The 30 Days Challenge to Better Motivate Yourself and Others

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started" (Mark Twain)

In the words of Simon Sinek, a great thinker and speaker, always begin with WHY. This helps you state your reason or reasons for doing something, especially when things are getting difficult. It is easy to become unmotivated when the going gets tough.

Sometimes, the hardest part of doing something is actually starting it. So simply sit at the working table and start doing what you must do. It is easier to find motivation to work for two minutes than it is for a two hours work. In time, the two minutes will turn into more minutes and so you will find yourself working longer periods of time with the same energy and motivation.

1. Knowing exactly how the end result will look like, is the perfect way to motivate yourself, because it shows you what you can achieve. With the end result in mind, the needed work almost seems effortless. Use visual aids, if possible and necessary. Draw your goal, or use an image or a video, or write it in simple yet effective words that convince you and others of the importance of that goal.

When having trouble finding motivation, a good approach is to look for the things that you are thankful for. Often, we are not even aware of how many things we have and should be thankful for.

1. Look for and write down the quotes and inspirational ideas that you find, when you find them. Either write them on your smartphone or in an online document, on a cloud or drive. This way, you will always have them at hand when needed.

   
   

Turn negative ideas into positive statements. This technique is very useful because it helps you reframe your thoughts from negative into positive ones.

Be curious. Look around you and see what others are doing and doing well. Then, do that even better, or easier, cheaper or faster. Improve on what you see in others. Curiosity is one of the most important characteristics we have as adults, inherited from childhood. But it needs to be nourished and kept alive.

Change your language and thus change your actions. The things we say to ourselves end up shaping our actions. If we tell ourselves that we can, we have more chances to do that project or action. Instead, if we tell ourselves that we cannot, we end up not doing that thing, partly because what we express. In the words of Henry Ford, “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you are right”. No one can contradict you in what you think and certainly no one can do the mental leap for you, from “I cannot” to “I can”.

Knowing and acknowledging something is the first step to change. With the goods and the bads, it is essential to know where you are standing in terms of strengths and things to improve.

Research tells us that happiness increases productivity and helps become more successful. So why not strive to become more optimistic and happier? After all, we are the only ones responsible for the way we feel and behave. And one of the first steps to become happier is to remove negativity from your life and discover the reasons why you should be happy.

If you want to increase the occurrence of a behaviour, you must reward it. And you must make sure that what you offer is actually a reward.

Research shows that admitting to others what we want to achieve helps moving towards that goal. Because it works like a social contract, where you tell others about your plans and they can act as judge and jury to check whether you are working to achieve what you promised. It works whether you want to quit smoking, learn a new language or start exercising.

Surrounding yourself with people that are motivated and are high achievers, will lead to you becoming more motivated to do what you planned.

Whenever you want to do something, begin immediately, and try not to postpone. Motivation doesn't always come right away, but as we get started.

Start small if taking on big projects scare you or make you procrastinate. There is nothing wrong with big, impressive projects. The only problem is that they are harder to manage and is harder to stay motivated.

Get motivated by those around you. Stop wasting your time with the people that always dwell in negativity and surround yourself with people with a positive, can do attitude. Look around you and see who are those people that drain your energy with their negativity.

Accept yourself and your flaws. Although it sounds like a biblical quote, it is as psychological as it gets. Because acceptance and self-acceptance is one of the most important concepts in psychology and crucial to any person's development.

Compare yourself to yourself. Never compare yourself to others, because you are comparing apples to oranges. Everything about you is different from others. Starting from the genes, continuing with education and opportunities. Instead, compare yourself to yourself and notice the difference.

There is nothing wrong with learning from other people and from their mistakes. Just don't compare yourself with them, because you are only looking at one slice of their personality or success. Still, look at the good things they've done and try to achieve a similar performance

When you or others fail, don't criticize yourself or others. Instead, be constructive and learn from the experience, learn from that failure. If you criticize yourself, you will find it harder to motivate yourself in the future to start a new project. If you look at the things you learned from that experience, you will make a step forward in your development and motivation.

Always remember what you're going away from. It always helps to remember the reason or reasons why you are leaving a situation, a person or a job. Sometimes, the costs of staying caught in a place or situation are a lot higher than simply leaving and making a change.

According to psychologist Scott Geller, you should ask yourself three questions, in order to find out if you are a self-motivated person.

Ask for help when you need it and help others when they need help. It is essential to know who to talk to when you need help and also be there for the people that need your support.

Stop being afraid. When we fear, we avoid learning new things and growing. Learning to face our fears helps us grow.

Watch inspirational talks and speeches.

Make a conscious decision to have fun in everything you do. This way, you will work with passion and find the right motivation in all things.

There is an old saying that asks "how do you eat an elephant?" And the answer is "one bite at a time". This shows that any task can be done if you take things slowly and solve them in small, baby steps.

There is an old saying which states that if you have to cut a tree and you have 10 hours for that, you should spend 9 hours to sharpen your axe and 1 hour for cutting the tree. The idea behind this is to prepare well enough so that you finish the job you have in the right amount of time.

Achieve more with less. There is a rule called Pareto, which states that most of us use 80% of something to achieve 20% of results. Whether it is about time, money or other resources, we use or waste 80% to achieve a merely 20%.

Visualize the end result. This is a very important stage in any motivational process, because it helps you see the end result, the deliverable you want to achieve.

These three bonus challenges will help you when tackling with motivation. Do all the above and take particular care at these three, which are general ones, and you should be on the right track to be a self motivated person and also a great motivator for others.