Why and How to Motivate Yourself

Do you like being told what to do?

I don’t. In fact, I find it a tad bit patronizing. Being someone who cherishes himself to be a know-it-all, I find being told what to do annoying. As a result, I frown at it, grind my teeth and try my best to ignore it. It’s especially true when I am being told things that I have already heard so many times.

You can do it.

You can be so much more.

Clean your room.

Even though I don’t like hearing these words, sometimes I have to listen. Why? It’s because for better or for worse, these words act as an external source of motivation for me.

However, the world is become increasingly self-centric. And it’s not wrong in any way. Independence is the new currency of today’s economy and becoming self-serving and self-managing is the way to succeed in this world. Therefore, it’s time to look for an internal source of motivation.

This is where self-motivation comes in.

Why you should look for internal motivation?

Self-motivation has been the common denominator in the lives of several success stories. While you can look at the old entrepreneurs to attest to this fact, it’s the new entrepreneurs that inspire us to self-motivate.

Jack Ma, the former CEO of Alibaba, a multi-national conglomerate holding company that is redefining our today, had the most humble beginnings. Raised by two musician storytellers, his childhood was spent in a lower middle class household and his adult life was dealing with constant rejections – 30 of them.

30 failed job attempts! It’s safe to say that Jack Ma didn’t have much when it comes to an external source of motivation. However, he still carried forward. But, he failed again – twice this time at establishing his own ventures.

It wasn’t until 1995 that his visit to USA turned into his ultimate crucible – his eureka moment. Introduction to internet changed him. The first words he searched for was “beer”. He saw several results, many of them with Chinese symbols on them. But, when he entered “China”, there were no results. It was then that his motivation gave him the goal that changed the world forever.

Alibaba started as a result of this motivation. Today, its worth is $36.2 billion. As for Jack Ma, he stands as a beacon of hope and motivation for aspiring entrepreneurs all over the world with being ranked as one of the greatest leaders of the world by Fortune magazine.

Just imagine what would'vee happened if Jack Ma solely relied upon external sources of motivation. He almost had none of it. But, the screams of de-motivating circumstances in his life were loud enough to shush the sources of external motivation.

He pushed himself forward. He carried on with style and grace and now, he has run so far that the world is ready to follow him.

Keep Fighting, keep changing yourself and don’t complain- Jack Ma

Jack Ma isn’t the only one. Today, all entrepreneurs rode the stallion of internal motivation to push themselves forward and become successful. All of them are:

1. Pushed forward with a diamond-like resolve.
2. Believed in what they are doing
3. Persisted in the face of rejections
4. Looked at rejections and failures as an opportunistic spring-board to jump higher and achieve more.

Despite being the greatest in this field, they are still humans. It’s time that you and I take a lesson or two from them for self-motivation.

Introspect and motivate yourself

Introspection is a way of looking into yourself and form an honest opinion about your being.

Am I doing it right?

Am I doing it wrong?

Am I achieving all that I could?

Am I living my life to the fullest potential?

I bet that even when you introspect, most of the answers you have are filled with excuses. Don’t worry. Even, I lie to myself. But when it’s your future at stake, pushing through these lies and getting to the truth becomes the core of pushing yourself forward and achieving what you want to achieve.

This is the very first step towards self-motivation -- learning to be honest with yourself. Once you've learned that, you can follow the tips that I have researched and now trying to apply in my own life.

1. Get started: If you have a task, just start doing it. Motivation will make you perform the task in a more flavourful and favourable manner, but you don’t need it to start your task. Just start doing what you are doing, by 2 or 3 minutes, motivation will catch up to you.
2. Play an energetic music: Music creates excitement in your brain. Sometimes, it can make you cry, sometimes it can make your life and sometimes, it burns a fire within you to push forward. There are several epic soundtracks available online, which you when listen to will make you rise like a phoenix.

       Checkout this Two steps from hell playlist to start

3. Don’t ignore external motivation: Yes, you heard it correctly. One of the best ways to motivate you is to look for external sources of motivation. be in the presence of positive. All you need is to get inspired by them and let their positive energy burn a fire of motivation in you.
4. Learn to forgive yourself: Perfection is an enigma. No one is perfect and it expecting it creates a load of problems. But pursuing it is the way to success. You are not perfect, and pursuing it will make you stumble. When that happens, the motivation can go downhill. Grant yourself some levity, and forgive yourself.
5. Look at failures as opportunities: Failures, rejections and problems are problems whose solutions are yet to be found. In other words, they are opportunities that once realized, can be a propeller to the rocket to your dreams.
6. Look at yourself in the mirror and realize how far you’ve come: While looking and attending only to the past is wrong, comparing the past and present can be productive. What were you yesterday and what you are today are different versions of you. If new you feel worse, breath deeper and hope for a better today. If it feels good, be happy and push forward.
7. Remind yourself the reason you are working: Having a clear cut goal in life removes many mental blocks you feel when trying to move forward. Find something to focus on and you'll be motivated easily. With each step you take and each fall you make, remind yourself of your end goal. Hunger for it, and let propel you.
8. Focus on just one thing: It’s cool and stylish to be a multi-tasking ninja. But it’s also quite difficult. If you are down in the motivation department, focus on one thing only. Make it your endgame. It’ll become your clear cut goal and you’ll soon be loaded with self-motivation.
9. Clear your surroundings to have a clear mind: If your mind is filled with clutter, making room for motivation can be difficult. As what you think is mostly inspired by what you see, make sure that your surroundings are clean. It will remove much of the clutter from your brain. It gives you the ability to think clearly. And when you can think clearly, you have a better chance to absorb motivation from your work.

Conclusion

The world is getting increasingly self-serving. To survive here, you need motivation, and except some motivational speakers, the only way to get it is looking within yourself. Let your body become an absorbing instrument and use the surroundings and what lies within to motivate yourself.

Self motivation is a result of maturity. And maturity comes after you've learned the way to accept your failures. Learn to accept your first very first failure and success will be within your reach.