We’ve all been there. We’ve all been discouraged or disappointed or deflated. We tried to find success with some aspect of our business and not achieved our goals. It’s easy to feel like giving up and throwing in the towel, but it’s also the worst thing to do! So here are some practical steps to take in order to stay motivated.
Remember it’s always easy to be motivated when things are going well. The more difficult task is to stay motivated when times get tough.
Copy good examples
You’re looking for motivation and inspiration, look at the behaviour of other people who’ve been in a tough situation but kept going and achieved success. Nothing inspires us more than reading a great story of achievement particularly when the person succeeding has had all sorts of challenges. You’ll find that many public speaking agencies employee people who have overcome serious disadvantages to achieve great success. Read their stories. Catch some of their motivation.
Focus on a single goal
One of the best ways to give yourself a boost in the self-confidence department or to stay motivated in a tough time is to set yourself a single task and one which you can achieve. Some people try to do too many things at the same time, fail at most and go backwards as far as self-belief and self-confidence are concerned. Create a single goal. Focus on that single goal and put all your energy into winning the race. Provided it’s a sensible single goal your chances of success are high and the boost to your self-confidence is great. It’s a great way to pump up your motivation.
Go public with your aspirations
You have to be careful here because sometimes going public can backfire particularly if you are bombarded with questions from people about your progress. A fine balance is needed here. If others know that you have a particular goal then your pride will kick in and drive you harder to achieve that goal. You don’t want to fail for your own sake but nor do you want a fail in front of your friends or colleagues.
Slow and steady beats the quick off the mark
You want to give yourself a boost. You’re down in the dumps and you want to stay motivated. You give yourself a goal to achieve something. Don’t start working on achieving that goal immediately. It’s called creating anticipation. You think about what you’re going to do. You think about the benefits. You imagine yourself being a fully motivated person — your old self. By going at the task in a calculated and steady fashion you build or create anticipation. This makes working on the task and the success at the end even greater. You are in fact stockpiling your motivation supplies.
Remember there are bumps along the road
We would all love to be perfectly happy, healthy and with a motivation level peeking at the top. That’s never going to happen. Be realistic. Accept the fact that there will be missteps and problems and bumps along the road. No journey is ever perfect. What you need are simple devices to help you keep going when times get tough. Some people have little sayings which they keep in their wallet or purse or have on their desk or on the wall of their office. If there is a phrase or saying which helps put you back on track, grab hold of it. You could in fact seize it as in ‘seize the day’.
Thinking big can be bad
You often see a motivational guru urging people to think big.And why not? Blue sky is a great concept. But stop for a moment and think about that. If you are low in motivation, if you’re going through a tough time and need a boost, thinking big may actually be counterproductive. What might work in this particular case is to think small. Give yourself the easiest of tasks. Tackle something which will take two minutes to achieve. It might be a simple exercise routine. Now, almost immediately, you have set a task and achieved the task with flying colours. By thinking small you’ve given your self-confidence a boost and helped lift your motivation. Small steps can achieve big results.
Switch your thinking
When you’re down in the dumps and your motivation levels are low, switch your thinking from the problem to the benefits. The benefits of what you say? Why the benefits of taking a course of action which will result in something positive. Change your focus. Stop looking at the problem and concentrate on the solution. Turn the solution into an action plan and throw your energy into achieving your goal. All of a sudden you’re thinking in a positive frame of mind and the end result is a boost to your motivation.