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The 10 keys to motivate oneself

The 10 keys to motivate oneself

April 25, 2024

Many people believe that to achieve goals you just have to be hardworking and disciplined. This is a half-truth: actually, Only when we are truly motivated are we able to achieve certain goals .

The motivation It is the key to understanding why human beings keep tenacious pursuing certain achievements that bear no fruit in the short term. In this text we will explain to you some keys, tricks and tips so you can understand how human motivation works and you can have a little guide to get everything you propose in life.

It may interest you: "Types of motivation: the 8 motivational sources"

The 10 strategies and psychological keys to motivate oneself

1. Never forget to think positive

Note that your thoughts will decisively influence how to deal with each step you take . If you face the day to day with a positive vision of things, you will be able to advance towards your goals. If, on the contrary, you are a negative person to whom everything seems impossible, you will not do anything to improve.


Your internal discourse is one of the key factors when motivating you. We all have a little internal voice that can help or boycott us. We must learn to manage their influence and be aware that our mental state is the key so that we can set goals and fulfill them. If you have too many negative thoughts , the time has come to eliminate them and replace them with thoughts and beliefs that play in your favor.

To achieve it: "7 techniques to erase negative thoughts from your mind"

Never underestimate the power of the positive thinking when you're trying to motivate yourself

2. Create a personal diary that reflects your progress

If you are a little methodical person, this trick can be very useful. One of the keys to motivate us to achieve a goal is become aware of the progress we are making in the short term . Thus, we perceive that our efforts are bearing fruit and therefore it is more likely that we will move forward. It is good to fragment your work in different mini-goals that suppose an incentive to continue battling.


If you like to write, a good way to control your progress is write a small diary in which you explain what you have done during the day and what your progress has been . In this way you can see how much you need to reach your goal. It is also interesting to note both the positive (advances, good feelings, etc.) and the negative (mistakes you have made, ideas to improve) ... We recommend that you be rigid and update your diary every day at the same time.

In addition, with the emergence of smartphone applications, you can have a journal of your progress almost automatically, depending on which fields. For example, if your goal is to run five kilometers in the shortest possible time, there are apps that monitor your activity for you In this way You can have a lot of information on your computer that gives you feedback about your performance and your progress .


3. Imagine achieving your goals, every day

A highly effective psychological trick: mentally visualize the result you want to achieve , for several minutes and with many details. Just close your eyes and enjoy imagining how you perceive the moment of success and satisfaction in what you have proposed. How would you feel, with whom would you share it?

The more and better you know how to imagine that moment, more motivated you will stay and for longer . If you practice this mental image for five minutes a day, your success will be closer.

More information: "The 7 habits of the really effective people"

4. One day you can fail ... but not two

Human beings are profoundly imperfect. If one day we can not advance anything, we must relativize it. We all have a bad day when laziness paralyzes us. But the golden rule is this: you can fail one day, but not two consecutive days .

If the day before you failed to feel motivated to carry out the daily actions that bring you closer to the goal, the second day is key. Do not let that second day also boycott your laziness or any other excuse . You can not lose two days in a row because then you would be working a mental precedent that justifies your future laziness.

To learn more: "The 10 excuses that unproductive people always use"

5. Healthy competition among friends is a great source of motivation

We all like healthy competition, especially when we surround ourselves with people who make us feel good. This predisposition to competition can be very useful to encourage us to fight for our goals .

If you know a relative, a friend or a co-worker who has goals similar to yours, you can "recruit" him to have a healthy competition that can help you both. Week after week, you can catch up on who has managed to run more kilometers , smoke less cigarettes, get more sales, do more push-ups, et cetera.

Anyway, this should be an incentive, not a burden: your goals should be weighted and they should be fair to the other person . For example, it would be absurd for someone who starts to run to be compared to a professional long distance runner. The key is not to constantly compare, but to lean on the other to continue advancing, and each one to achieve their own goals.

6. Prepare your mind for the moments of slump

Along a long road, you may go through good times and bad times. In these moments when things do not go as we would like, Certain defeatist thoughts and the irrepressible urge to leave can come to mind. boat.

Do not be afraid when these thoughts approach you, since it is completely natural that from time to time they arise and they invite you to stop fighting. If you are aware of them, you can manage them so that they do not affect you . For every moment of slump that you experience, have thought a reason of weight to continue fighting.

It can also help you: "25 short positive phrases to live day to day with optimism"

7. Make a list with your reasons to stay motivated

Let's drill in the previous point. If you know your reasons that push you to keep pulling the car and striving every day, you have a lot of livestock. It is the perfect antidote for excuses, laziness and mental kidnappings .

Many people are motivated thinking about their loved ones. Other people approach it from a more individual sense or by the great intrinsic motivation that they feel towards that activity they practice. Either way, It is good that you write on a paper what your motivations are .

8. The importance of a good counselor

When you pursue a dream, it is likely that other people have already achieved it before you. Having the support of a person with a long experience can be key so I can explain some tricks and reflections so you can achieve what you set out to do.

You can also look for courses or seminars of people who talk about what interests you. It is not advisable to disregard the knowledge that other people can give you. In our society, almost everything is invented. But nevertheless there are few people who have the capacity to innovate and look for new ways to solve problems . If you are able to imbibe a lot of knowledge from different sources, it is likely that you can motivate yourself and continue on the right path.

9. Discover your true passions

This is basic. When we genuinely enjoy an activity, we get to have a Flow State that allows us to perform at maximum until we lose track of time. Before we talked about the intrinsic motivation: is that motivation that we feel for the pleasure of doing something .

When we find out what we are passionate about and have the good fortune to be able to dedicate ourselves to it, our intrinsic motivation will allow us to face the task and the day to day in a really effective way . If, on the other hand, we do not like what we do and therefore do not have a good dose of intrinsic motivation, we can only be motivated thanks to the extrinsic motivation, that is, if we have incentives (economic or otherwise) to move forward.

Therefore, it is important that you choose your life based on what you like to do, since you will be more motivated.

Discover the importance of dedicating yourself to what you like: "The Law of 10,000 Hours of Gladwell Experience"

10. Inspire yourself with the little things of everyday life

The key to motivating yourself is be a person open to the world and find inspiration in the small details everyday Inspiration can be found in almost anything.

Not only will it allow you to motivate yourself at a given moment (that too), but also to maintain your motivation for long periods.

And you, how do you motivate yourself?

These are our ten reflections about how we can be motivated . But each person is a world and surely there may be other tricks and different strategies. We invite you to share them with us in the comments area.


10 Keys To Success You Must Know About - TAKE ACTION TODAY! (April 2024).


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