Here are 10 easy but insanely effective strategies to become motivated and stay motivated right now. Do these things and you are on your way of achieving your ultimate goals in life!

What if I told you 10 INSANE, but easy ways to stay motivated?

What if these 10 strategies would help you achieve almost anything that you put your mind into? What if the methods I will share with you today will change your life forever?

I’m sure that you will obsess over it. You’ll want to know these strategies and be on your way to becoming the best version of yourself.

Well, it’s true.

When it comes to staying motivated, there are awesome strategies that you can apply right now and that’s exactly what I’m going to discuss in this blog.

Stay tuned and learn what it takes to stay motivated.

Are you ready? Let’s start!

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1. Be in control

According to researchers, people who feel like they are in control get more motivated and stays motivated longer than others. The reason behind is that people own up the choices they made. Since it is their choice, they are more likely to stick with their decision compared to those people who are just told to do specific things.

This is what I read from the book, Smarter Faster Better, by the habit expert, Charles Duhigg:

The first step in creating drive is giving people opportunities to make choices that provide them with a sense of autonomy and self-determination. In experiments, people are more motivated to complete difficult tasks when those chores are presented as decisions rather than commands.

He went on to say:

Find a choice, almost any choice, that allows you to exert control. If you are struggling to answer a tedious stream of emails, decide to reply to one from the middle of your inbox.

If you’re trying to start an assignment, write the conclusion first, or start by making the graphics, or do whatever’s most interesting to you.

To find motivation into confronting an unpleasant employee, choose where the meeting is going to occur.

To start the next sales call, decide what question you’ll ask first.

Motivation is triggered by making choices that demonstrate to ourselves that we are in control.

So, if you feel demotivated, start making decisions. When we feel like we are control, we tend to become more motivated. We feel more authority over ourselves and thus, we get the will power to stay focused.

2. Find your why

If you are starting to lose motivation, all you need to do is remember WHY you are doing the task in the first place. If you give meaning to the things that you do, it will surely motivate you.

I remember reading in the book, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy, how he illustrated the importance of knowing your why.

Picture yourself in front of a burning building. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t go inside the building that is doom to collapse any time soon. However, if your child is inside the burning building, that makes the BIG difference.

All of a sudden, you get a new reason why you should run into the building and rescue your child.

That’s the importance of knowing your why.

Darren Harden explained in his book:

“Forget about willpower. It’s time for why-power. Your choices are only meaningful when you connect them to your desires and dreams. The wisest and most motivating choices are the ones aligned with that which you identify as your purpose, your core self, and your highest values. You’ve got to want something, and know why you want it, or you’ll end up giving up too easily.”

Charles Duhigg supports this concept:

“Once we start asking why, those small tasks become pieces of a larger constellation of meaningful projects, goals, and values.”

3. Be positive in life

There’s an undeniable link between being positive in life and getting motivated. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to notice that if you’re in a good mood, it is easy to stay energized and avoid procrastination.

So, if you want to be motivated, you also need to be positive. But how can you be positive?

Here’s a simple suggestion of Norman Peale from his best-selling book, The Power of Positive Thinking:

“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”

4. Think of the reward

In this life, almost all things that give the sweetest rewards are the things that are hardest to do.

Take for example graduating from college. You don’t finish your course in just one night. In most cases, you would need to stay in college for four years. While the whole process may be grueling, challenging, and even time-consuming, you know the importance of finishing your schooling.

At the end of all your sacrifices, you know how sweet it is when you finally climb up the stage and receive your diploma. Your degree will not only open up new opportunities for you, but it can also be a way for you to have a better and brighter future.

When you keep in mind the sweet reward at the end of your task, you will stay motivated. When you know that you will be rewarded at the end of your journey, it gives you an additional boost of motivation.

5. Surround yourself with encouraging people

Peer pressure is not always bad.

In fact, if used right, peer pressure can be instrumental in helping you to stay motivated. Surround yourself with supportive friends and family members.

If you are going to do a task, make sure that the people around you are as committed as you are. When you lose motivation, you still have friends who will push and encourage you to stay on the course and finish the work at hand.

6. Turn big goals into bite-size tasks

David Allen, an international bestselling author, once said:

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

Seems like a piece of great advice for many of us. If you think that a task is too big, why not break it down? Sometimes, your job can be very big that it begins to overwhelm you to the point that you lose the motivation to start.

That’s why it is important to start small and you will eventually end big!

Here’s what David Allen wrote in his popular book, Getting Things Done:

You don’t actually do a project; you can only do action steps related to it. When enough of the right action steps have been taken, some situation will have been created that matches your initial picture of the outcome closely enough that you can call it “done.”

7. Reduce distractions

Have you tried studying for that big exam with your favorite song being played in the background? If you are most people, you probably found it hard to concentrate. That is almost always true with motivation.

There are things that can chip off your motivation little by little and they are called distractions.

If you keep on glancing on your phone even if it doesn’t ring or you keep distracted by the head of your coworker popping up in your cubicle, then your motivation will eventually fade away.

So, if you want to stay motivated, get rid of things that can distract you. Close the door, place your phone from you as far as possible, or turn off the TV. Do what you must to eliminate distractions and you will soon become more motivated.

8. Find joy in what you do

Do you know why so many people fail to stick to their workout routine and quit after just a few weeks or months?

The answer is that they don’t find joy in what they are doing.

If you feel like the task you are doing is a chore designed to make your life dreadful, then you will surely lose motivation.

That’s why, if you want to be consistent in your exercise, do the things that you love. For example, in my case, I love playing basketball. Compared to going to the gym pumping iron, I love basketball even more. It is the time I can meet with new and old friends and feel pumped up every time I make a basket or feel happy every time we win a game.

In the same manner, you need to find joy in things that you do. Even if you dislike the task at hand, you can still trick yourself into loving what you do.

For example, if you don’t like cleaning your house, then play some music to keep you moving. If you don’t like studying, then study with your friends and have a mini-contest. If you don’t like working on your office reports, then treat it like a game that you need to finish.

Those are some of the tips I can tell you about how to love what you are doing.

9. Give yourself a break

Sometimes, all you need to stay motivated is to take a break. While it may seem counterintuitive, giving yourself a break allows you to look back at your accomplishments, relax, and even gather more energy to take on new tasks.

One technique that I usually do is focus on one task for 25 minutes straight and then take a 5-minute break. This allows me to relax my eyes, stretch a little bit, and keep my blood flowing again.

Remember that too much work can lead to less productivity. Not only that but if you are tired and burned out, you will simply lose motivation – and that’s something we don’t want to happen.

The best thing about breaks is that it can be used as a reward as well. For example, you can tell yourself, “If I finish this task within one hour, I can take a short nap.”

Breaks do not have to happen between tasks. Make sure you set aside one whole day each week to recharge. Our body is simply not designed to work 24/7. If needed, you can also take a vacation to surely fire you up when you return to work.

10. Create a system that works for you

Motivation will come and go – that’s the truth. However, if you think of motivation as a skill that you can hone and develop, then that would really improve the way you work.

Instead of relying on when motivation strikes, you would need to create a system that actually works for you. Since we are unique, then what works for you might not work for others. There’s really no one-size-fits-all solution to this.

However, there are general tips that you can keep in mind. For example, you can use productivity tools to keep you on track and motivated. For example, I use Trello to track the things that I need to do and what I have already done. This gives me a feeling of accomplishment and a source of motivation.

You can also try Habit Bull, an app that helps build habits. Google Calendar is also a great app that helps you organize your schedule.

No matter what tools you use, the key is to create a system that will automatically help you do what you need to do whether you have the motivation or not. When you build a systematic approach in doing your work, it triggers something in your mind. It helps you to develop a routine, a habit of getting things done.

Get motivated now!

These are just some of the most effective and easy ways to stay motivated and find your motivation. Sometimes, you just have to do what you got to do and motivation will just come.

Nevertheless, if you follow the tips and guides I mentioned in this blog, I’m sure it would be easier for you to be motivated and stay that way for a long time.

If you have other tips to share, let me know. Write your comments below. I would love to hear from you!

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