Useful Techniques On How To Stay Motivated

Train your mind to see the good in every situation

Let’s face it, staying motivated isn’t all that easy – Especially when it’s the middle of winter, your best friend just hit the jackpot, and is off to Hawaii and upgrading their car. Not to mention the fact that Facebook’s stock pile full of people having the time of their lives on sunny beaches somewhere in Spain.

But there have to be greener pastures somewhere right? Well, these tips may not get you to a sunny beach in Spain, not directly anyway. They will, however, increase your productivity, which might translate into in an overseas trip somewhere in the not too distant future.

A seven step guide to boosting motivation

1. Set a goal and visualise it

Just as elite athletes visualise their performance ahead of time, you too can visualise your day to day life right down to everything you plan to achieve.

2. Have a strategy

A strategy defines everything that you are about and points you in the exact direction you wish to head. Without a strategy, motivating yourself would  be like trying to navigate your way out of the Amazon rain forest without a compass – No purpose = No direction

3. Become an optimist

The power of positive thinking – When it comes to motivation, attitude is everything. Different people may have completely opposite feelings towards the same task: some will hate it, others will love it. Becoming an optimist opens up a world of possibilities; it enables us to see the light or opportunity in everything and ensures we get the best out of every situation.

4. Plan your bounce back from setbacks

An important step is determining how you will deal with dwindling motivation. This is not pessimistic thinking. It’s inevitable that at some point along the way you will need a little boost. When that happens, you may want to think of what others have endured to reach their targets and power on towards their goals.

Check out some of the most incredible stories about overcoming adversity.

5. Recognise your progress

The world in which we live is the world in which most things come to us immediately – We want everything now, at the touch of our fingers. If this is an expectation when working towards something, failure is the likely outcome. For this reason, everything can be easily split into smaller parts and stages. For most goals, it is quite natural to split the process of accomplishing them into smaller tasks and milestones. There are a few reasons behind doing this, and one of them is tracking your progress.

We track our progress automatically with most activities. But to stay motivated, you need to recognise your progress, not merely track it.

Here’s how tracking and recognising your progress is different: tracking is simply taking a note of having reached a certain stage in your process. Recognising is taking the time to look at a bigger picture and realising where exactly you are, and how much more you have left to do.

6. Get the help you need

When you think about it, there is an inherent value in sharing your plan and success, why else do people throw parties and celebrate. Family, friends and colleagues buying into one goal and functioning efficiently make success easier to achieve and sweeter to enjoy. Turn to people who you trust and people who, in times of need won’t leave your side.

7. Reward Yourself

There’s a mantra that says the more I give to myself, the more I can ask of myself. Psychological studies have confirmed that when people are rewarded it activates special stimuli in the brain. A term called intermittent reinforcement is the most successful use of a rewards system, whereby rewards are offered after certain behaviours, or in other words, success is rewarded.

Eventually, this persistent behaviour will translate into a pattern called resistance to extinction. Even after the reward is completely taken away, the behaviour will remain for a while because you are now processed to work towards the reward.

It is important to reward yourself in the best way you see fit if you love travelling, then travel, but if you enjoy something a little more laid back, there is no right or wrong. Some people may even reward themselves by binge watching Netflix for 20 straight hours and ploughing through an entire box of Favourites chocolates – Each to their own!

For more information on how Muscle Joint Bone can help you, or to book an appointment contact Muscle Joint Bone Doreen on 9715 0582 or Muscle Joint Bone Epping on 9088 8228.