You may love what you do, but continuously having the motivation to do it is a completely different thing. When things become repetitive, or you’re having a hard time paying attention to your work, the only person who can truly motivate you is you.
Work ethic is closely tied to self-motivation; without it, you’d never be able to achieve lofty goals for yourself. Self-motivation takes practice, so here are a few tips to help you stay driven when you feel like you’re stuck on the day-to-day responsibilities.
1) Exchange Your To-Do List for a Done List
To-do lists certainly keep people on top of their responsibilities, but sometimes it feels like you’re suffocating under an endless pile of unchecked boxes. Every once in awhile, take some time to write down all of the things you’ve done – and keep this separate from the things you need to get done. It helps to have a visual representation of what you have accomplished thus far, and it helps you stay motivated to keep going.
2) Eat the Frog
Originally published in 2001, Eat That Frog is a self-help book that encourages readers to stop procrastinating and be more efficient with their time. It centers on “eating the frog” that you really don’t want to eat – in other words, doing whatever you dread the most and getting it done earlier rather than later. In the context of self-motivation, it means telling yourself to stop juggling and multi-tasking and instead, focusing on one thing to allocate your time and energy toward.
3) Take a Break
You’re telling me that taking breaks will motivate me to get more done? Yes and no. Remember: Self-motivation is not about getting as much done as possible. Rather, it is a form of encouragement and empowerment that you use for yourself to keep going on with your day. If you find yourself dealing with eyestrain from staring at the computer for too long or you’re working so hard that you forget to eat, you’re probably burning yourself out. That, in the long run, will dilute your sense of self-awareness, because you’ll begin to associate your work with exhaustion – and then you’ll never want to do it again!
4) Hit the Ground Running
Start your day doing something you like to do – something productive and fulfilling. That way, it’s easier to keep up the momentum when you hit a less fun responsibility, like something administrative or repetitive.
5) Get Inspired
Although self-motivation comes from within, it is important to speak with people who are highly motivational or inspiring. It’s not so much that they will boost your motivation, but they will remind you that you’re not alone in this endeavor. Everything worthwhile in life takes work, and to achieve your goals, you’ll need to constantly nurture that hardworking spirit within you.
