Ways to Rekindle Your Self-Motivation

Last week, a co-worker of mine confided in me that she wanted to quit. The main problem was that this was a second job for her; one she had gotten to help pay off the stack of bills piled up on her kitchen table. Her goal was to pay off her debt so she could get a better interest rate when she refinanced her home but the struggle of working two jobs had pretty much destroyed her self-motivation. She didn’t like working two jobs but she wanted to preserve her credit score.

I didn’t know what to say to her. Unfortunately, I’m one of those people who only think of something good to say after the fact. This time, though, I was in luck. Our shifts overlapped and after about a half an hour of thinking about her situation, I presented her with my brilliant solution that would rekindle her self-motivation.

“You need to find something to inspire you,” I said and received a confused look in response. “You need something to hold onto that will help see you through these tough times when you just can’t go another step.”

She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. I just don’t like it.”

I shrugged my shoulders because that was the best I had to offer. I told her that I would pray to the Source to help her with her goals which she seemed to appreciate. Thinking about it on my way home, though, I realized I had given her some good advice but that I communicated it poorly. I felt like she had lost her self-motivation because she was focusing too much on the effort it took to work two jobs and not enough on the benefits of doing so. What I should have said was that she needed to remember her goal and that working a second job was only a temporary step in the direction of that goal.

In fact, failing to remember the bigger picture is what destroys a lot of people’s self-motivation, mine included. We fail to understand that the road towards our goals is not neatly paved in gold. It is a dirt path, full of pot holes and overgrown bushes that block our view. Sometimes this path is easy to navigate but other times it is a pure fire walk that requires us to do things we don’t want to do in order to achieve the outcome we are striving for.

When I find my self-motivation flagging, the first thing I do is expand my vision. I try not to let the steps I need to take towards achieving my goal overshadow the goal itself. Working two jobs suck-I will be the first to admit that. But what my co-worker needed to do was remember that she would only be working the second job long enough to get those bills paid and not a day longer.

Another thing I do to keep my motivation high is take a few moments each day to think about what it is I am working to achieve. This involves using my imagination to visualize the moment when I have obtained what it is I’m going after. This helps to focus my attention on the task at hand as well as put the task in its proper perspective. To increase your self-motivation, try to do this before taking action to achieve your goal. For instance if you are working to lose weight, take a few moments before you hit the gym to visualize a lighter, thinner you.

You can also use reverse psychology to inspire self-motivation. Visualizing the consequences of failing to take action can serve as effective motivation indeed. If my friend quit the job then she would not be able to pay those bills, her credit rating would suffer and she would not get the mortgage rate she was going for.

Another way to increase self-motivation is to keep a symbol of your goal close to you. For example, on my computer monitor is a picture of a house I want to buy. It serves as the motivation I need to bypass playing computer games in favor of working on my business. Likewise whenever you don’t feel like working to achieve your goal or even get the urge to quit, look at the symbol to remind yourself of the bigger picture.

Unfortunately, my co-worker quit her job. I’m not sure what she is doing now but I hope she was able to rekindle her self-motivation and achieve her financial goals.

Thank the editor. Buy me a coffee!

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