Do You Think Motivational Thoughts?

 

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going”

– Jim Rohn

 

What do motivational thoughts do and why would you want them?

Motivational thoughts help you to take action. This is especially important when you find yourself putting off what you know you need to do.

Motivational thoughts aren’t about positive thinking or motivating quotes, although those do have their place in helping you to shape your attitude and thinking. What motivates each of us is unique to us, so we need to have our own thoughts which are most effective at getting us started.

• Motivational Thoughts of Your Own

Making it your own means experimenting with a good thought until you find a way to use it in your own recipe for motivation. Let’s imagine you're in a difficult situation and you don't feel like dealing with it. As you sit there, you start playing around with the idea that there’s an opportunity that can come from the difficulty you’re facing. Fortunately, you discover that this situation offers you an opportunity to improve a skill that you want to learn, and this thought pulls you out of your slump and gives you the motivation to take that first step that, up until now, you’ve been putting off. This is how you can create your own motivational thoughts. Look for the positives in the situations that you see as negative. The thoughts that work for you are the thoughts that you need to be thinking. 

• Learn Your Motivations

Try different ways of motivating yourself and get to know how your mind works. Some people may be motivated by positive incentives, such as thinking about all the good things that will happen when they achieve their task or goal, whereas others may be motivated by negative incentives, such as thinking about all the perceived negative things that could happen if they don’t achieve their task or goal. I find that reading or watching something about my goal gets me thinking about what I want to achieve, and that gets me excited. When I feel unmotivated about a goal that I’ve set myself, I read, listen or watch something related to what I want to achieve. This is normally enough to get me excited and take the first step to working on my actions and goals. The first step is often the hardest, and once I’ve started, I normally find it easy to keep going.

You can get creative in your motivational experiments. Maybe thinking about being poor makes you get up and get to work, or maybe thinking about being rich and having the luxuries that you want will get you going. If you find that visual thoughts are more motivating than mental conversations, then use those. See pictures in your head that get you going. Maybe you find that when people say you can't do something, you do whatever it takes to prove them wrong. Then you might find it motivational to think about people saying you can't do the thing that you want to do.

When there is a truly uninspiring task you have to do, try promising yourself a reward for completing it - make it one that really means something to you. Keep that thought in your mind to keep yourself motivated.

You may also find that different motivational thoughts inspire you better for tasks that you find uninspiring. Whilst thinking about the positive outcomes may inspire you to take action on your goals, you may find that the potential negative outcomes of not completing an uninspiring task motivate you more to get started.

Everyone is different, so try different ways of motivating yourself until you find what works for you. Then use those motivational thoughts to get you going when you need that extra push!