How to Get Motivated and Stay Motivated
After five days of kicking butt, it’s sometimes hard to stay motivated after 5:00pm and over the weekend. How do you muster up the energy to get more done after you’ve spent eight hours working?
Whether you’re looking to learn a new skill, launch a business, lose weight, or whatever it might be – something as simple as putting in 20 minutes a day can help you achieve your goals.
Instead of spending the weekend or evenings scrolling through social media and getting nothing done, it’s time to super-charge and stay motivated to productively tackle your free time.
How To Get Motivated – 8 Simple Steps
The best way to stay motivated is to take it one day at a time. No matter how much you might want to run a marathon, or write the next great American novel over the weekend – don’t commit yourself for more than an hour or two.
It can be difficult to produce high-quality content after spending all day working. Allocate small chunks of time to your tasks.
Set a Routine and Start the Day Right
Imagine you’re walking through a mall and your phone dies. How would you recharge your phone? Chances are you’d go to a place that had plenty of plug-ins where it took less than 30 minutes to get enough power back to keep going. Set up an environment that will allow you to recharge your motivation.
Create a morning routine that starts with 20 minutes of meditation and ends with 30 minutes of reading or writing before hitting the office. Take time out to exercise, even if it’s just a short jog in the morning followed by an afternoon bike ride around your neighborhood.
The way you start your morning will impact the rest of your day. Setting goals, picking a mantra, and doing a bit of journaling will help you center yourself.
If you start the day rushed and stressed, the day will only continue to go downhill, leaving you feeling unmotivated and upset.
If you start the day by saying:
- My goal today is to do ___;
- I am strong, powerful, and capable;
Set up personal goals for each day and stick to your personal routine no matter what. You will have these positive thoughts to lean back on when you start to lose your motivation flow.
Journaling will help you actualize your thoughts, giving you a way to organize yourself and take control of an overwhelming situation.
Simplify Your Life
These days, we tend to take on more than we can handle due to the fear of missing out and wanting everything done right now. Instead of becoming overwhelmed and draining your energy, focus on simplifying your life by saying “no” to things that aren’t doable or important.
Use the power of “no” to clear your schedule and prioritize what you want to achieve. Be honest with yourself about what you can take on before moving forward and accepting new challenges.
Remember Why You Started
It doesn’t matter if you have a goal of being a better version of yourself for a month or a year – it’s important to always remember why you started this journey.
Spend some time every week reviewing your plans and reaffirming your goals. Sometimes writing them down or sharing them with others can help keep you motivated when times get tough.
Schedule Weekly Meetings With Yourself to Help Yourself Stay Motivated
You should never underestimate the power of clarity. If you’re trying to get something done, put up a calendar invite for yourself on Mondays that allows for an hour each week with no distractions. Make time to reflect on your past successes and failures before planning how you can improve this week.
When it comes to setting goals for yourself. Write a vision statement and a mission statement for yourself. It will help you define goals that you can then break down into to-do lists. Starting small will make your goals seem far less daunting and drastically more attainable.
Review Your Goals
Your goals are always evolving as you experience life and grow as a person. Make time every six months to re-evaluate and review your goals so you can adjust them when needed.
This is also a great way to see how you’ve been progressing over the past six months since starting your journey.
Recharge With Friends and Family
Don’t forget the power of recharging. Sometimes dealing with clients and coworkers can leave you drained. This exhaustion with human contact can lead to a lack of motivation. While we might think it’s a good idea to hide under the covers and shut out the world, that might not help you recharge.
Find people, more specifically a support network, who inspire you and spend time with them. Whether you’re having e-tea time with an aunt in another state or a wine and cheese night with a friend, spending time with people you love can help you focus on the positive and give you the social energy to speak with the type of people who drain you.
Get Some Good Endorphins
Everyone always talks about what an important role exercise plays in energy levels, but after working long hours five days a week, exercise could be the last thing you want to do.
While it might seem impossible to squeeze in a long run, even fifteen minutes of mindful yoga could recharge you. Use a free app like Inner Timer to pick from thousands of meditations and stretch lightly to get your blood flowing.
These small steps could have long-term benefits and get your feeling motivated for a more productive week.
Go, Fight, Win (But First, Self-Care)
Sometimes getting back on your feet and getting motivated means spending the weekend shutting off your phone and hiding away from the world.
But this can’t be your only coping mechanism.
Stepping out of your comfort zone and trying something new could give you the energy you need to conquer the next week.
How To Get Motivated: Finding The Motivation to Work
In conclusion, recognize that you’re not alone if you’re struggling with motivation. If you’re always working, then you will get burned out and you will find yourself lacking motivation.
So when you find yourself googling, “How to get motivated?” Know that the best way is to start with realistic goal setting.
Take a look at all the areas of your life that need attention, and make sure that you’re making enough time for self-care. Once you take care of yourself first, then you can start small with finding the motivation to work on your goals.
Emily Sprinkle, also known as Emma Loggins, is a designer, marketer, blogger, and speaker. She is the Editor-In-Chief for Women's Business Daily where she pulls from her experience as the CEO and Director of Strategy for Excite Creative Studios, where she specializes in web development, UI/UX design, social media marketing, and overall strategy for her clients.
Emily has also written for CNN, Autotrader, The Guardian, and is also the Editor-In-Chief for the geek lifestyle site FanBolt.com
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