How to Find Motivation and Stay Motivated

How does one stay motivated when you cannot even find the motivation to get started? Imagine this. You’ve already planned to get certain tasks done. It’s already listed on your to-do list but for some reason, you simply can’t find the drive to get started. Surely, you’ll agree that it’s such a frustrating feeling. At times, it makes you wish for motivation to appear like magic.

However, that’s simply not the way how it works. Like it or not, motivation is driven by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. While extrinsic factors such as being rewarded after completing a task may help set it off, it is the intrinsic factor that sustains long-term motivation. The question is how do you develop this sense of intrinsic motivation that is not reliant on external compensation? Are there ways to effectively find and sustain this type of motivation? For starters, you should start and learn to associate it to a concrete goal.

There’s a likelihood that you don’t feel motivated to do a certain task because you simply haven’t fully grasped its purpose. You may feel overwhelmed by how tedious or difficult the task is. This shifts your brain’s focus on avoiding things that it perceives as a discomfort simply because that’s what it is wired to do. Remember, it is innate for humans to seek pleasure and avoid discomfort. So instead of feeling pumped about completing the task, you get dragged along by your thoughts of how tedious and uncomfortable the whole process is. This leads you to procrastinate. You end up not finishing it and you blame it all to your lack of motivation. You have completely disregarded the fact that you needed to finish the task in order to achieve a certain goal.

If you have chronic issues with sustaining motivation, perhaps it’s best to look at things at a different perspective. Perhaps, your lack of motivation isn’t the problem. It could be that your goals aren’t clear enough. Perhaps, you have goals but you haven’t truly manifested the belief that you have the capability of achieving them. You may have succeeded at igniting your motivation but you are having trouble sustaining it because of various factors like fear, distraction and false priorities.

Sustaining motivation is equally important to finding motivation. In order to sustain it, you must make a conscious choice to be constantly attentive to your true goals and dreams. Life, as we know it, is full of distraction and temporary pleasures. If you are not attentive, it is very easy to go astray. It is very easy to get distracted.

So pay close attention to your goals. Make it a daily habit to refocus and re-assess your life plans. Are you doing something each day that makes you one step closer to your goals?

Remember, to have motivation, you must associate it to a clear goal and manifest the belief that you have the capability to make it happen. Sustain your motivation by paying close attention to your everyday tasks and activities. Make it a constant habit to re-evaluate your life plans. Avoid things that only serves as a distraction and most importantly, learn to develop a positive attitude.

Boost your motivation by developing a healthy mindset. After all, you are what you believe you can achieve.