Achieving your Dreams - Stay Motivated Even in a Slump
Don’t feel too bad if you’re in a slump right now. You’re not the only one. The truth is everyone gets into a slump from time to time. This is why it’s important to have a constant source of motivation.
Your motivation is the driving force within you. If you lose it, then you’re not going to have the desire to continue on with your journey. When you’ve run out of gas, you’ll fall back on your bad habits. You’ll go back and hide again in your comfort zone. You’ll stop taking action towards your goals.
You don’t want to undo months and years of hard work. So, before you lose all hope and surrender to failure, figure out how you can regain your motivation.
Extrinsic motivation
With extrinsic motivation, you are motivated by external factors.
Usually, this comes in the form of rewards and punishments.
You want to succeed because you want to get that cash prize or that gold medal. You want to become the best in your field because you seek the recognition of others – your superiors, your mentors, your loved ones.
When it comes to punishments, some people are spurred into action when they know they’re going to get punished or have something taken from them.
For example, you’ve tasked yourself to finish something by the end of the week. If you complete the task, you get rewarded with an extra day off. If you fail, then you’re going to work two weeks straight, meaning you’re not going to get a single day off.
When you’re in a slump, you can put a picture of your reward and/or punishment on your wall, so you don’t lose sight of what you’re going to gain or lose.
Intrinsic motivation
Intrinsic motivation is self-motivation. Something deep within you fuels your passion, your drive to succeed. You want to reach your goals because you want to please yourself. You want to prove to yourself that you’ve got what it takes to succeed.
For example, your goal is to become the finest athlete in your sport. You don’t care about the money, the rewards, the accolades. They’re great, of course, but it’s not why you want to succeed. You want to become great because that’s what will ultimately make you happy.
When you’re feeling down, recall again why you want to succeed. Remind yourself you want to be great; you want to become the greatest athlete ever. Then you’ll feel motivated again.
Make motivation a habit
Making motivation a habit will require you to have plenty of self-discipline. Basically, what you need to do is you need to identify a new habit that will make you feel motivated every time you do it.
There are a lot of different ways you can do it.
Here’s an example: if you’re trying to lose weight, you can make it a habit to wake up early so you can do your daily 5-mile runs. Your motivator is your daily run. Every time you go for a run, adrenaline rushes through your body, and it pushes you to run even faster because you want to lose weight so badly. You do your runs every single day. When the weather’s good, you run outside. When it’s bad, you run on a treadmill.
When you’ve made motivation a habit, your goals will become so much more attainable. You do your habit out of routine, which translates to your source of motivation being a matter of routine as well.
Turn obstacles into opportunities
Obstacles and challenges can bring even the most motivated person down. Sometimes, it’s hard to look beyond that great, big problem that’s staring you in the face. It blocks your view, and you can’t see past it. It’s like a giant wall that blocks off your access to your dreams and your goals in life.
When you’re in a slump, it can be hard to look beyond your current situation. You have people breathing down your neck, berating you for not doing what’s expected of you. Even you are angry at yourself.
What’s important for you right now is to take a breather. Take a timeout. Wait for the haze to clear.
When you can finally think clearly, you just may see a multitude of opportunities to get out of your slump. You’ll be back as a much better person with a more positive outlook on life. You’ll feel pretty good about yourself and your chances of succeeding at your goals!
