Supercharge Your Success: Ultimate Motivation Hacks
Doing what you need to do, even when you’re not feeling it, is hard. How do you keep doing the things, even when you don’t feel like it? Successful people have this figured out, and it comes down to a combination of 1) understanding how motivation works, and 2) learning how to effectively self-motivate.
In this comprehensive post, we’re going to get to know motivation a little bit before diving into our favourite tips and strategies you can implement today to instantly feel more motivated!
Let’s get started!
Setting the Stage for Success: Understanding Motivation
Here’s the thing, motivation ain’t everything. In an ideal world, everybody would feel motivated all the time, but that’s not always going to be the case. Motivation can be fleeting, and if you always waited around to feel motivated to do something, you’d never get anything done.
On the other hand, if you went through life never feeling a sprinkle of motivation (or some sort of satisfaction or fulfilment), then working toward your goals would feel like a chore and it’d be quite difficult to get the ball rolling so to speak. The whole process would be a drag, and where’s the fun in that?
Think about it, was there ever a time you set a goal that you didn’t feel motivated about at first? Probably not, because you wouldn’t have been interested enough to set that goal in the first place. The problem of feeling unmotivated only appeared when it came time to execute or commit to it long-term. Sound familiar?
So although motivation isn’t the be-all and end-all of success, it is an important part of the goal-setting (and achieving) process, and so learning how to optimise it could make all the difference to your success.
Exploring the science
The Role of Dopamine: Your Brain’s Reward System
Motivation is an internal state that initiates a certain type of behavior. You either feel motivated to take action toward or stop taking action toward a specific goal or outcome.
Dopamine, often referred to as the “feel-good” neurotransmitter, plays a major role in the brain’s reward system and motivational control. It acts as a motivational signal, driving us to seek out activities or behaviours that lead to reward (from an evolutionary perspective, this is how nature ensures your survival).
When you anticipate achieving a goal or experiencing a positive outcome, dopamine levels rise, spurring you to take action to attain that reward. This anticipation of reward serves as a powerful incentive, motivating you to continue.
Moreover, dopamine is involved in reinforcing behaviors that lead to reward. When you engage in activities that result in pleasurable outcomes, dopamine is released, strengthening the neural connections associated with those behaviors. This reinforcement mechanism encourages you to repeat those behaviors in the future.
Feeling “motivated” is essentially a physiological state, and so feeling unmotivated is completely normal (and sometimes out of your control), especially when you’re throwing yourself at something challenging, like following a health journey or building a business.
Understanding Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation stems from internal desires and values, which drives us to pursue activities for their inherent satisfaction. For example, participating in a sport because it’s fun and you enjoy it. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation comes from external rewards or consequences, like playing a sport just because you want to win an award.
Both types of motivation have their place, but setting goals that are mostly aligned with intrinsic motivations has been shown to yield greater fulfilment and long-term success.
If you enjoy what it is that you’re doing and can find satisfaction in the doing itself, success will naturally find you. Of course, a goal might involve both aspects of motivation, so focus on the elements of the process that are enjoyable to you.
The Power of Purpose: Finding Your Why
Identifying Your Core Values and Passions
Understanding your core values and passions is essential to setting goals and staying motivated to continue working toward them. Your core values and passions form the bedrock of your purpose, shaping your decisions, actions, and priorities.
By identifying what truly matters to you, you can infuse your goals with meaning and significance, which will only fuel your motivation to pursue them. Think about it, what are the chances of relentlessly going after something (especially when things get messy) that has no meaning to you?
Setting Meaningful Goals Aligned with Your Purpose
Meaningful goals resonate with your sense of purpose, inspiring you to overcome obstacles and continue pushing when things get tough. When setting goals, think about the reasons behind wanting to achieve them, and make sure to infuse an emotionally charged “why.” You might need to ask yourself “this question”why?” a few times before you reach the real reason.
For example: I want to build my own business so I can quit my 9-5. Why? Because working for myself and on my terms is better than working for someone else. But why? Because I’ll be able to generate a larger income and have more time for myself. And then? And then I’ll have more money and more freedom. Which means? Which means I’ll be able to buy anything I want, and go on holiday whenever I want, and never have to work again if that’s what I want. What else? I’ll also be able to support my parents, or help others in need, or make a difference in the world, or donate money to causes I’m really passionate about.
What first seemed like a goal about wanting a different work structure and making more money soon became a goal about being in a position to contribute something meaningful or help somebody else. Asking yourself why enough times will help you to uncover valuable meaning behind your goal, which is gold when it comes to motivation.
When things get tough building that business, which “why” do you think will have the most impact, “having the freedom to work on your terms” or “having the ability to take care of the people you love?”
Motivation Strategies for Success
The Growth Mindset
Cultivating a growth mindset will help you embrace challenges as opportunities for growth. There will always be another challenge around the corner, so you might as well make sure you are prepared!
Embracing Challenges as Opportunities for Growth
Contrary to what most may believe, challenges are not obstacles. They are, in fact, opportunities for growth and self-discovery. This is one of the most important reframes or mindset shifts you’ll ever make.
The next time a challenge appears along your path, ask yourself the following questions:
- What can I gain from this?
- What can I learn from this?
- How will this make me better and how will this help me grow?
- How could this be a good thing?
- What do I need to do/how do I need to think differently to overcome this?
You will uncover a lot about yourself with these questions.
By pushing through when things get tough and reframing challenges as opportunities to learn and improve, you will automatically cultivate a certain type of mindset that propels you toward success. It’s almost impossible not to.
Learning from Setbacks and Failures
Setbacks and failures are inevitable on the path to success, but they aren’t the end of the road. Instead of looking at them as defeats, see them as valuable learning experiences that provide insights and lessons you can apply elsewhere.
A “failure” is just information, telling you to try something different next time around. That’s all it is. It doesn’t mean you should quit.
As William Churchill said: “Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”
If you’re chipping away at something challenging, there will be “failures” along the way. See that as confirmation that you’re striving towards something great!
PS: you can only fail if you give up!
The Power of Visualisation
Creating Vivid Mental Images of Your Goals
Visualization is about creating vivid mental images of your desired outcomes, which allows you to immerse yourself in the experience of achieving your goals before the event has even happened.
By simply visualizing your success or desired outcome, you can supercharge your motivation, by reminding yourself what reaching your goals would feel like, and in doing so, reinforce your commitment to achieving what you set out to achieve.
Practicing Visualization Techniques for Success
Take a few moments to visualize yourself successfully achieving your goals. Feel the emotions and excitement of that accomplishment. To maximize the effectiveness, incorporate sensory details, emotions, and positive affirmations into your mental imagery. By engaging all your senses and emotions, you can amplify the impact of visualization and familiarize yourself and your body with how it would feel to achieve.
Building Positive Habits for Lasting Motivation
Establishing a Morning Routine to Kickstart Your Day
A morning routine sets the tone for the rest of your day, providing structure, focus, and motivation to tackle your tasks with purpose and energy. By incorporating activities that recharge you first thing in the morning, such as exercise, meditation, journaling, and goal-setting (for example), you can optimize your productivity, boost your mood, and set yourself up for a successful day ahead.
Get my guide to building the perfect morning routine for success here.
Implementing systems to reduce overwhelm
Ever felt motivated whilst feeling overwhelmed? Probably not.. Let’s fix that by looking at one simple way you can reduce (or eliminate) the overwhelm. Enter systems..
A system is an optimized way of doing something, that’s done in the same way each time. If you have a goal that you intend to work at every day and stay consistent with, a smart move would be to figure out how to make being consistent as easy as possible. If the process (or some aspects of it) are easy/simple/don’t require any brainpower and can be done on autopilot, you’re far more likely to feel motivated to stick to it.
Eliminate the need for decisions by implementing systems that are designed to get whatever task you need to get done, in the simplest, fastest, and most efficient way possible. That way you don’t even have to think about it, the whole process will become much smoother and easier to stick to, and achieving your goals will happen as a natural by-product.
Implement a system. Streamline your life. Achieve success. In that order.
Overcoming Obstacles to Motivation
Managing Procrastination: Tips for Getting Unstuck
Procrastination is a common challenge that can derail your progress and undermine your motivation. Let’s look at how we can tackle it..
Breaking Tasks into Smaller, Manageable Steps
Procrastination often comes from feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of a task or goal. If you’ve ever set any big goals before, then you probably know exactly how that feels. Let’s start tomorrow, shall we? The first step is to break big projects down into smaller, more manageable steps.
For example, say you have to write a report for work. Break this project down into as many small steps as possible, order them, and give them a deadline. You might end up with something like this:
- Research topic (deadline: Monday)
- Create report outline (deadline: Tuesday)
- Write body of report (deadline: Thursday)
- Write introduction/conclusion and proofread document (Friday)
What was once a mountainous task now looks like a pretty straightforward to-do list. You know where to start, how long to spend on each part, and you have a plan to execute. All you have to do is follow the plan, and you’ve succeeded. Overwhelm who?
Approaching challenging projects this way will automatically (and drastically) reduce your level of overwhelm by giving you one small task to focus on at a time. It’s also pretty satisfying getting to tick something off a list when it’s complete, so instead of waiting until the whole thing is done to feel any sense of accomplishment, make sure to acknowledge your wins along the way.
If you need more help with procrastination you’ll want to read my ultimate guide for overcoming procrastination here.
Using Time Management Techniques to Stay on Track
One way to kill motivation is to spend endless amounts of time on tasks that don’t move the needle at all. Not only will you eventually start to question whether the goal you’ve set is worth the time (when you’ve realized you’ve made no progress), but you’ll waste precious energy on less important things. And we only have so much energy to spend..
Effective time management is essential for maximizing productivity and minimizing distractions. By prioritizing tasks, setting deadlines, and minimizing interruptions, you can optimize your time and maintain focus on your most important priorities.
Knowing that you’re making progress on the big things (and not feeling hung up on the small things) will help you to stay motivated and on track.
Dealing with Self-Doubt and Imposter Syndrome
Self-doubt and Imposter Syndrome are common obstacles that can hinder your motivation and self-confidence. Best we look into how to overcome those!
Challenging Negative Self-Talk and Limiting Beliefs
Did you know that your thoughts can influence your motivation? Try it. Think about how hard it will be to achieve your goal and all the reasons why you won’t be able to achieve it. How do thinking those thoughts make you feel? Do they make you feel inspired, motivated, and ready to go after what you want?
Now do the opposite. Think about how rewarding the process of going after something meaningful will be to you, and why you have everything it takes to get there, and how good it will feel when you achieve it. Do you see the difference? Nothing changed about the goal, the only thing that changed is how you chose to think and feel about it.
The same goes for how you speak to yourself. If you’re beating yourself up all the time and continuously telling yourself you can’t do something, you will find evidence to prove yourself right.
If somebody were to speak to you the way you speak to yourself, would you want to follow their advice or do what they ask? Would you feel excited to please them, or scared to even try? Speaking kindly to yourself and being your own biggest fan will do more for your motivation than tearing yourself down ever will.
Negative self-talk and limiting beliefs can undermine your confidence and erode your motivation. Challenge your self-defeating thoughts and replace them with positive affirmations and empowering beliefs.
Seeking Support from Mentors and Peers
Seeking support from mentors and peers can provide valuable guidance, encouragement, and accountability. By surrounding yourself with a supportive network of like-minded positive people, you can draw strength and inspiration from their experiences and insights. Learn from the success stories of others who have achieved similar goals. Their journeys can inspire and motivate you to keep going.
Staying Motivated for the Long Haul
Creating a Motivation Toolkit
Finding Inspiration in Books, Podcasts, TedTalks and Vlogs
Books, podcasts, TedTalks, and vlogs can be rich sources of inspiration and wisdom, offering valuable insights and perspectives from experts and thought leaders in various fields. Immersing yourself in uplifting and educational content will help you to stay motivated while also continuously expanding your knowledge.
Surrounding Yourself with Positive Influences
Your environment plays a significant role in shaping your mindset and behavior. By surrounding yourself with positive influences, such as supportive friends, mentors, and role models, you can cultivate an uplifting and empowering environment that nurtures your motivation and success. When you’re on a mission to achieve a meaningful goal, spending time around negative people who try to bring you down won’t get you to where you want to go any faster.
Vision boards
Create a vision board with images and words representing your goals. Put it where you can see it daily to keep your goals at the forefront of your mind. Continuously reminding yourself what you’re striving toward can boost your motivation and keep you excited about your goals. If you catch yourself feeling unmotivated, a glance at your vision board can quickly turn things around.
Celebrating Your Wins and Milestones
Recognizing Your Achievements, No Matter How Small
Every achievement, no matter how small, is a cause for celebration and acknowledgment. It’s time to clap for yourself! By recognizing and celebrating your wins and milestones, you’ll reinforce positive behaviours and boost your motivation in the process.
Rewarding Yourself for Reaching Milestones Along the Way
Rewarding yourself for reaching milestones along the way provides motivation and reinforcement for your efforts. Whether it’s treating yourself to a small indulgence or celebrating with friends and family, rewards are tangible reminders of your progress and accomplishments. Rewarding yourself along the way ensures you stay interested and inspired to continue working towards your goals.
It’s important to remember that you aren’t always going to feel motivated and there will be days when you’ll just have to push through, but there are steps you can take and tools you can use to help you take control of your motivation. If you implement the tips outlined in this guide, embrace the challenges, and take consistent action toward your goals, your success is inevitable!
What resonated most with you in this post? Is there anything you would add? Let us know in the comments below!
