Techniques to Enhance Motivation

If you were to climb to the top of the mountain and finally reach that all-knowing guru who holds the secret to life and are granted one question, what would it be?  Some would ask the secret to great wealth.  Others would seek to learn how to live a long and healthy life without aging.  A select few might want to know how to motivate themselves and others.

If we acquire the skills to motivate ourselves and others then we have the basic tools to acquire almost everything else that a good life requires.  It might be disappointing when the old man at the top of the mountain answers simply, "To know thyself and be kind."

These are wise words and hold much truth, but it's a pretty broad answer.  To motivate or be motivated requires learning and dedication.  Motivation is a skill that can be easily learned if you possess dedication.  We use motivation daily at home and at work.  Subconsciously we're striving to motivate ourselves and those we come in contact with.

We use our innate motivation skills to acquire the results we seek.  We use these skills on our spouse, our co-workers and our friends every day to get our way.  It's a delicate balance between communication and persuasion.  Maybe the sage knew what he was talking about when he advised to know yourself and be kind to others.  It's long been said that we attract more flies with honey than vinegar.

Offering rewards is an often-used motivational tool.  If you dangle a reward on a stick whether it's dangling in front of you or someone else it can be quite an incentive.  The greater the reward usually the more productive you get.  Not many people toil for the sheer love of working anymore.

Set a deadline.  Not only do people balk at working for nothing, they must have a deadline or it will never get done.  Would you pay taxes if you were allowed to pay them at your own discretion?  Many still won't begin a project until the deadline looms near.  You're more likely to complete a project if you impose a deadline.

Set goals.  Setting a goal lets you know where you're going.  It's hard to hit a moving target and a goal helps you focus on where you want to be and at a certain time.  Use both short- and long-term goals.  The short-term goals can be steps to reach the long-term objective.  Each time you satisfy a short-term goal, you'll feel your inner motivation swell.

Expect the best and settle for nothing less.  If you're doing the task or someone else is doing the task for you, insist on the best results or at the very least demand improvement over the last task.  Pride should motivate you to do your very best.

Enjoy your work by making it fun and stimulating.  Work that's fun doesn't seem like work at all.  Stay stimulated by doing various projects that take you a step closer to the major goal.  Stay happy and productive and you'll stay motivated.

How to Overcome a Lack of Motivation in Your Life

It happens to us all.  One day we're motivated and the next day we're in the dumps having ourselves a pity party.  Staying motivated is not easy.  If it were, everybody would do it.  But it can be done.  You believe it can be done and that's why you're reading this right now - good for you!

You may have felt good about a certain job or project when it began.  You were filled with enthusiasm and motivation.  Then you hit a few speed bumps and unexpected failures and your motivation waned.  You may have fallen into depression and decided to give up.  All of those positive thoughts turned into negative ones.

We've all experienced these emotions that can cause us to give up prematurely.  All that upsurge of energy when we started a new project inevitably ends as dreams become reality and we lose our confidence. 

You must turn these negative emotions around and the best way to do that is to understand them, analyze them and what caused them. We lose our motivation as we lose our focus, our confidence and our direction. If you can learn to control these three emotions you can control your life.

Focus on what you really want.  Be specific and be positive.  We generally think in terms of what we don't have rather than focus on what we want.  Don't focus on your fears but what you can do to overcome them.  Don't focus on being poor but on a plan to create wealth. 

To do this make a plan to get there one step at a time.  You don't become the president of a company until you've come up from the ranks.  Focus on your plan to achieve your objectives and your goals.  Be realistic on your goals.  Goals that are unreachable can lead to depression.  But even small goals that are achieved lead to increased motivation.

Boost your confidence by taking stock on what you already have and not what you lack.  You'll probably discover you're more successful than you think.  We waste our mind power being jealous of others instead of working on achieving our own aspirations. Don't take your strengths for granted and count your failures one by one.  Count your blessings one by one and whatever your mind thinks it can accomplish.

Without direction there is no motivation.  You must create a day-to-day strategy.  Make a to-do list and do it.  Mark off each item once it's accomplished and do not mark it off until it's done. 

You'll eventually get tired of looking at it on your list and do it.  By making a list or outline of what needs to be done, you'll find ways to do it and you'll believe that you truly deserve success.  Don't waste time by worrying about the future.  Start today by doing something to change your future for the better.  Today's actions can create a better future.

Don't be surprised or depressed about a loss of motivation.  Look at it as an opportunity to step back and analyze what you're doing wrong and what you're doing right.  Discover your faults and correct them.  When you re-evaluate your plans and goals from a fresh perspective, you'll feel a new surge of enthusiasm and motivation.

Is There Such a Thing as Motivation Training?

Motivation is much like a soda.  You can find it everywhere, but there are so many decisions to make on what you really want.  Sodas come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. They can be bought in cans or bottles, in regular or diet versions. 

Do you prefer caffeine or decaffeinated, which flavor is best and do you want the ones that are vitamin fortified?  Which price is better?  Would the generic brand be just as good? 

Do we want the six packs, twelve pack, the one, two or three liter plastic bottles or cans?  By the time we make all these decisions just to buy soda it's a wonder we ever get out of the grocery store.  Many other foods require similar decisions.

There are all kinds of motivation training choices, but how do you decide what's best for you?  You've already taken the first step by realizing that you want and need training in the field of motivation.  Motivation is good medicine, but how do you take the dose?

Motivation can be like a generic soda and cover all general aspects of motivation and usually cost less.  Or, it can be very specific.  There is probably a motivation program for every niche you can imagine.  Ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish before investing a large amount of time and money in a program that may not fit your needs at all.

One of the things you learn in salesmanship is to not give the customer too many choices.  The more decisions a buyer has to make the less likely you are to make the sale.  But you are the one making the decision on what type of motivation you would like to have.  Now that you've made the decision to get started, do your research.  What are your reasons and goals for seeking motivation training?

There are excellent training programs in organization, leadership and development skills. You can learn how to do public speaking or make a dynamic presentation.  Other skills you can develop with motivational training include emotional intelligence, management and communication.  The aim of learning these skills and becoming motivated is typically to impact your personal and business success and ultimately turn a profit.

After you select a subject, then determine how you'll absorb this training.  Again, you must know yourself.  Are you a better visual or audio learner?  Would you rather read or listen?  With video you can do both. 

Video training usually is more restrictive while with audio tapes or CDs you can listen on the go and even while you're exercising.  This is good.  You're using your time wisely and efficiently.  If none of these appeals to you, consider a motivational course administered by hypnosis.

Motivational training could come in the form of an internship or part time job.  Go to work or intern for a company you admire and observe how that company got so successful. 

Learn how the managers motivate their employees.  Attend their sales and motivation meetings and take notes.  This is real on job training, not just theory. Self-discovery is one of the first steps to achieving motivation.  Motivation training is out there.  Reach out and grasp it.

Keeping a Motivation Journal for Reflection

Keeping a motivation journal can help you in so many ways they're hard to list in this short space.  If you've ever kept a diary or any other journal you know what it's like to make this sort of commitment.  

Making daily entries into your journal is like talking to a friend.  In a sense, your journal is your friend that you can tell anything and always know it's confidential.  If you're concerned about anonymity don't put your name in it.

A motivation journal will help you think positively and creatively.  It will help you develop new skills and increase confidence as these skills evolve.  By writing your activities down, you crystallize your thinking and your goals allowing you to act with greater self-understanding. 

As you discover yourself, you may become aware of things that need change.  You may also discover that you're a pretty wonderful person as you are. By keeping a motivation journal, we can assume that you've already set goals and mapped a path to accomplish those goals. 

You've remembered to set realistic goals with attainable increments.  These should contain specific objectives with a time frame and deadlines.  With no time frame or deadline, you could find yourself floundering endlessly and never making any noticeable progress.

This may be a good time to list lifetime goals for you. Where do you see yourself in five or ten years?  These could be family lifetime goals, academic goals, even social and athletic goals. Again, it's critical that you be specific.  For instance, what grade average do you want to maintain, how far do you want to run or how much weight do you desire to lose?

A journal enables us to see what we're doing, thinking and feeling on matters that support our motivation.  It's almost like seeing yourself through another person's eyes.  You discover what's going on inside your head when you write them down. 

Your thoughts, attitudes and goals become clearer when you can actually see them on paper.  This shows what's really important to you and helps you to maintain a positive attitude.

Write down your successes and your failures.  By doing this, we can analyze what went wrong and what went right.  We learn what lifted us up to that success and gave us the motivation to do it.  We also learn what lowers our motivation and what's preventing us from succeeding.

Make it fun and something you look forward to each evening when you make your entry.  The journal can be simply written on any paper or you might enjoy purchasing a colorful journal with pictures that you can associate with your goals. 

It can be written in first or third person, depending on how you wish to view yourself in the journal.  Is it about you or this person you're observing as they climb and stumble each day?

When you've accomplished your goals and your journal is complete, you'll feel empowered to take charge of your life.  (Actually, you'll feel this before completion.) You've charted a new direction for yourself and saw it through to the end as you sifted through fears, doubts and worry.  You can relive your successes and review what made you fall backward.  Start a motivation journal today.  You don't want to miss a day of your new and exciting life.

How Motivation Quotes Can Instigate Change

We become what we think.  This quote has been proven over and over again. If we perceive something bad is going to happen to us, many times it does.  On the contrary, if we believe something good is going to happen this often becomes true as well.  Science has affirmed the link between positive effect and its impact on an individual's motivation and performance.

If we expect the best or we expect the worst, we're usually not disappointed.  Each time we perceive a positive thought it increases our own perceptions of positive expectancy.

For motivation to last it requires constant thinking with daily positive reinforcement.

In the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is says great teachers have taught us that the law of attraction is the most powerful law in the universe.  Like attracts like and whatever you're thinking, the law requires that like thoughts are attracted back to you.  In other words, you get what you expect as your thoughts become real so take care to expose yourself only to positive thoughts.

Surround yourself with positive affirmations and you will initiate change in yourself, in your life and in the lives of others.  Positive thoughts enable you to achieve self-confidence and self-esteem.  With these qualities you can motivate and inspire yourself.

Believe in yourself and others will believe in you and you in them.

Most motivational quotes come from learned and successful people and they're useful in the work place and at home today and throughout the rest of your life.  Just as happiness is contagious as you surround yourself with happy people, positive thinking is derived from surrounding yourself with positive quotes. 

Many find it helpful to print up several of their favorite motivational sayings and place them where they'll be seen frequently each day such as on your desk, your computer or on your mirror.  What you see each day contributes to what your mind thinks and if you're thinking it, you are consciously or subconsciously working toward that end.

View motivational quotes day after day, night after night.  Lucretius said, "Constant dripping hollows out a stone."  If we persist each day in some small way to achieve our goals then some measure of success will be ours.  An old Chinese proverb cautions too, that, "Talk doesn't cook rice."  Too many times we're all talk and no action.

St. Clement taught, "If you do not hope, you will not find what is beyond your hopes." We must hope and dream but we must also work toward our goal. Constant reminders such as these ever-visible quotes steer us on an unwavering path to completion. 

Perhaps one of the strongest motivators and risk takers ever was General George S. Patton who said, "Take calculated risks.  That is quite different from being rash."  Quotes to motivate deliver the mental fuel to improve your life's implementation.  Expose yourself to these thoughts daily.  What touches you becomes a part of you.