How To Motivate Yourself

We all need motivation. And it's not a one-off event. Staying motivated is an on-going requirement. Because even something that once caused a real rush of excitement, creating it's own motivation, can become routine in the long run. Mundane, even. But if we can't maintain or re-create our motivation, we can lose interest and progress towards the goal is lost. So how to keep yourself motivated when the thrill is gone?

The first thing you need to do to motivate yourself is set a goal for yourself each day. The goals don't have to be anything out of this world. If you're trying to improve a bored or apathetic outlook, you make your goal for the day reading one chapter from an uplifting book. If you find that's not too much of a chore, make your goal for the next day two chapters. Give yourself something to shoot for each day. Don't let a day go by where you have nothing planned to do. Even if it's just to write an entry in your diary or blog, do something each day.

What if you have so much to do in a day that you feel overwhelmed by it all and you can't get started? Sometimes, it's as simple as making a schedule for the day. If you have a dozen things to do that day, list them all and allocate a certain amount of time to each item. Draw up a schedule with a start time for each item. Try to stay within the time you've allotted, but not to the point of forcing yourself to stop when you're on a roll. The fact that you want to keep working means that you're succeeding in motivating yourself. Even it you don't finish everything on the list for that day, remind yourself that you're making progress.

Another thing you can do to motivate yourself, silly as it sounds, is to put up a poster where you work, detailing all the things you want to eventually get in your life. If you're aiming for a new car, cut out a photo from a magazine of the type of car you want and incorporate it into the poster. Take a good look at that car every day and keep telling yourself that someday, you're going to own that car. Do this with all the big things that you want in your life. Make up a whole collage if you have to.

It's not always easy to get motivated. But if you commit to a single "to-do" each day, then expand that to cover an increasing number of things you need to complete, you'll soon find that it becomes a lot easier to get up each day and get busy. Committing to that first item and completing it is the only hard part. Now, just how hard can it be to fulfill one simple promise to yourself each day? Pick one task that you know you need to do – and make a start. Just make sure you "do it to a finish" as Orison Swett Marden would say.

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If you want to know more about Orison Swett Marden and how his works inspired Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, Norman Vincent Peale, Anthony Robbins, and many others then visit http://www.MardensKeysToSuccess.com where you can also gain FREE access to Brendan McKeogh's mini-course on Marden plus a FREE copy of the first chapter of "Marden's Keys To Success."
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