reminders will limit that feeling.
6. Constantly remind yourself about that goal
Put your schedule on a big board and hang it up on your bedroom wall. Do weekly progress entries of what’s happening with your goal. Have conversations with like-minded people about it. Constantly remind yourself about your goal.
Saying you want to achieve something once and then forgetting all about it will completely deplete your motivation in achieving that goal. Think about the goal always, what you’re going to do to get there, plan out what your tasks will be for it next month, and how you think your life will be after you’ve achieved it.
7. Envision your life after you’ve achieved the goal
This is a great way to be motivated. Motivation is the key to what you deem success is. It might be gaining a great amount of money, or finally moving out to the countryside with the fresh air and green grass and the smelly cows (you do you boo).
Think about what your life will be like, what you will be doing everyday, how you’re going to look, what type of person you’ll be etc. Try to create an image in your head of what your life will be like after this goal is achieved. That image itself will give you the adrenaline to start working!
I want to remind you about what I said before, ‘having a goal gives you a purpose, but motivation is the key to success.’ Having a goal doesn’t mean you’re going to magically get it, it just means that you’ve finally found something your passionate about. Having motivation and a good work ethic is what will get you to that goal.
Think about it like this. Your goal is the final destination, you can’t walk there, you can’t take a car or train there, the only way to get there is to go by plane. Motivation and hard work is your plane, there’s no way to cheat around it, true success happens when you work hard.
Follow the steps that I’ve told you about above, and I guarantee you that you will get to your goal. Having motivation will make you succeed in life.
Let’s have a little convo about motivation! Do you think motivation is the key to success? What’s your biggest motivation in life? What are some tips that have really helped you stay motivated? I (and I’m sure many others) would love to know!
Also, be sure to download the free Mini Life Planner if you haven’t already!
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