How to stay motivated. The Science Guide to Motivation: How to Stay Motivated for Long Time? Take regular breaks

Motivation– an incentive to action that determines the individual’s subjective and personal interest in performing an action and (or) achieving a goal. The term motivation comes from the French motif, which in turn comes from the Latin moveo - I move.

Motivation in Marketing- this is an incentive to achieve the company's goals with the indispensable guidance of marketing principles. In other words, motivation is the process of encouraging someone to take a necessary action, to achieve a result, with an indispensable balance between the goals of the company and the goals of the person being motivated (employee, client) to most fully satisfy the needs of the market (and all this on the principles of marketing).

Motivation process– a dynamic process of a psychophysiological plan – the desire to control human behavior.

Motivation (stimulation) is the mechanics of motivation to achieve a goal through the formation of external motivation. Affirmations are statements that form a positive attitude towards a matter.

Motive- a motivating reason, a reason for launching a mechanism of action, in order to acquire a desired, material or spiritual object, the acquisition (achievement) of which is the meaning of human activity. Motive is a reflection of the need in consciousness, which encourages a person to set a goal and take the necessary actions to achieve it. Motive is often confused with need and purpose. A goal is the result of conscious goal setting. A need is, in essence, a conscious dissatisfaction.

Motivation can be internal and/or external, material or not material.

Intrinsic motivation (intense motivation) - motivation associated with the content of the activity itself, but not with external circumstances, existing in the absence of external motivating factors: requirements or reinforcements. Intrinsic motivation means a person’s desire to perform an activity for the sake of that activity itself. The term “intrinsic motivation” was first defined in 1950 in the works of R. Woodworth and R. White.

Extrinsic motivation (extreme motivation) - motivation that is not related to the content of a certain activity, but is conditioned by circumstances external to the subject. In this case, the factors that trigger the motivation mechanism, initiate and regulate it, are outside the individual. Internal motivation can help us create an “ordinary miracle” with ourselves; external motivation is a serious tool in the hands of skilled manipulators.

Positive and negative motivation. Positive motivation based on positive incentives. Negative motivation based on negative incentives.

Demotivation– the process of eliminating motivating factors, motives, inducement to lack of action. Demotivated man– an individual with no interest, no motivation, no reasons, reasons for action and (or) to achieve a goal.

Motivation system– a set of management techniques, including: formulating goals, assessing internal motivation, stimulation, analysis of current motivation, aimed at achieving the individual’s goal.

The main components of motivation are:

needs, desires, expectations, etc.;
certain behavior;
goals, incentives, rewards;
Feedback.

Exists 2 levels of motivation: conservation motivation; achievement motivation.

Motivation for conservation– motivation aimed at not losing what has already been created.

Achievement motivation– motivation aimed at achieving a goal. Achievement motivation requires much greater emotional strength and greater effort. The famous writer and manager H. Jones noted: “With the highest sense of purpose in the world, with the strongest leadership and with the most successful strategy, a company will achieve nothing until each of the ordinary members of the organization understands what he is trying to achieve and does not make every effort to achieve it.” achieving this result."

Motivation of consumer behavior– work to provide a targeted impact on consumer behavior, consisting of marketing incentives and adjustments of consumer behavior in relation to the subject of marketing. The consumer's consciousness is a set of motives, needs, requirements, personal values, patterns of decision-making, determined by mentality and individual characteristics. Feedback from the consumer on the motivation of behavior is purchases, loyalty and interest in the subject of marketing.

Motivation of consumer behavior involves solving the following problems:

determining market trends and forecasting demand, prices and other parameters, etc.;
analysis of consumer motives;
analysis of the most effective methods of influence;
active influence on clients;
increasing customer loyalty.

Number of impressions: 13118

Martin Brant from the editorial staff of the portal 220triathlon.com is a great master of giving bad advice. Harmful, but working. This time he talks out loud about how to stay motivated even if he loses or loses his triathlon libido along the way.

A state of training apathy hits everyone sooner or later, even health and fitness freaks. The most noticeable symptoms: the desire to wrap yourself in a blanket, fear of the cold, morning workouts in the cold darkness, gluttony, craving for cakes, zero attention to the bike station, which perfectly copes with the functionality of a clothes hanger.

The main thing here is not to panic. I'm sure even the Brownlee brothers have bouts of criminally low enthusiasm. There are many reasons for this: winter, monotony, boredom, injuries, loss of shape, gluttony, of course - but the consequences are about the same: a feeling of guilt for every missed workout and the thought that the next season has already failed.

I have been involved in triathlon for quite a long time and many times I have found myself in such a seemingly hopeless situation. I tried for many years to qualify for Kona, I was overtaken by athletes who were weaker than me - all this demotivated me. During this time, I developed many clever strategies to overcome the blues. By the way, these tips do not include the phrases “HTFU” (harden the fuck up – “stop whining, get your shit together”) from your ever-motivated friends. I'll tell you what:

Cycling club. There's no better way to recapture your love of pedals and your sense of competition than with a visit to a cycling class. You will see there worthy opponents of all ages and genders, so the desire to beat them will awaken instantly. Put on your coolest jersey, flip up your cycling cap and dance like Contador while watching yourself and your rivals suffer in the mirror.
Buy something expensive. Nothing motivates like new exercise equipment/toy. You just won't be able to resist trying this out in your workout. That's what's great about triathlon - it offers endless opportunities to spend more money than you earn, no matter how much you earn.
View old race photos. Old sports photos are inspiring, but in their own way: you see beautiful young athletes in them, then you look at a piece of cake in a plate, again at the photo, at your stomach... And tomorrow you run out to train!
Hang out on Facebook. The fear, bordering on paranoia that while you are doing nothing, your rivals are training (maybe it's Photoshop?), is easily confirmed by endless posts with training logs and photos from runs, pools and machines. You won't let them beat you, will you?
Go to some local club run in the evening. When I'm struggling with running motivation, I'll join a group of slow runners and mercilessly pass them every lap, feeling like a running god.
Commuting on a bicycle. A convenient and workable way to start moving is to integrate exercise into your daily work schedule. Commuting on a bicycle here looks like a win-win opportunity to quietly roll up some volume, stroke your ego by overtaking food couriers, tickle your nerves in traffic jams and sprint behind buses.
Slow and technical swimming. Casually forget all the devices you depend on (watch, heart rate monitor) and do slow technical work rather than grinding out zone 4 tracks.
HIIT or circuit training. Classic anaerobic execution. After a couple of laps you'll be itching to get back into the comfort and flow of triathlon...
Training camps. Mallorca, Lanzarote, southern France, Italy, Spain, North Korea. I'm from Coventry so I'd choose the latter.
Read sports books. Reading the autobiographies of great athletes affects me in two ways: either I am inspired by the athlete's journey from children's section to world fame, or I am sick of their belief in their own importance and I devote myself to triathlon with love. As a rule, the first type of biographies belongs to athletes, cyclists and other cyclists, while the second is exclusively about football players of the English Premier League.
Fit into a crazy team race. You can’t let your teammates down, right? So suffer with them in some 24-hour race. The fear of seeming like a coward or a weakling will overcome your laziness and demotivation.
Complete rest. You probably did this, but burdened those days of inactivity with thoughts of losing shape. And to hell with her! Enjoy, especially if the sports season was not the best.
Pump up your bike. A two-wheeled friend stands in the corner, so unattractive and with the steering wheel sweating through and a dirty chain. Get it in order, bother buying, for example, a new saddle that won’t make your crotch go numb.
Get angry. One day I was running a trail race in my usual state of melancholy when I felt a sharp push from a runner passing me. He infuriated me so much that I chased him for half the distance, until I finally caught up and pushed him shoulder into the fence, passing about 100 people along the way. This is how a kick sometimes works, not at all metaphorical.
Early three-start. The good thing about an early race is that it shows early how fruitful you have been with crap in the off-season. So there will still be time to fix everything.
Dig through the certificates, finisher medals and event T-shirts. They will remind you of your experience, your former speed, as if they will hint “is it really all in vain and you will end up so ingloriously with a piece of pizza on the couch and with white squares in TrainingPix?”
Get drunk. Recently I was leaving a running club with my friends and we decided to go to the pub. Then another pub. Then things started to spin and spin and I found myself the next afternoon in the expected state at home. I vowed to never drink again and train like hell.
Dilute triathlon with a sport that is in no way related to any of the disciplines. Over the years, I've tried many ways to get out of breath: canoeing, hiking, rowing, smoking, karate, and even vigorous shopping. I always come back to triathlon anyway.
Running with dogs. I have two Welsh Springer Spaniels, Freddie and Bertie, and they love to run with me. They come up to me, look at me with their big eyes and wag their tails, and no matter what stage of armchair demotivation I am in, we run outside. Someday my form will allow me to qualify for Kona and keep up with these two.

These are my tips, based on more often bitter than triumphant experiences. And if you think none of this is working, just remember: I'm going to beat you, because while you're wasting your time reading this, I'm practicing.

Obstacles are those scary things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford Never, never, never give up. - Winston Churchill

The more passionate you are about an idea, the easier it is to move towards it. But the initial impulse cannot last forever, so maintaining the right motivation is important for success. Perhaps life has made adjustments, and the old goal has lost priority. It also happens that a person gets distracted for a day or two, and then cannot get back on track. In addition, moving towards a goal is accompanied by difficulties and failures, depriving you of courage.

If you manage to rekindle your passion, your efforts and pursuit will sooner or later lead to your goal. But if you give up, you will surely lose. The choice is always yours - to achieve your goal or stop fighting. The following tips will help you stay on track by maintaining the right motivation.

Steps

Restrain yourself. When you start moving towards a new goal (for example, a new workout routine), you are full of desire to achieve success, and your excited enthusiasm knows no bounds. It seems that you can move mountains, but sooner or later life will prove that your current possibilities are not limitless, and the fire of inspiration will begin to weaken. One of the main rules of successful motivation is hold back at the beginning and in those situations when energy and desire overflow. Limit yourself in doing what you want, allowing you to do only 50-75% of what you want. And prepare an action plan to gradually increase success in the future. For example:

Just start. There will be days with no desire at all, when it is difficult to leave the house for a run, budget, or any other activities that are necessary to achieve the goal. Instead of wondering how hard it is and how much time it will take, tell yourself: you just need to start. For example, put on your sneakers and leave the house. Once you close the door behind you, everything will go as it should. The difficulties continue as long as you sit at home, thinking about the difficulties of completing the task. Once you start, you will be surprised how much more difficult imaginary problems are than actually completing tasks. This rule works every time.

Report progress. Keep in touch with people you connect with through an online forum (try wikiHow's forum and chat!), blog, email, or in real life. Tell them daily about your progress and don't miss reports. Having to report will make you want to succeed , because no one likes to talk about failures.

Suppress negative thoughts by replacing them with positive ones. This is one of the most important tasks of motivation, and developing such a skill requires not even daily, but constant practice. You need to start tracking your thoughts and distinguishing between negative internal dialogue. To begin, try noticing every negative thought for a few days. Next, start getting rid of them like harmful insects, planting appropriate positive thoughts in their place. Replace “This is too hard” with “I can do this! If that weakling from TV can do it, then I can do it too!” It sounds naive, but it works. It really works.

Think about the benefits. Focusing on difficulties is a familiar problem for most people. For example, getting up early seems incredibly difficult, and such thinking in itself is already tiring. It is better to think not about how difficult it is to do something, but about the benefits that you will get when you achieve what you want. Stop thinking about how hard it is to wake up in the morning and focus your thinking on the benefits you'll get from being an early bird. Possible benefits will become an additional source of strength and energy.

Restore your enthusiasm! Think about what tempered your passion, then think about what turned you on in the first place. Can this be returned? What made you want to achieve your goal? What stimulated your desire to achieve your goal? Try recreating your stimuli by changing your focus to get a boost of energy.

Read about what you want. Find a book or blog about achieving a similar goal. Reading related materials will inspire and revitalize you. When we read, we focus on the content of the text, and this magically strengthens our own motivation and focus on the goal. So read about your goal daily, especially on days when you feel lack of motivation.

Find like-minded people. It's hard to stay motivated on your own. Try to find someone who has the same goals (running, eating healthy, budgeting, etc.) and try to establish a friendly relationship with them. This could be a partner, a spouse, one of your children, or a best friend, as long as you push each other to achieve your goal. It's a good idea to join a club with similar interests (for example, a sports section) or join a forum that discusses a topic that interests you. Such relationships do not oblige you to maintain close ties after achieving the goal.

Read success stories. Motivation is strengthened when a person reads about other people who have achieved success or are working towards a goal. Read other people's blogs, books, magazines. You can search the Internet to find extraordinary success stories. You will soon realize that reading such stories brings pleasure.

Build your success. Every step towards a goal is an achievement. You can even celebrate what you started! You can celebrate the second day as a successful continuation of the movement. Celebrate every milestone along the way. Use the feeling of satisfaction of success to gain strength for the next step. Let it be tiny (for example, increasing the training time by 2-3 minutes), but this is progress towards the goal. Let the movement not be too fast (one “step” per week), so you will feel the success of the progress even more. By taking small steps, you are less likely to fall, but after a few months they will merge into a noticeable approach to the goal.

Just go through the difficulties. No one is immune from decreased motivation and failure, but such situations always pass. Think of the departure of motivation as the oscillations of a wave: if one leaves, then another may come. Just remember this and wait for the next burst of motivation. But wait wisely—read about success stories, ask someone for support, or do anything else to increase the magnetic pull for your inspiration.

Ask for help. It's always harder to be alone. Enlisting the help of others in the real world or online can make achieving your goal easier, whether you're quitting smoking, training for a marathon, or writing a scientific paper.

Record your progress. The marks can be of any shape. For example, you can put a + on your calendar, create a simple spreadsheet, or use complex project management software. Either way, there are obvious benefits to documenting your accomplishments. First, you can look back and see how far you've already come. Secondly, you may be depressed by the number of days without a cross in the calendar, motivating you not to miss classes. Focus on the positive and don't let setbacks get you down. Misses are inevitable, so let them be another incentive to try better next time.

Don't skimp on rewards for yourself. Every step towards your goal is worthy of praise. You can celebrate your success and give yourself a reward. Sometimes the incentive can be a list of specific rewards for achieving certain results. Only these rewards should correspond to achievements, that is: 1) correspond to progress towards the goal (don't reward yourself with a cruise to the Bahamas for a 1.5-mile run); 2) the reward should not harm the goal (if you are trying to lose weight, do not assign a reward to eating cakes at the bakery). Don't fool yourself.

Define intermediate goals (mini-tasks). Sometimes the deadlines and workload are overwhelming. The initial enthusiasm will wear off within 1-2 weeks, and the realization that there are still many months ahead can cause depression. To solve large projects, motivation should not be based on one thing. The easiest way out is to break the path into stages, the achievement of which requires much less time.

Find an instructor or take a course. In this case, the very need to show up will become a motivation for any action. This rule applies to any goal. This method of increasing motivation is one of the most expensive, but it works successfully. But if you take the time to search for information, you can find the necessary people or courses nearby that won’t burden your budget. It is quite possible that one of your friends or acquaintances will be able to help without compensation.

Never miss two days in a row. This rule is very important because we are not perfect. From time to time, every person may miss one day due to other desires or laziness. But if you missed one day, you need to stop the laziness that has begun to stir. Tell yourself: “Stop! You won’t miss two days in a row!”

Use visualization. Present your success (benefits) in as much detail as possible. Close your eyes and think about exactly what your achievement will look like, what you will feel, what smells and sounds will be around, etc. Where were you when you achieved success? What did you look like? What were you wearing? Form as clear a mental image as possible. The next point is regularity. Set aside at least a few minutes during the day to practice visualization. This is a very effective (if not the only) method to maintain motivation for a long time.

Know that the urge to quit will arise from time to time, and be prepared to suppress it. Anyone can have the desire to stop, often it arises subconsciously. In such a situation, a more conscious attitude towards your desires will be an effective method of counteraction. You can keep a notepad handy and write down every desire that arises. Thanks to this, you can decide on your desires. After this, you need to draw up a plan to protect against each of them. Write down in advance how you will respond to the emergence of a desire, and when it appears, you will be fully prepared.
- Find a song for inspiration. Perhaps there are some songs that give you determination and strengthen your self-confidence? Listen to positive songs with meaningful lyrics. Turn up the volume, let your heart express itself, and get back to achieving your goals! Music can also be used as a background, especially during sports (even while running, the compact player and headphones hardly hinder your movements).
Warnings
- Think about eternal and global goals. Once a person has reached a peak (eg buying a house, getting married, etc.), they may feel stressed because they have nothing left to strive for. Keep distant goals in mind so you don't stop. Think about the meaning of life and world problems to avoid a purposeless existence.

Motivation is a very powerful tool in the right hands. Sometimes it is very easy for a person to motivate himself and he remains inspired for a long time. But at times it is very difficult to do this, and he slowly begins to be sucked into the “swamp” of procrastination and apathy. In this article, you will find some effective ways and useful research on how to stay motivated for a long time.

1. What is motivation and how does it work

Scientists define motivation as the urge to do something. In other words, it is a set of psychophysiological processes that prompt a person to perform a certain action. However, there is another definition of motivation.

What is motivation?

So what is motivation? This concept is best explored in Steven Pressfield's book The War on Creativity. He writes: “At some point, doing nothing begins to cause a person more discomfort than carrying out an activity.”

In other words, sometimes it is easier to do something than to do nothing. It’s easier to gather strength and go to the gym than to continue to lie on the couch and gain weight. It’s easier to overcome embarrassment and call your potential client than to lose a bonus due to an unfulfilled sales plan.

Any of our choices has its “price,” but it is better to experience inconvenience from any activity than to later regret that you did nothing. However, in order to get down to business, you need to cross a certain line that separates the zone of procrastination from the zone of active action. This often happens when we are approaching a deadline.

This raises a very important question: what can we do to overcome this line and stay motivated at all times?

Common misconceptions related to motivation

The surprising thing is that motivation usually arises after you do something unusual, and not before. Many people have the misconception that reading a motivational book or watching an inspiring video is enough to inspire them to do something. However, so-called “active” inspiration can serve as a more powerful incentive to action.

Motivation is usually the result of an activity, not its cause. Once you start doing something, inspiration will naturally develop and you will be able to complete what you started.

Thus, in order to motivate yourself to perform any action, you just need to start doing it. Below we will talk about how to apply this advice in real life.

2. How to motivate yourself and start doing something

Many people struggle to motivate themselves to achieve certain goals. Without motivation, we spend too much energy and time on taking actions that lead us to the desired result.

According to writer Sarah Peck, many aspiring authors struggle to complete their work because they can't answer the question of when they'll next sit down to write. The same goes for training in the gym, business, art, etc. For example, if you don't have a workout schedule, then every day you will wake up thinking, "I'll go to the gym today if I'm in the mood."

Making a schedule seems like a very simple step. However, it will help you organize and systematize your activities. Usually people try to stick to a schedule despite lack of desire and motivation. Many studies confirm this fact.

Stop waiting for inspiration to strike and simply create a clear schedule that you will follow. This is the main difference between professionals and amateurs. Lovers are waiting for inspiration, and then they take action.

What is the secret of famous artists? How do they stay motivated all the time? They don’t just create a schedule of actions, but develop rituals.

The famous dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp spoke about her daily ritual in an interview. Every day she gets up at 5.30 am, puts on her workout clothes and leaves the apartment. The girl then hails a taxi and tells the driver to take her to the gym, where she works out for two hours. The ritual is not in the training process, but in the trip itself. Once Twyla tells the driver where to go, the ritual is over.

It seems like a very simple action. However, if you repeat the same thing every morning, it will soon become a habit. And once the action becomes habitual, it will be easier for you to perform it regularly, because we don’t think about routine everyday actions, but simply do them “automatically.”

Many famous people have developed their own rituals. Much has been written about this in Mason Curry’s book “Genius Mode. Daily routine of great people."

The key to any ritual is that you don't have to make any decisions about what to do first and what to do next. Many people fail to achieve success because they cannot start doing something. If you can turn your activities into a habitual ritual, then it will not be difficult for you to finish what you start, even if difficult tasks arise along the way.

How to develop a motivating habit

By following three simple steps, you can create your own ritual and turn motivation into a habit.

Step #1. Any ritual should begin with some very simple action. For example, you might drink a glass of water before you sit down to write your novel. Or you can put on your favorite sneakers before heading to your workout. These actions are so simple that it is impossible to refuse to perform them.

Step #2. You have to force yourself to move. Lack of motivation is often associated with a lack of physical activity. Remember your physical state at a time when you are bored or sad. You don't make any active movements, do you? At such moments, most people just sit on the couch and stare at one point. In this case, the opposite statement is true: if you are physically active, your brain also begins to work more actively. For example, when you dance, it is simply impossible not to feel a surge of energy and revitalization. Physical activity does not always mean doing any exercise. For example, if your goal is to write a novel, then this activity should be directed towards writing.

Step #3. It is necessary to adhere to the same plan of action every day. Their initial task is to motivate you to do a certain activity. As a result, you won't have to wait for inspiration. Instead, you will simply begin your usual ritual, and then smoothly move on to the main action.

3. How to stay motivated for a long time

Strategies have been mentioned above to help you motivate yourself and get started on a task. But what about staying motivated over the long term? How to stay motivated?

Imagine that you are playing tennis. If you choose a four-year-old girl as your opponent, you will quickly get bored with the game, since winning will be too easy. On the contrary, if you play, for example, against Serena Williams, then constant defeats will quickly demotivate you. Such an opponent will be too tough for you. You will be interested in the game if the opponent has equal abilities. You will have a chance to win if you put in the effort. Thus, challenging but achievable tasks help us stay motivated.

People like challenging tasks. But the level of difficulty should be optimal for a particular person. Tasks that are too complex demotivate us, while tasks that are too simple quickly become boring.

At this moment, a person experiences a special state of emotional uplift. Athletes usually refer to this as “being on fire.” At this moment, a person is so focused on completing a specific task that the whole world around him fades.

To achieve this state, you must follow the rule described in the previous section. If you choose a task of optimal difficulty, you will not only be motivated in the long run, but you will also experience a feeling of happiness after completing it. As psychologist Gilbert Bream said, “One of the important sources of human happiness lies in completing tasks of the appropriate level of difficulty.”

However, to reach peak motivation, you still need to constantly measure your current progress. In other words, it is important that you receive feedback at every stage of the task. Evaluating your own progress is key to maintaining a state of motivation.

What to do if you start to lose motivation

Motivation to perform an action will inevitably begin to fade at some point in time. In such cases, you can use the tips below.

1. Your brain is a source of valuable suggestions.

Imagine that every thought that arises in your head is a proposal, not an order. For example, when an author writes an article, the thought that he is tired comes into his head. This leads to a suggestion to quit your job, choose the path of least resistance and give up.

Just remember that none of these suggestions are instructions for action. These are just options, and you have the opportunity to choose one of them.

2. Discomfort is temporary

Almost any action you take will end very soon. For example, your workout only lasts an hour or two. Your report will be ready by tomorrow morning.

Now life has become much simpler than before. Even 300 years ago, if you did not grow your own food and build a house, then you were doomed to death. And today, a tragedy for a person is the fact that he left the charger for his phone at home.

Thus, be mindful of the prospects ahead. Life is wonderful, and any discomfort is temporary.

You will never regret doing a job well.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “Surely the best reward life can give you is a job worth doing.” We all want our work to be useful to people and for them to respect our work. However, we do not want our attempts to be in vain. Everyone wants a reward, not hard, monotonous work. Everyone wants a gold medal, but few want to train as hard as members of the Olympic team. So, remember that the reward is worth the effort it takes to get it.

That's life

In life, we constantly balance between the desire to distance ourselves from everything and self-discipline. Life is a collection of hundreds of thousands of small decisions about whether to fight or give up.

Don't underestimate those moments when you don't feel like doing anything. Spend this time in a way that makes you proud of yourself.

There often comes a time in life when we begin to realize that something needs to change. We read relevant literature, watch inspiring videos on the Internet, find a role model and try to become like him.

But 1-2 weeks pass (and sometimes a couple of days), and we already begin to think that this is not ours. Laziness, fatigue, the wrong goal, lack of desire - 1000 and 1 excuses to give up everything and return to your old life with the thought: “I tried to play sports (eat right, get up early, read every day, etc.). That's not mine".

I have prepared some inspiring ways to stay afloat and continue to act. To have a powerful emotional boost, I put my gadgets aside and picked up paper and pen. There is something magical about paper...

Seeing the goal is the main condition for maintaining your motivation

Sometimes the problem of maintaining motivation lies in the fact that people simply do not see where they are going and why it is necessary. Someone said that you need to run in the morning, someone said that you need to drink more water. Someone said something, and the person seemed to agree, but did not fully understand why it was needed.

First, I suggest working on your own picture of the goal. Prepare a nice notepad and pen. Sit back comfortably, it will be best if you first relax and allow yourself to write not from your head (you should buy a car; Kolya has such a cool cottage, I want it too, etc.), but from your heart. Write exactly what you want. If your brain doesn’t turn off, it’s good to first exercise, take a shower, and, in a state of slight fatigue, sit down to write a plan of action.

Imagine yourself 5-10 years later. The goal should be large-scale and bright. How do you look and feel in your 30s, 40s, 50s? Describe your vision of the future in all areas of life:

Beauty and health;
Personal relationships with a loved one;
How are relationships built in your family, life, traditions;
Career, education, growth, experience, development, travel;
Your ideal daily routine, what time do you go to bed, get up, how much do you work;
Material well-being, your house, car, etc.

Try to vividly imagine and describe how you look, how you feel, how your relationship with your loved one, family is built, what you have already experienced 5-10 years later, what you have achieved. Having described your ideas for each of the points, write below how you achieved this.

Example: “Today I’m 40, I have a beautiful, resilient, toned body. I managed to achieve this thanks to daily yoga practice, proper nutrition, proper care of my skin and body...”

Imagining your future self, make an action plan and distribute it over 10 years. Write what you need to do every year, what you need to do this year, this month, this week to become the person you imagined yourself to be in 5-10 years?

Having a clear picture, you will know why you are already working and developing today. If you miss a workout or want to eat something very harmful, remember about your future self. What kind of person will you be if you continue to indulge your old habits?

Work on your habits

Habits are what we do every day, regardless of the circumstances. As it is not difficult to imagine, we do not need to draw on our own resource of motivation for them. Therefore, it makes sense to replace negative habits with positive ones. For example, evening watching TV or reading on social networks.

To do this, you can create a simple habit chart. In the left column you can list all the habits you want to implement and indicate the dates in the heading. For each completed task, you can put a tick or a plus sign, and for each not completed task, you can put a minus.

Thus, when working on a particular habit, you will feel a little like a hero by giving it a plus sign. Soon this game will begin to stimulate you to develop, you will clearly see the dynamics of your work and perhaps even notice the first results. You will begin to feel yourself changing along with your new habits. After all, habit is second nature!

Relax - you need some rest

This point is especially relevant for perfectionists and for those who are looking for how to maintain motivation towards goals. Yes, we all strive for the ideal, but it is important to understand that we will never achieve it. As soon as we become the best version of ourselves, we will have new goals and objectives for the development of our personality. It turns out that this process is endless. Allow yourself to get tired and hit emotional rock bottom sometimes. Allow yourself some rest. Be prepared that sometimes you will be on the rise, and sometimes the growth will be difficult and painful.

However, always remember where you are going and who you are, do not let your sad thoughts and despair overcome your mind. Change is always gradual and uneven. Be prepared for this and enjoy the process!

What motivates you to achieve your goals?

Write about it in the comments.

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