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Lack Of Motivation
Stay Motivated By Keeping A Journal
Stay Motivated By Keeping A Journal
Think back to the last time you had a surge of motivation. Try to remember how it made you feel. What was going through your mind then? If you can’t remember, that’s okay. Just be ready for it when it happens again. If you do remember or find it’s happening again, considering recording your thought processes in a journal.
Sometimes, when you can jar your memory on how you got motivated or stayed motivated, you can reproduce that again. If you record your feelings and actions in a journal, you can simply refer to the journal anytime you need to get that back.
You can also record positive affirmations in your journal for the days where you aren’t as motivated. This way when you refer to it, you’ll have more juice to flame the motivational fire. Positive affirmations are shown to be quite effective in helping people get the ball rolling.
Consider using an actual paper journal rather than recording online. Documents tend to get lost online, and people often forget. With a physical journal in front of you, it will show itself at every moment.
This way when you need that push, you can simply open up the journal and start reading. However, if you feel that you can make it work with an online journal, go for it.
You can also record motivational tips from others into your journal that you find. This gives you more to draw from when you have a need to motivate. Sometimes, these tips can happen in the strangest places, so make sure you have a way of capturing if you don’t have your journal with you for some reason.
Another benefit to keeping a journal about your motivations is you could eventually turn it into a book and sell it. Self-help and motivation is a huge topic for both eBooks and courses.
If you think there is already enough material on the subject, think again. People will buy multiple books on the subject, even if there are similar concepts covered from one to the next. If there is repeat information, people treat that as a reinforcing factor.
Also, the fact that you are drawing from true situations that you experience will go a long way when producing your book. People love true stories about motivation.
Don’t worry about what you write in your journal. The key is to keep consistent with it. If you write something that doesn’t make sense or is silly, either disregard it or remove it from your journal.
Are You More Motivated To Do Things For Others Than Yourself?
When you find a job, you try to do your best work for your employer. Assuming you work for a decent company, they will recognize you for performing well. If you’re lucky, you may even get a raise and a promotion. If you are good at your job, why don’t you start working for yourself and reap the rewards?
People who start their own business often find they are less motivated when the rubber meets the road. In theory, it sounds great to be your own boss. But, the reality sets in, and you now have to handle every aspect of your business. This is something you didn’t have to do when working for someone else.
It’s much easier to do what others say than it is to motivate yourself to run your business. First, we are not born with business acumen. We need to learn how to run a business, and we need to find people willing to pay us for our products and services. Even when we do learn these crucial concepts, there’s no guarantee that we’ll succeed with them.
There’s also the factor of being your own boss. It comes at a price. The good news is you have no one hovering over you telling you what to do. The bad news is you have no one hovering over you telling you what to do.
The manager or boss took responsibility to know what needs to get done and hands out assignments accordingly. The manager is also taking on problems that you may run into and deals with other outside entities, so you don’t have to.
When you run things for yourself, you have none of those working for you. It’s all incumbent upon you to take care of everything. Even if you hire others, you are now the boss. There is no longer any buffer. You are it.
Hiring people can still be a great way to take some of the responsibilities off of your plate. For instance, if you don’t have time to bring in new business, hire a good salesperson or team. Pay them well and let them take on this task.
If you can’t deal with billing, hire someone for this task as well. There are third-party services that you can use, so you don’t have to increase your staff count.
This is not meant to discourage you from branching out on your own. You just have to be aware that it’s a whole different arrangement than when you worked for someone else.
Are Incentives Good Motivation For Businesses?
The news is always harping on about tax breaks or other incentives given to businesses to attract or keep them in a town, state or country.
These stories often present the dark side of incentives. It shows the evil giant corporation taking advantage of the state incentives. There is some truth to this, but without those incentives, those businesses will look elsewhere.
It’s a tough call. There are certainly plenty of businesses that take up incentives but don’t deliver on the jobs they promised to create. They either outsource those jobs or they simply require fewer employees to do more.
These businesses often get criticized for not being good corporate citizens in the areas where they get the incentives. They use up the resources of the community while giving little or nothing back.
The idea behind incentives is certainly a good one. Encourage businesses to build or update the business in exchange for tax breaks, tax credits, or some other benefit. This does motivate businesses to come or stay in that area. But, it is often a one-sided deal with the business driving the process. When this happens, the business gets to dictate the terms. This is why hiring tends to be less than they promised and community development from the business falls by the wayside.
Governments also like to save corporations when they get into trouble. Essentially, they throw money at the company in the hope that it will somehow magically start being profitable again. Money doesn’t help bad companies. It only prolongs the inevitable.
Some may argue that even if companies don’t hire the number of people they promised, at least they are hiring. There is some truth to this, but it’s at a cost to the taxpayer. Are the fewer number of employees going to generate enough economic benefit to make the incentives worthwhile?
It’s clear that businesses will be motivated to find the best incentives to set up shop. On the surface, it seems like it makes sense. However, what typically transpires is that it never works as well for the community as it was supposed to.
The community is left holding the bag, and the company gets away with paying little to no taxes for many years to follow. That’s good for the business, but communities should be less motivated to accept these deals.
In the 1980’s, several Japanese companies set up business in the United States. Many of them refused to take the tax incentives at the time. They felt that the community needed the money and that the company is a member of the community.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
Fear Based Motivation
Fear Based Motivation
Fear can be an effective catalyst for motivation. For example, if your boss tells you to get your project done on time or you will lose your job, you can be sure you’re going to do everything in your power to get that project done. You may resent your boss for doing this, but you are probably going to do as he or she wishes unless you are looking to get fired.
Another situation where fear will motivate you is when something crucial breaks in your home. It could be the furnace giving out in the middle of winter. You are at a point where you have no choice but to call for expensive repairs. If you don’t, you’ll risk the pipes freezing and being uncomfortable.
We all have a certain amount of fear-based motivation. But, is it the best way to get people to do things? In the case of the furnace, you’ll have no choice and have to chalk it up to being a part of life.
But, in the case of your boss harping on to you, is there a better way for him or her to handle the situation? Can you continually work in an environment based on that kind of fear?
It’s questionable whether motivation based on fear is sustainable. If you are an employee and there aren’t many jobs available as alternatives, you may feel like you have no choice but to comply. But, sometimes, this kind of negative working environment gets people more motivated to get out of the situation.
In other words, the motivation tactics may work in the short-term, but eventually, employers may experience a high turnover when those employees recognize there are other choices. The internet is a great equalizer in this regard as more people can choose to freelance on their terms.
There’s an old saying about how you catch more flies with honey. If managers would recognize they would get more loyalty out of people by offering incentives rather than scare tactics to get their employees to do the work, maybe turnover wouldn’t be so high.
Unfortunately, these managers don’t learn this until it’s too late. And even then, will they make any changes? Often, they make the justification that it’s the employee’s fault and they decided to leave.
Think about the impact you have if you are a manager trying to motivate your employees. If you have used fear as a motivator, is it something that has worked for you in the long-term? Or, did you simply set an environment where people couldn’t wait to get away?
Does Time Of Day Matter In Motivation?
Do you find you get more done in the morning? Or are you one of those types of people who like to work during the mid-part of the day? There are also those who are night owls and do their best work in the evening or night.
Is there an optimal time for your motivation or does it vary from day to day? People who claim to be morning people say they love that time because it is serene and gives them time to think. During the early morning hours, before 6:00 AM, for instance, the phones aren’t ringing. The rest of the family is asleep unless there is another morning person in your family. But hey, they get it too! They’ll both leave each other alone.
Others need the hustle and bustle to get motivated. These are high action types that like to get thrown into the situation. They love solving the problems that arise and the challenges they face. These types are often at their best in the afternoon.
The night owls wait for people to go to bed and then they are in their sanctuary. It’s a long wind-down period for them, and in fact, many of them will fire up the coffee to make it last even longer. These are usually the light sleepers who believe they can get by with only three or four hours of sleep.
None of this is scientific. People seem to naturally give their best at the time of day they feel the most comfortable in. But, it seems like there is something to it, science aside. Just think about the people you live with. Which periods do they excel? Ask your co-workers which period they prefer? How about the people that live in their homes?
When companies offer flexible schedules, people will try to get the time slots that fit the time of day they enjoy. They feel they can get the most done. This is why you’ll find people swapping with each other when they don’t get the desired period.
Whether there is statistical evidence to support this is not the point. Most people find the period that works best for them, and they tend to stick with that for a good portion of their lives. This is the one time when going outside your comfort zone may not be a good idea. If the time of day is right for you then just go with it and don’t fight it.
Do You Find Memes To Be Motivational?
People love memes. There all over the web. They are a sort of mini billboards if you will. They can tell a story in one shot with some text thrown it to help the message.
Many of them are created with the intent to motivate. For exercise, they show people in fantastic shape with a message stating, “This could be you,” or something like it. You see the message, and you get excited that it is possible. But, then the phone rings, and you are once again dealing with your routine.
It’s possible for memes to motivate. However, you need to reinforce the message over and over. Seeing a meme once is not likely to produce any changes. Seeing them constantly may get your brain set to take some action.
You have to be careful of the message, though, especially when you are dealing with important subjects. Too many people pass off political memes as fact, and they usually are far from that. No one challenges these messages, and people tend to accept them as is. There have been instances of sayings associated with people who never said the sayings. The practice of not fact checking these memes is quite dangerous and leads to an increase in propaganda. This happens across party lines.
It does depend on the subject. Memes that try to motivate people to work out probably don’t need to be fact checked. They simply give you a vision of what you could look like if you were to exercise.
You also must be aware that many memes are created for marketing. Ultimately, they are trying to get you motivated to buy their products or sign up for their newsletter (which may eventually lead you to buy something). It’s not that there is anything wrong with this nor is it illegal or unethical. It’s just something you should consider when you view the memes.
If you are into marketing yourself, you could use memes to increase your marketing message. The truth is they are effective in getting whatever message you want to get across. The best approach is to give something away when someone clicks through your meme and get them on your newsletter. This has the potential to create long-term customers.
Some people hate memes and want nothing to do with them. They believe they are manipulative and also because of the political reasons described above. These are probably not the people you want to target if you decide to use memes.
As you can appreciate, changing the way you think can have a huge impact on your life, and if you want to know more about developing an inspirational mindset for success, please click on the featured resource below for a free Strong Mindset report; download, read it and take action 😊
Lack Of Motivation? 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 and lack of motivation can be a serious problem that affects every one of us.
If keeping yourself motivated were easy, everybody would do it and we’d all be successful, but as you will know, that simply isn’t the case!
But, it can be done. You believe it can be done and that’s why you’re reading this right now – good for you!
Think about this: 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.
This is nothing new and, believe me, you are NOT alone! 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 get bogged down with “life” and those feelings of hope just disappear as “reality” sets in!
Don’t be so hard on yourself; you are allowed to dream, and dream big.
The trick is to turn these negative emotions around and the best way to do that is to understand them, analyze them and find out 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. Let’s take a quick look at each of these now:
Focus on what you really want
Focus can make or break your dreams, it’s as simple as that.
Be specific and be positive. We generally think in terms of what we don’t have rather than focus on what we want.
Try flipping this around; it’s also a good idea to be grateful for what you have and where you are at present.
You can find a great post about gratitude and self-reflection here.
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
So many people think that confidence is something you either have or you don’t, but, like any other skill or attribute, it can be acquired and developed.
To quickly boost self-confidence, you can do this by taking stock on what you already have and not what you lack. This is closely linked to the gratitude point made previously.
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.
Mindset is very powerful, but we hear it so often it can appear trite or cliched, but it really is a powerful tool to enable you to achieve whatever you want out of life.
So, confidence is a powerful motivator, but without a sense of direction, you won’t make the most of it, so let’s look at that now.
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.
Set goals that challenge you to grow, and don’t forget to enjoy the journey and not just the destination. And also, don’t be afraid to “fail” once in a while.
A great post about reframing “failure” can be found here.
Don’t be surprised or depressed about a lack of motivation; it will affect us all many times during our lives, but it is how we react to it that can make all the difference.
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 and that lack of motivation can quickly become a thing of the past and you can move onto bigger and better things.