How to Keep Motivation

Motivation is what makes us start and what keeps us going. However, sometimes we can't find any motivation to do anything. Or we find the motivation, but lose it after a while. Short-term motivation is easier to keep than long term motivation. Short term motivation includes doing your homework, finishing a project, or getting a task or chore done. Long term motivation is needed when you are starting a new business or trying to get into your dream college. Today we will discuss long term motivation.

So, say that you’re starting a new business. The first week, you are excited and you work on it everyday. Then the next week comes and you’re still excited, but maybe you’re losing energy. Then the 3rd week comes, and you say maybe I’ll take a few days off, those few days turn into weeks and boom now you have no motivation to keep going.

The first tip to prevent this from happening is to write out a plan for your long term goal. You can write or type. Now, you don’t just write “I will make an Instagram page, i will build a store, and I will find customers”. The steps need to be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time based. Maybe you’ve heard this acronym before. SMART goals. By using this to make a step by step plan you will make your process less focused on what to do and more focus on doing it resulting in more motivation.

All of the steps and even your final goal should fit these 5 categories. Specific means detailed. There should not be any questioning what your step means. Making a step measurable allows you to assess if the goal was met. Attainable just means that your goals have to be possible. With that said, nothing is impossible. Just make sure they are reachable with resources and abilities. Realistic is basically the same as attainable. Ask yourself can I actually do this goal? Lastly time based. By timing your goals and giving yourself a time limit, you create a sense of urgency. Without a sense of urgency there is no need to work toward your goal now.

The second tip is to not work everyday and every hour in the first week. Unless you enjoy working hard and losing hours of sleep, this will create burnout. Speaking from experience, burnout is not fun. Burnout starts with an extreme motivation to do something, so we put all our time, energy, creativity and commitment into it. Then, we start to get stressed or tired from all of the work. Eventually the task becomes no more fun and we quit. To prevent burnout, balance your time. Only work on the task for a while and take a break. Go watch a movie or play video games. Take your mind off it and relax.

The third tip is to visualize your final goal and its reward. Visualization not only helps your dream manifest, it also gives you motivation to keep going. When you feel like you can’t do it anymore, think of how awesome it would be to achieve that goal. Think about how your life will change for the better. Use this motivation to fuel you to keep going.

To recap, the three tips to stay motivated are to write out a detailed plan with SMART goals, don't work too hard and too much, and visualize the final reward.

The next time you want to keep motivation make sure to use these tips!