How To Stay Motivated
You walk in the door from work and a sense of despair rolls over
you. Your list of thing to do at home starts running through
your head and you start to feel overwhelmed. Thoughts of what
you should be doing haunt you as you sit down to another night
of sitcoms and reruns. We've all been there at some point. Some
of us feel this way all the time and some of us experience
periodic times of discouragement. Of course, there are times
that relaxing is exactly what we need to do, but more often we
are trying to escape because we don't feel like doing anything
else. We tell ourselves things like, "I'll do that when I feel
like it." Or "Maybe when I am inspired or motivated it'll be
easier." Dr. William Glasser once said, "If you want to change
attitudes (motivation) start with a change in behavior. In other
words, begin acting the part, as well as you can, of the person
you would rather be, the person you want to become. Gradually,
the old, fearful person will fade away." What wisdom! I think if
you look at your own life, you will find times that you did
something even though you weren't motivated - you didn't feel
like it. Do you remember the sense of elation you felt and the
confidence that came from "just doing it" instead of being a
victim of your feelings? You were more motivated to accomplish
other things you hadn't felt like doing up until then. Action
really is the mother of motivation! I have put together a list
of 3 action steps that help me to stay motivated. Put these into
practice and watch your motivation soar.
1. Listen to motivational material in your car or while you are
working out. Think about all the time you could "redeem" this
way. How many hours do we Americans spend in our cars on our
daily commute or shuttling our kids to various activities? What
if you turned that time into an action step by listening to
stories about successful people or tips to improve your life or
career? Or listen to good stuff on your mp3 player while you are
working out. There is a great website that I love that will let
you download motivational material in mp3 format and they'll
even send you one FREE mp3 every week if you ask. There are also
plenty of other resources out there for motivational audios. I
have found some great material at my local public library.
2. Subscribe to motivational emails. There are may great
websites out there that offer free motivational and
inspirational emails. Get on google and find some sites that
appeal to you and subscribe. I just recently got a Motivational
Kit from a website called motivation123. It was free and I got
some great ideas for staying motivated. I also subscribe to a
newsletter by a guy named Rene Godefroy. He has a very
interesting story to tell. Check out his website at
www.villagehero.com.
3. Post motivational tidbits around your home and office.
Posters are great! Find some here. Or try our Motivational Memos
(below) every week for great mini index cards you can post
anywhere.
To access links, visit www.careercalling.com/Archives.htm and
read the original article in the March 11, 2005 edition of The
Coach