What is motivation and what can we do to increase it every day?
We often hear how important it is to be motivated to achieve what you set out to do. In times of crisis it seems that it takes a double dose of motivation to reach such a precious place.
Motivation is an internal state that activates, directs and maintains the person's behavior towards specific goals or purposes; It is the impulse that moves the person to carry out certain actions and persist in them for their completion. Motivation is what gives energy and direction to behavior, it is the cause of behavior.
Motivation is a process that goes through several phases. Initially the person anticipates that she will feel good (or stop feeling bad) if he achieves a goal. In a second time, it is activated and begins to do things to achieve that goal. While you are walking towards it, he will evaluate if you are on the right track or not, that is, he will give a performance feedback. And finally, you will enjoy the result.
There are days when you can notice a lot of energy and others when it costs a lot.
There are many individual differences regarding what motivates each person and the strength of their motives. In other words, each person has their own motivations that can be very different from those of the rest. Also, there are people who have a lot of energy to achieve their goals and others who do not have so much. Persistence is another variable that all human beings do not have equally.
Motivation is dynamic, it is in continuous movement of flux, it is a state of perpetual growth and decline. There are days when you can feel a lot of energy to fight for something and others when it takes a lot to start a behavior.
Taking into account the complex characteristics of motivation processes, there are some things that can be done to increase it.
What things can you do to increase your motivation?
- Develop a good action plan. Divide your final goal into small subgoals. These will be milestones that you will achieve and you will feel that they bring you closer to your final goal. Don't forget to celebrate each one of them.
- Save your physical and psychic energy to use it in what you really want to achieve. Don't waste it on things that take you away or distract you from your goal.
- Don't skimp on efforts and decisions. That is, if it takes a certain step to reach your goal: do it. Sometimes we have to spend time, or spend money, on something short-term to achieve the long-term goal. See it as an investment, not an expense.
- Never lose sight of your goal. When issues arise, take them as part of the process. Everything has its good side and its bad side. The moment you decided to fight for that goal, you didn't mind assuming that you were going to have to do difficult things to achieve it.
- Don't waste time complaining, it just takes away your energy and does not solve anything.
- Force yourself to act. There will be times when you have little energy and others when you will have to perform tasks that you do not like. In these cases: self-control. Force yourself to do it, don't think about whether you feel like doing it or not. In fact, you don't need to "feel like it" to do things. We all do many things throughout the day that we do not feel like doing and we do them, and once we do them, we realize that they are not so bad. Things are done first and then the desire comes in. I do it and that's it, I don't think if I feel like it or not.
- Take advantage of the days when you feel happier, optimistic and with more energy to do the things that cost you. It is in those moments when you can perform a difficult task or you can call that person with whom you have trouble talking.
- Surround yourself with optimistic people, who fight for what they want to achieve. Everything is contagious, pessimism and optimism.
- Look at the part that you have achieved, not the one you have left to get.
- And above all: enjoy the road. Because the human being enjoys the illusion when he fights for things, not when he gets them. Once you have achieved your goal, you will have to find a new one to get excited again.
Autor: Esther Gómez García-Romeral
In summary:
Motivation is the engine that will drive us to achieve our goals, even when it seems difficult to achieve them, we can do different things to achieve them. For example: Change the order in which we carry out each of our daily activities. If reading or exercising motivates us, this is the first thing we should do at the beginning of our day, as it will help us to make our day full of motivation. Another example is writing down our goals and constantly reviewing them. This will help us not to get lost on the way.
Never abandon the goals, you can change the strategy, but never the goal.
Dan Sifuentes.
