Self-Motivation: five techniques that work for everyone

Motivation is a much-debated topic especially during times when people are being forced to work from home and sometimes in less-than-ideal conditions.

So, what really is motivation? Is it the drive to get the best employee badge this quarter, get a 90% in the upcoming exams, or finish household chores in the next hour? Well, you would need the motivation to achieve every one of those goals. So whether you are a student, an employee or a homemaker, you will need your daily dose of motivation to get through your day productively.

How would life be without motivation?

Well, if Steve Jobs wasn’t motivated enough, we wouldn’t have a line of Apple products. If Coco Chanel woke up one day and thought of just lying in bed because the world around her was too chaotic, we wouldn’t have signature fragrances. If Charles Darwin didn’t feel motivated enough to step on HMS Beagle, well, we wouldn’t even know about hundreds of exotic species and the theories of evolution and natural selection!

Think about it. If none of these people ever felt motivated enough, the world would be a very different place.

Why do you need motivation in life?

It can increase effort and productivity

Motivation is the bridge that connects your daily goals to the effort you need to put in to achieve them. The lack of motivation results in lethargy. For example, you have set a goal of finishing 10 sums in 1 hour. With motivation, you can do 10 sums and even squeeze in two more theorems in the same hour.

It can give you a new perspective

Lethargy is just the stepping stone to melancholia and then depression. If you have already been feeling low for weeks, you may need to talk to an expert about your feelings and lack of motivation.

While you do, you should try to change your perspective a little. Sometimes, life seems full of difficulties. It is only you who can find a window of opportunities in the set of challenges you are facing right now!

It can build your habits

Yes, motivation is habit-forming. For example, doing five sit-ups every time you leave bed to kickstart your day. Or, taking 5-minutes off from work every late afternoon to go watch the sun set.

These are small actions that will make you feel alive and grateful for all you have. These small habits can help you double-check your current status and revisit your goal and purpose.

It makes your journey fun

What's work without fun? You should be enjoying the work you do. Without motivation, you may feel a lack of zeal and zest that drives quality work.

Taking a little time to meditate before you begin working can help you get your feelings and emotions together. It will help you reach a state of mindfulness where you can feel the motivation and the zeal to work happily.

It can help you realize your dreams

Motivation is not just important to go through everyday motions. You ultimately need it to realize your big dream.

It can be a holiday in the Maldives or buying a sports bike or simply making the final EMI payment for your apartment. Well, you need the motivation to realize these dreams no matter how basic or outlandish they sound!

How can you motivate yourself daily?

Many believe that motivation is an internal force, and they aren’t wrong. However, when you aren’t feeling particularly motivated or productive, you might want an external impetus.

First, it's alright to not feel equally motivated every day. Not all days are the same. Some people find rainy days to be too gloomy and sad to feel motivated. Some feel drained of all the motivation on particularly hot sunny days. Our aim should be to accept that fact and move forward with a few simple motivation building exercises that will work for you each and every day!

Move your body

When you are lying in bed all day, it is indeed difficult to find motivation (even with a hundred motivation boosting apps and quotes). You need to get up. You are in control of your body, now it’s time to gain control of your mind.

Begin your day with a dose of positivity with the motivational quotes. Many apps now have the option of sending motivational quotes and messages to their users like Chiku.

Walk around at first. Next, do a few stretches. Have you ever done yoga or freehand exercises? Then this is your time to practice them again. Do a couple of jumping-jacks, spot-jumps and push-ups to drive away the lethargy that clouds your mind.

Once you feel the laziness slither away, it’s time to move to the next step!

Revisit your goals and purpose

In most cases, we tend to forget why we are doing something. A copywriter may have joined an agency for the love of words and his/her freedom to play with them, but he/she may have lost the motivation in the daily grind.

A great way to overcome the fatigue and remain motivated is by reviewing your goal, work and the reason you choose to do it.

From your current position, what do you want to achieve? Are you taking the right effort or making the necessary changes to reach your goal?

If necessary, make a list or write it down in words – revisiting your goal and purpose will give you more motivation. Add a daily set of challenges for yourself with the help of an app.

Develop a self-rewarding strategy

It can be as simple as getting yourself a scoop of Häagen-Dazs when you finish an hour of work or playing a round of video games once you finish reading one chapter.

The idea of a reward system is to create an achievable short-term goal for the hour or day, and to keep a reward that you actually desire.

The concept is quite similar to that of bodybuilders and fitness experts keeping a cheat day for themselves after they have achieved their weekly workout goals.

Make changes in your environment

You may have no idea how much difference a well-organized work desk and room can make in your life! The key is to not spend an entire day buried in the trash but to take the task 5-minutes at a time.

Get a waste paper bin for your room and every time you need to discard scraps of paper or a wrapper throw it in the bin! Always remember, if something takes 5 minutes to clean, clean it immediately – it can include coffee mug stains on the desk or your over-used keyboard.

Set up a vision board or use an app that can track your motivation levels, moods from stories and generate feeling graphs.

Start easy and enjoy yourself

Make a cup of steaming coffee, browse through the day's worklist and prioritize the work. If you are having a particularly bad day, then starting off with easier and low-resistance tasks is the way to do it!

30 chapters may make a book, but the author needs to begin with one word and proceed one-word-at-a-time to reach the end. So, no matter how insignificant or “stupid” the task seems compared to the others you have at hand, you should begin with the one that gives you the most joy and satisfaction.

Break your ulterior goals down to short-term goals that you can achieve each day and you will be on your way to success soon!

Are you motivated enough?

Now that we have spoken at length about why you need motivation and how you can foster it in your life, it’s time to find out how much motivation you actually have right now.

Your motivation level is directly related to your happiness and satisfaction.

Journaling is one of the best ways to determine how happy, blessed, satisfied, productive, sad or angry you have felt in the last week or month. Now, doing so manually is quite the task. Apps like Chiku can help explore the stats that display your overall mood, feelings, activities and the relationship between moods and activities visually.

Journaling is the key to exploring the different activities and relationships that motivate you and improve you as a person.

So what are you waiting for? It’s never too late to begin. Download Chiku and start writing, including images and sketches to know exactly what you need to drive you to success!