Automotivation – find the strength within

You stubbornly go after your goals, but something always comes in your way. You try to realize all your new year’s resolutions, but they overwhelm you in time. You stop and wonder what is the point anymore. You wonder if you’ll be able to realize your dreams and reach your goal. You’re having a moment of weakness, you lose the faith in yourself and you’re ready to give up. What to do when your enthusiasm runs out? How to motivate yourself to go back into it?

What’s wrong with me? The signs of a lack of motivation

Many of us feel the strong urge to constantly develop ourselves. We set a high standard for ourselves and take on new challenges. We don’t like being stuck in one place. We are constantly setting new goals and consistently realizing them. But unfortunately we tend to have our moments of doubt. The way to the top is long and twisted, after all. Aiming for success always carries the risk of failure, which is completely natural. It’s hard to learn a new skill or gain new knowledge without making a single mistake.

Downs and moments of self-doubt can and will happen to anyone. Even the greatest scientists and the best sportspeople have to battle with a lack of motivation sometimes. When we reach that point, we can feel helpless. We feel like our actions yield no real results. We feel like we spend too much of our free time on this thing, while we could rest and meet with friends, or maybe finally watch some TV show.  We start to wonder if it’s really worth to invest more time in this and if our hard work will ever pay off.

The reason for a lack of motivation

The lack of motivation usually hits us when we fail to fulfill our own expectations. It happens mostly in situations, where the outside doesn’t provide any feedback that would make us feel it’s all worth it. A feedback might be a win in a competition, a promotion, the approval of our mentor or even being praised by a loved one. We work according to the plan, we try, we dedicate a lot of our time and energy, but… we see no effects. We start to wonder what went wrong. We start to think that maybe it wasn’t the best idea, that our goal is unreachable and we’re just fooling ourselves.

Achieving success often means years of dedication and sacrifice. If you aim high, you have to be ready to take on a bumpy road to success. The effects of hard work are sometimes only visible after a very long time. Success calls for a lot of determination and consistent action. But it’s not easy if for the longest time we can’t see ourselves getting closer to achieving it. We start to lose hope, we get annoyed at ourselves and get more and more tired. We want to let go, finally give it a rest. We see no sense in further action, we start to doubt ourselves and want to give up. How to act if we hit a wall and can’t motivate ourselves to keep going? Can we reprogram our brain by ourselves to get up and try again?

The sources of motivation – how to motivate yourself to action?

First of all, it’s good to go back and remember what our goal is. It’s good to think again if that’s really what we want, if it’s important to us and if reaching that goal will make us happy. People change, and so do their values or priorities. It’s very possible that the goal set up a year ago might need to be modified. Maybe something happened in your life that turned your needs upside down. It’s important to calmly consider whether realizing this goal is actually worth it.

After clearing our head we can move on to the next stage. A great idea is to divide your big goal into a few smaller ones. To note down concrete actions, little steps that will bring us closer to the success – it can prove very useful. Focusing on concrete tasks for this week or this month will give us a better chance to achieve something. Even the smallest and non-spectacular achievements are very important and can bring us long-term benefits. Consistently realizing small goals also gives us the feeling that we are getting closer to achieving our dream, which should help us motivate ourselves to keep it up.

Automotivation and how to keep it up

If you’re serious about your goals, you should come up with a detailed plan of action. You have to be well-organized and learn how to manage your time. You also have to remember that only consistent and regular work can bring you the expected results. No matter what are you doing, you should focus on it completely. Create a good work environment and avoid distractions. Think about where you feel the best – where can you gather your thoughts, relax and focus on the task. Think if browsing your phone, snacking on nuts and making new batches of coffee helps you to focus, or quite the opposite – throws you off and takes your precious time. Work on your own system of working that will be right for you and help you work towards your goal.

It’s also important to remember about resting and regenerating. To be effective and realize your plan, you have to be energized and in good mood. Constantly pulling all-nighters, drinking coffee on an empty stomach and putting yourself under pressure constantly is not the best idea. Working towards your success is hard work, but in the end it should bring us satisfaction and happiness. We’re realizing goals that we set up for ourselves, so we’re mostly doing it for ourselves. It’s important to stop and think from time to time if what we do really makes us feel good. Realizing your goals shouldn’t only be a to-do list, but also good fun that brings more meaning into our life.

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