Author: Malachi Thompson / Source: Lifehack
If you get stuck feeling unmotivated, you’ll breathe a sigh of relief to learn there are simple, yet high impact, changes that will steer you back on track.
Here are 15 tips that will not only restore your motivation for success but raise it so you can pursue your personal definition of a successful and happier life.
1. Practice looking at the glass being half full when life is challenging
This is not as easy to do if you feel like you’re unsuccessfully playing dodgeball in most areas of your life. Practice short bursts of radical acceptance[1] paired with looking for fine threads of your day you are grateful for that bring you happiness.
It will feel strange at first but with time your brain’s neuro-circuitry gets fitting in focusing on what motivates and inspires you.
Start practicing this exercise at times during the day when you feel okay, so then when rough times hit, your ability to rebound will be more automatic. However, you need to practice.
Before you know it, your battles will become like a walk in the park!
2. Review the happiness level of your everyday social network
Jim Rohn’s famous saying:
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with”
It is not gospel. But in examining whether or not your relationships support, encourage, inspire, educate and nurture you, you actually need to look beyond those five people.
Social science professors James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis explain how we need to look at our third degree of separation to identify those who influence our happiness in our social relationships.
[2]People are generally happier because their first-level friends are also central to a happy network of people. To increase your motivation and happiness, don’t just look at your friends. Look at your friends’ friends!
3. Clean up your relationships, work and personal
Do you ever ask yourself what aspects of your relationships are healthy for you and bring you happiness? Do you also consider what you contribute to those and whether doing also brings you happiness?
It’s time to not only reflect on what you gain from relationships but what contributions you can make to help them further flourish.
Caution! Over-helping is not the answer here. Sometimes you need to cull the time you spend with certain people. However, it’s about being more accountable and choosing to improve how you want to show up for people in your life, work-wise and personally.
Set yourself some personal goals and get to the task. Cleaning up and stepping up will continually motivate you. You’ll heighten that positive vibration of your everyday existence.
4. Develop a personal development plan for your own definition of success and happiness
Goal-setting isn’t just for helping us attain better cars, houses or greater income. When you change goal focus to become the person required to obtain those things, your goals expand beyond tangible limits. Having a personal development plan is essential.
Draw a circle and divide it up into pie segments (like having spokes on a wheel) that represent the following areas of your life:
- Finances and money
- Intimate relationships
- Friends and social relationships
- Health and wellbeing
- Spirituality and religion
- Hobbies, leisure and fun activities
- Vocation, career and work
The center point of your circle represents zero. Zero means you are least satisfied. The outer circumference of your circle is ten. Ten means you are the most satisfied and content.
For each area, plot on the spoke your current rating of satisfaction. Then, review each area again and denote on the spoke what level of satisfaction you desire.
See where the differences between your current and desired satisfaction levels are smallest. These may be the easiest areas to start brainstorming the changes you want to experience. Some areas won’t be as important to you to make changes. Others will be. Working with an impartial coach can greatly help to flesh out clarity.
Regularly doing this exercise (e.g. every quarter) will reignite your motivation and keep you on the path to reach greater success and happiness.
5. Invest in personal development
Your personal development plan will give you strong clues as to what programs, books, podcasts, networking groups and social activities to tap into. But be wary of the bright, shiny object syndrome and well-meaning friends and family projecting their countless recommendations on to you!
Be gracious and thankful for their advice and guidance (even though it can often be uninvited!), choose wisely and make your own decisions.
Focus on the challenges you face now. Are you experiencing problems with your significant other? Are your children suffering from bullying at school and you’re unsure how to help them?
Perhaps you are experiencing a plateau in work satisfaction or your business is experiencing a slump. Whatever problems are present for you now, explore activities and education that will help you solve those.
6. Invest in experiences, not material things
Splashing your cash on physical possessions to reward yourself won’t just send you bankrupt. When you constantly rely on external things to motivate you, you’re in real danger of never being satisfied.
Instead, ignite…
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