We find it hard to achieve goals without self-motivation because who else as not we ourselves can mobilise us in terms of personal development and breaking down barriers? Each person is different – in terms of nature, objectives, values, and ways to find self-motivation. It is worth considering what route to intrinsic motivation will be the most suitable for us.
I want to – not that I do not have to
The essence of self-motivation is to change our individual approach to a given task from “I have to” to “I want to and I can”. When setting a goal to yourself, you might want to first of all see if it is possible to achieve. Nothing discourages as much as a bar that is set too high. Then you should think about things that are interesting in a given task, find its positive aspects, and focus your attention on them. Treat the challenge as a kind of adventure and an opportunity to learn something new. In this way it is much easier to take action and activity – regardless of whether it is starting regular training, learning a foreign language, or more frequent reading. Over time, when an action becomes a habit, you can raise the bar and set further goals.
Big goals are many small stages
Large, complex, and difficult to achieve objectives can be discouraging. That is why it is a good idea to divide it into stages, which can be achieved in a given time and end in a certain result. In this way you can easily track your progress and keep a constant level of enjoyment and satisfaction. There are not many things which are as enjoyable as the first positive result – the first lap without losing your breath, the first complete sentences we create in a new language, or a cake baked completely on your own.
Add variety to your way to the goal
After the first period of excitement with the new things, we usually need to face a decrease in motivation or even tiredness. You might want to “catch good wind” again. A training can be made interesting once more by adding new activities or a new route, or when learning a language – with new exercises, and when going through a scheduled number of books – reading in-between an interesting reportage, comic book, or other format which we did not originally plan to read. We set the way of achieving the goal ourselves – we should not put any restraints on ourselves in this regard. The more interesting and variable, the better. Even the biggest fan may at some point become bored with his/her hobby, if he/she does not add variety and stimuli to the tasks. It is not a good idea to follow a well-established path only because we had such a plan.
Show off your plans
If we feel that despite everything we lack motivation, and we slowly lose the enthusiasm, we can engage other people to help us. If we inform our friends and colleagues of our plans, it will work as an additional motivator. First of all, there will be no turning back. If we announce that we want to achieve a given goal, it will be harder for us to give it up and let go, if we had witnesses to the announcement. Whereby, this can be either one person who is the closest to us, or a wider group of people – our family, friends, and even persons who are completely strangers to us, for example, on an online forum. Secondly, such persons can motivate us themselves, by encouraging us to engage in the activity or by praising our achievements. Knowing that someone is proud of us, helps in maintaining motivation extremely well. It may even encourage to an increased effort.
Celebrate all achievements
Each completed stage and any noticeable effect is a success. It is a good idea to celebrate them. You can show it off towards others, reward yourself, or just simply be very much proud of yourself. You just cannot allow for your achievements to be neglected. This is the most important element of intrinsic motivation. Each success of this kind encourages us to go further and gives you positive energy and strength to fight on the subsequent stages.There are many ways to intrinsic motivation. Each person is different and can derive motivation from different sources. The way we choose is up to us. Whether we pursue our aim directly, or break it down into many stages, on our own or with support of others – the most important thing is not to lose sight of our goal.