101 ways to motitivate yourself for success...

Motivation Tips

Here are 101 tips you can use to improve and maintain motivation. For any new project, however, the first three tips should always be done to improve your chance of success and help maintain motivation.

Know what you want to achieve—If you don’t know what you want to achieve, how will you know when you achieve it? Deciding exactly what you want to do is the beginning of staying motivated to finish it.
Determine the steps to reach your goal—There are things you need to do for anything you want to do. Knowing what the steps are will give you a guideline. They’ll also give you mini successes as you complete each step.
Devise a plan—Though there may be many steps to take, it is necessary to know in what order you need to achieve them. If possible, alternate between those that are easy to achieve and those that will take longer. This way, you don’t go through long periods of
time without completing part of your plan. It will help you feel more successful if you complete parts of the plan often.
Goals provide focus. With no guiding plan, people tend to drift. Goals also provide a measuring device for progress, enhance productivity, improve self-esteem, and increase commitment, so you're more likely to achieve whatever you set out to conquer.
Increase the challenge of your project—If you’re lacking motivation to do anything, try something you've never done before. Simply the thought of doing something new and exciting can give us temporary motivation.
Remember success is your personal responsibility—You need to believe that initiative, effort, and persistence are key factors in achieving success. Too many times, individuals are more likely to view success as dependent on available resources and situational constraints. They simply say the task was too difficult for outside reasons. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and it is your responsibility to find it.
Think of demanding tasks as opportunities—When facing a task where success is uncertain, think of it a challenge or an opportunity. Don’t think of them threats that may lead to failure and embarrassment. This causes you to give up before you start.
Remember striving for achievement can be enjoyable—Perseverance pays off. Approaching each task with dedication, concentration, commitment and involvement can help you maintain motivation. You
may find you enjoy it, and the obstacle isn’t nearly as difficult as you figured it to be.
Learn to value achievement striving—If you value hard work in and of itself, you’ll enjoy it more, and therefore, be more motivated. Unfortunately, too many people view it as not “cool.” Their typical excuse is that working too hard may only keep them from having a social life, or even cause them to have a heart attack. What it really does, however, is lead to success and happiness in their lives.
Improve your skills—Sometimes you may have a goal that you don’t have the necessary skills to achieve. Don’t give up! Skills can be improved. Sometimes all it takes is practice.
Learn what you need to learn—If information is keeping you from achieving your goals, determine ways to fill in the gaps, and build this into your action plan. Be willing to study and work hard to reach your goals.
Persistence works—Continued effort and commitment will overcome initial obstacles or failures. Don’t see an early failure as a sign of things to come. Remember the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Once you achieve your first success this way, you’ll be less apt to give up and lose motivation too quickly in the future.
Try living in the now as if it were the future that you hope to have—For example, if you want to lose weight, don’t think of yourself as someone struggling to lose it. Think of yourself as someone pounds
lighter. See yourself as healthier, and having a different lifestyle. To maintain this lifestyle, you have to eat healthier and exercise. Just think of how your life will be then, and do it now.
Put your goals in writing—Sometimes, the act of writing down what you are going to do is a strong motivator. Writing down goals helps you make them more specific and less vague. When you write them, use action verbs.
Give all your goals measurable outcomes—By doing so, it help you know when you’ve achieved each goal you set.
Specify completion dates—You won’t always complete your goals on these dates, but setting them helps you stay focused on completion. Many people work better with deadlines. Don’t make them unrealistic, but do set them so you’ll have to push yourself to achieve them.
Plan and write down what your reward will be for achieving the goal—It doesn’t have to be an elaborate reward, it can be simple. Rewarding yourself along the way is a big motivator. Remember your reward each time you start to feel your motivation drain, and it can increase your desire to reach the goal.
Make a list of obstacles—Always think of everything that might stand in your way and decide what you can do about each obstacle. If you design a plan, you’ll reduce the influence of each obstacle and increase the chances that you will be successful.
Write down the benefits of achieving your goal—One strong motivator is knowing exactly what you will gain from reaching your goal. For example, keeping your checkbook balanced will give you more spending money, or walking every day will help you stay healthier and reduce stress.
Break down complicated plans into manageable tasks—Be specific about what has to be accomplished. By setting goals along the way, your tasks will seem more manageable, and not overwhelming.
Don’t be embarrassed to ask for help—A partner can help you stay committed and motivated. Look for role models, people who have already achieved the goals you seek to reach. Ask them for advice and suggestions. Find how they got where they are, and incorporate what you learn into your plan.
Get organized—Being prepared and organized, can help you feel better about your ability to reach your goals. Having information scattered in too many places makes you feel out of control and undermines motivation.
Be serious about each step in your process—Think about learning to ski, for example. The beginner I given a list of instructions: "lean forward," "bend the ankles," "keep weight on the downhill ski," etc. Each of these is an explicit step. The extent the skier is seriously trying to learn each step will determine the outcome. Each step is separate, but functions together to reach the goal. Failure to focus on any part of the steps can cause you to crash.
Enhance your interest in the goal—Be sure it's related to your values, and if the connections aren't obvious at first, think through how the task at hand complements your values and overall goals. If it doesn't, you should think about why it's on your "to-do list.” Maybe it's a task you should delegate or delete.
Don’t procrastinate—Procrastination is a form of self-regulatory failure.
The old saying, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” is one you should live by. If you to this too often, your “tomorrow” may never come, and you’ll never reach your goal.
Remember that willpower is a limited resource—Think of willpower as a muscle. If you don’t use the muscle and exercise it, it becomes weaker and weaker. The more you use your willpower, the stronger it will become, just like a muscle does. If you don’t use it, eventually, you may lose it.
Avoid preconceived task difficulty—If you believe a task is difficult without truly knowing it, it will also give you a perception about how much effort you’ll need to put into it and how likely you are to fail.
If sharing a goal, divide the tasks based on interests—You’re more apt to stay motivated in something you’re interested in. If working in a group, dividing the tasks into areas each member is interested in will keep the entire group motivated and help improve chances of success. It may be impossible to have a few areas to work
on that aren’t at the top of your interest list, but having many that you are interested in can keep your overall motivation going.
Don’t self-handicap yourself—Too many times we handicap ourselves with the word “can’t.” Remove that work from your vocabulary. Don’t say things like, “I can’t do it” or “It can’t be done.” These cause you to fail before you begin. You’ll be handicapped by your negative feelings in your own ability.
Keep a positive attitude—There is nothing more powerful for self-motivation than the right attitude. You can’t choose or control your circumstance, but can choose your attitude towards your circumstances.
Avoid negativity—If you’re can’t approach something with a positive attitude, at least approach it with an open mind. Negativity will only achieve negative results.
Keep motivators around your work area—Maybe you want a better life for your family. Keep family photos in sight to remind you why you’re working toward that goal. They can help constantly spark your motivation.
Keep good company—Make more regular encounters with positive and motivated people. This could be as simple as texts or IM chats with peers or a friend who likes sharing ideas.
Don’t just think about it, do something—If you find motivation for a particular project lacking, try getting started on something else.
Something trivial even, then you’ll develop the momentum to begin the more important stuff.
Know yourself—Get to know how you think. If possible, keep notes on when your motivation starts to fade and when it’s extremely high. There may be a pattern that, once you are aware of, you can work around and develop.
Track your progress—It will help to keep a tally or a progress bar for ongoing projects. Seeing the progress bar grow can be a big motivator, because when you see something growing you will always want to nurture it.
Help others—It may be surprising how much share your ideas and helping friends get motivated can help you keep yourself motivated. Seeing others do well will motivate you to do the same.
Write about your success and get feedback from readers—Start a blog or a place on your website where you can write about your success. Getting positive feedback from others can help you maintain motivation.
Take a break—No one wants to work all the time. Sometime it helps to take a break and rejuvenate yourself. Then you can return to the project with a clear head and a renewed motivation.
Have a cause—Having a cause you care about is a powerful source of motivation. Such cause can inspire you to give your best even through the difficulties. It can make you do things you thought
were impossible. Some causes could inspire you temporarily, but a cause that matters to you can inspire you indefinitely. It’s a fountain of motivation that will never run dry.
Have a big dream—Karen Ravn said: “Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.” Having a dream is important because it’s difficult to be motivated if you don’t have anything to shoot for. Just having a dream, however, is insufficient. Your dream must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.
Be hungry for it—Wanting something isn’t enough. To be truly motivated, you need to have hunger and not just desire. Having mere desire won’t take you through hard times since you don’t want things badly enough. In many cases, hunger makes the difference between the best performers and the mediocre ones.
Do it your way—Don’t try to do it better than someone else. Comparing yourself with others is an effective way to destroy your motivation. Even if you start with enthusiasm, you will soon lose your energy when you compare yourself with others. The only competitor you have is yourself. The only one you need to beat is you.
Take one more step—Every journey begins with the first step. When you meet obstacles along the way, there could be the tendency to quit. You may think that it’s too difficult to move on. You may think that your dream is impossible to achieve. What makes a winner instead of a loser is the courage to continue. In difficult situations,
focus on taking one more step forward. Don’t think about how to complete the race. Don’t think about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking one more step.
Let go of the past—One of the most destructive things to motivation is your past. Your past can drag you down before you realize it. Your past can give you a heavy burden on your shoulders. Take it off your shoulder and leave it. You might have made mistakes in the past. You might have disappointed others with what you did. The good news here is—It’s over. It’s already in the past and there’s nothing you can do about it. Remember today is a new day and you have the chance to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you.
Try tackling the worst jobs first—By doing this, you get the worst job out of the way first and then the rest of the day is a piece of cake. Once we’ve done those horrible, distasteful jobs, everything else on your list looks much more appealing.
Face your fear—The truth is often much less dramatic than we make it out to be in our minds. Don’t allow false expectations and fears keep you from doing things. You’ll learn that if you do, your success never stood a chance against your fear. Before you work yourself into hysteria try to face your fear instead. What is the worst thing that could happen if you fail? There may not truly be something absolutely awful that could occur. You may just be setting up false expectations due to fear.
Reconsider Your Path—If you find that you’re frequently not motivated to do the things that need to be done, maybe you should be examine things, and then consider doing something else on a regular basis instead. If you have to talk yourself out of bed in the morning by saying you have no choice in the matter and must resign yourself to the task at hand, this could be a good choice for you.
Life should offer some excitement and adventure along the way…at least enough that you don’t mind so much about all those little things that make up the mundane parts. If you’re finding that the mundane drastically overwhelms the adventure, then no amount of motivation will make you see it differently. Try to find something that doesn’t require so much motivation to get it done. It should be something that lights that fire and gets you excited without any extra effort on your part. If you do, you won’t need to worry about self-motivation.
Hold yourself back—When you start a new project, you are probably full of excitement and enthusiasm. You probably have no sense of self-limitation. Moving full-steam ahead can be great, but it can also cause you to burn out fast. If you force yourself to hold back in the beginning and plan out a course of action to gradually increase, you’ll prevent burnout and keep your motivation high.
Join a group to keep you motivated and focused—It can be online or offline. By being a member of this group or association, you will have regular conversations with people with common goals that are free to speak their mind about your ideas. If it is an online group, you won’t know or probably ever meet the other, so you don’t have to worry about hurting each other’s feelings. You can get really great
ideas, share your ideas, improve your success and keep your motivation high.
Put up a picture of your goal in a visible place—putting up pictures of things that motivate you are one thing. Having a visual picture of your goal is another. Say you want to take your family to Hawaii with the bonus from this project. Your family would be your motivator, but pictures of Hawaii would be your goal. Seeing it regularly can give you a visual sense and keep you focused on the goal without losing motivation.
Find a way to make it a pleasure—One reason we might put off something that will help us achieve our goal is because it seems like hard work. The key is to find a way to make it fun or pleasurable. If your goal activity becomes a treat, you actually look forward to it.
Be patient—This may seem easier said than done. The problem with today’s society is we want the quick fix. We need instant results, and when we don’t get them, we give up. Don’t think of your project as a sprint, think of it as a marathon. Pace yourself, and don’t expect instantaneous results. If you don’t see the results soon, don’t give up—give it time. The results will come. Remember, “Good things come to those who wait.”
Find inspiration daily—Inspiration is one of the best motivators, and it can be found everywhere. Every day, seek inspiration, and it will help sustain motivation over the long term. Sources of inspiration can include: blogs, online success stories, forums, friends and family, magazines, books, quotes, music, photos, people you meet.
Have powerful reasons and write them down—Doing something for your family is a great motivator, but why are you doing it? Be specific.
Be prepared for your urges to quit—We all have urges to quit, but they are mostly on a subconscious level. One of the most powerful things you can do is to start being more conscious of those urges. A good exercise is to go through the day with a little piece of paper and put a tally mark for each time you get an urge. It simply makes you aware of the urges. Then have a plan for when those urges hit, and plan for it beforehand, and write down your plan. Without a plan, when those urges hit, you will not feel like coming up with one and give up too easily.
Never stop working toward the goal two days in a row—It’s OK to take a day away from your goal. You can do it often, just never consecutively. If you feel yourself saying, “Oh, two or three days won’t hurt,” tell yourself, “NO!” Long breaks lead to procrastination, which leads to quitting.
Keep a daily journal—If you are consistent about keeping a journal, it can be a great motivator. A journal should have not only what you did for the day, but your thoughts about how it went, how you felt, what mistakes you made, what you could do to improve. To be consistent about keeping a journal, do it right after you do your goal task each day. Make keeping a journal a sensory pleasure.
Make a big public commitment—This will very often do the trick. Create a blog and announce to the world that you are going to achieve a certain goal by a certain date. Announce it at a family gathering or party with friends. Commit yourself to the hilt. You’ll be surrounded by people who will remind you of that commitment.
Drink coffee—If you have difficulty getting that beginning spark each day, drink a big cup of coffee. It has the caffeine you need to jump start your day without all the calories of energy drinks or soda.
Stay Active—Living a sedentary lifestyle will lead to a lack of energy, which will directly impact your level of motivation. Try to do something active each day, even if it’s a 20-minute brisk walk around your neighborhood. You’ll feel much better once your blood is flowing.
Open the curtains and windows in your work area—It’s difficult to feel motivated when you’re in a dark room. Keeping your work area light and cheerful will improve motivation.
Get More Sleep—If you’re sleepy, your energy level suffers. Try to get to bed earlier by turning off the TV and putting away the phone and Internet at a reasonable hour. Then you’ll be ready to go to work the next day fully rested and ready to take on the challenge.
Ask for motivation support—Keeping yourself accountable is tough, but when you bring other people into it, it’s much easier. Ask a friend or colleague if they’d be willing to help keep you motivated for a short-term project. When you reward yourself at the end, perhaps you can invite your motivation buddy along as well.
Move your alarm clock—It’s easy to hit the snooze button over and over and over. If you have trouble getting out of bed, put your alarm clock across the room. It’ll force you to get up. While you’re up, you might as well get started on your day. Getting a good start helps you be more motivated to reach your daily goals.
Schedule early meetings with those involved—Early morning meetings because force you to meet the day head on. You’re dressed and ready to go from the start, so the rest of the day can only get better from there.
Wake up to upbeat music—Sometimes waking up to music that gets you going instead of whatever nonsense is on the radio can help get you moving and get your day going in a positive direction. It helps you undertake your goals in a much more positive way.
Prepare the night before--This is an essential component to motivation because it cuts down on the anxiety you may feel when diving in. If you have small things that can be done in advance of a big workday, do them the night before. When you wake up, those menial tasks will be complete, so you can head straight into the heavy stuff.
Eat breakfast—Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a reason. It gives you the energy you need to get going in the morning. Be conscious of what you’re eating. Fruits and low-fat yogurt will fuel you better than bagels and donuts. You’ll also feel better about yourself, which is never a bad thing.
Develop a personal mantra—Take some time thinking of a motivating mantra to keep you focused. It can simply be a few positive sentences about reaching your goals should help keep you moving in the right direction when you feel like you’re starting to derail.
Sign up for motivation emails—Face it, sometimes you just need encouragement, even if you don’t know who’s sending it. There are lots of websites that will send you daily motivational e-mails that will make you feel better the second you read the message.
Start the day doing something you enjoy—If you’re looking at your to-do list and just can’t seem to muster the motivation to chip away at it, take an hour or so to do something that you enjoy instead. This will put you in a happy place and help put yourself in a better situation to want to get down to business when you’re finished.
Cut back on alcohol—Alcohol is a depressant. It can cause you to sleep less and give you a hangover. When alcohol is involved, all motivation goes out the window. You should at least try to eliminate alcohol from your diet during the week or at least cut back when you know you have to get something done.
See the light at the end of the tunnel—Think of the end result and keep that finish line in the back of your mind the whole time. Focus on how good it will feel when you reach it.
Spend your time on tasks you enjoy—Given a choice, people usually select things they enjoy. This is important to keep you
motivated. If you have a task you hate doing, delegate a small portion of your day to doing something you enjoy.
Take pride in what you’re doing—There’s usually no way to avoid at least some activities that seem wasted. Perhaps you’re a small cog in a big machine at work, and it’s tough to see how your contribution matters. The truth is...it does make a difference. If what you do isn’t important, your company wouldn’t have hired you in the first place. Live by the philosophy that anything worth doing is worth doing well. What you’re doing is worth something to those you work for, so do it well. Take pride it and do it to the best of your ability. It will help you feel good about yourself and keep you motivated.
Don’t rely too much on your use of rewards—Motivating yourself with rewards can be a good thing, but you don’t want to rely too much on them. If you do, you become dependent on the reward and not your natural motivation. Try to find some rewards that are inherent to the task itself. Instead of seeing the task as another item on your list, think how it impacts others. For example, answering thee emails helps keep customers happy.
Stay confident—Sometimes this can be difficult, especially in an area we are unfamiliar with. Struggling to do something well can cause you to feel insecure and lead to lack of motivation. Don’t be afraid to learn a new task. Learning how to do it properly will help you keep your confidence and improve motivation.
Stay focused while you’re working—It is often easy to be motivated to start a task, but wandering attention can cause you to struggle to keep that motivation. Switching to other tasks like your
phone or other distractions breaks your concentration. You should try to stay focused on one thing at a time, even if that means turning off your internet connection or blocking websites that distract you. If you keep stopping and starting, it’ll seem like your task is dragging on forever. You’ll find it more motivating to make steady progress.
What you’re doing right now is the most important thing in the world—Think of every step you take toward your goal as important. Adopt the mindset that each action you take is the most important thing in the world, and it will help you stay focused on it.
Be the best "you" you can be—We all have natural strengths and weaknesses. Instead of focusing on your weaknesses, choose to work on your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths. Creating the best “you” will help you feel more confident and stay motivated.
There's always more—There is always more you can do to reach your goal. Don’t settle for what you can do right now. Don’t focus on what you’ve achieved in the past, focus on what you can do in the future. You can always achieve more.
Results matter most—No matter what anyone says, it isn’t just that you try and do your best. Never forget—Results matter most. Never get complacent or comfortable just because you check a lot of tasks off your list every day, or you use strategies that your friends all agree are the best. Don’t confuse activity for accomplishment. There's a big difference between the two. If you aren't getting the results you want, you're probably working too hard on the wrong things.
Science and technology aren’t everything—Use technology and science, but don't make them everything. Use the latest and most effective research to help you reach your goals. It doesn’t mean anything that you can use technology if you don’t ever reach your goals. That's like a person priding himself on being a business school graduate but losing the sight of the fact he wants to become a successful businessman.
Perfection isn’t everything—Look for effectiveness, not perfection. A strategy doesn't need to be optimal in order to be effective. An optimal strategy, without desire and determination, can be just as ineffective as a terrible strategy. Although perfect is great, you don't always need the perfect strategy if your head and heart are in the right place.
Let yourself be motivated by others—If you see people who have better accomplishments than yours, admire them. Use what they've accomplished as a source of inspiration. Don't assume they have done anything extraordinary to reach their goals or were bred by geniuses. Use them as motivation that can end up proving you sold yourself short.
Associate with people at the level you hope to achieve—If your goal is to get a promotion to a specific position, hang out with people holding that position. See how they got there, and learn from their successes. You’ll find hanging out with determined, optimistic, and driven people will help you maintain motivation and reach your success faster.
The basics work—Things don’t have to be glamorous or ingenious to work. Remember that the basics work too. Sometime getting back to basics helps you focus on the goal itself instead of a creative way to achieve the goal.
Keep moving forward—It’s not uncommon to get in a slump when working toward your goals. Remember—it will pass. Keep on striving for success and focusing on the goal.
Think it and do it—There’s truth to the saying, “If you think you can, you can.” Just think you can do it and start doing it. It may take a while, but always believe you can, and you will. Instead, too often people think they can’t, so they can’t—or don’t.
Actualize your potential—Potential is nothing until it’s actualized. People often say, “They have great potential” when speaking of someone. You might have it, but what good is it if you don’t put it to work. Knowing that you have the ability to do it isn’t enough to keep you motivated. Seeing that you can do it and actually achieving it, however, is a great motivator.
Measure from start to finish—The most successful person creates the largest gap between where they started and where they are now. The person who starts with few advantages but works his tail off to produce remarkable results is far more successful than the person who is extremely gifted and only ends up with good results. Being one of those who reaches remarkable results will be motivation to start your next project with gusto and you’ll be surprised how your motivation for new tasks will grow over time.
Remember…you’re not alone!—You’re not the first person who has struggled to reach a goal, and you certainly won’t be the last. Everyone struggles with staying motivated and reaching their goals. The reality is that refocusing, changing, or making a new start on something, no matter how small, is a big deal, but it's not impossible. With the right approach, you can definitely do it.
Recommit to your goal if you slip up—We all slip from time to time. If you slip up, don't give up. Forgive yourself and make a plan for getting back on track.
Don’t beat yourself up for mistakes—Instead, pat yourself on the back for everything you did right. Remember, mistakes are a natural part of the process.
Learn from your mistakes—Look at your mistakes as lessons and reminders of why you're trying to make a change. When you mess up, use it as an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.
Adopt a stick-to-itiveness attitude—Don’t just stick to working toward the goal. Stick to doing everything you can to make sure that you reach the goal. That includes learning more if necessary and revisiting the goal at a later time.
Use positive self-talk—Tell yourself things like, "I deserve to get the promotion because I've really been working hard" or "I feel great when I swim because I'm doing well on my exercise plan."
Create more than a resolution—If you want to make a change or achieve a goal, it takes more than a resolution you make at the beginning of the year. Just declaring you want to do something isn’t enough. Just doing something that’s expected of you isn’t always enough either. You have to create a way to make your commitment more than that. It has to be something you want.
End non-supportive relationships—If people are constantly tearing you down and depleting your motivation to achieve desired tasks, just break away from them. A friend isn’t a friend if they can’t be supportive. You can't stay focused on your goal if your friend doesn't believe in you or, even worse, is trying to hold you back.
Focus on what you can actually control—Worrying about things you have no control over can be a real motivation killer. Just stay focused on what you can control. The rest is not up to you, and trying to control what you can't control is a prescription for failure.
Stay true to your beliefs and values—You’ll find motivation also blossoms when you stay true to your beliefs and values. Assigning value to an activity can restore one's sense of motivation and reflecting on why an activity is meaningful could make you more invested in it.