Getting and staying motivated can be a hard thing. But it can be simplified - and I'm hoping I can share this simple knowledge that I learned and provide the first step to get YOU on your way.
the journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step - Lao Tzu
I enjoy helping people get motivated. I could write some long article about what motivation is, and how it works, and what the theories are. But right now, I want to help you get started quickly and easily.
Frustration ::
We all can feel a bit frustrated sometimes; wishing that we could just keep up the excitement level we had for something in the past. Or maybe it's wishing we could just be excited about some goal we have. Frustration can quickly cause us to lose our motivation.
And if we are frustrated, it's really hard to take steps toward our goals and to be motivated.
The First Step ::
The first step to building motivation is to do 1 thing related to your passion each day. That's it.
It bears repeating:
do 1 thing related to your passion each day no matter how small
The End?
But you have a hard time even with that? Many people do, because they get in their own head. As we humans can do, we start overthinking and adding new things. And then we might start judging our own steps - demanding that we take even larger steps. And then we want to make a huge impact, because we want to get to our goal sooner. But taking BIG steps, requires BIG energy. And we only have so much energy or time in the day.
So many times we forgo the step because we don't have the time or the energy. And say the famous
I'll do it tomorrow
But when tomorrow comes, now we have to take that GIANT step from yesterday, and we need to take another GIANT step today because we missed yesterday. Can you see how this quickly creates the illusion of defeat and leads us to just put it on the back burner?
One SMALL STEP
So. If this is you :
- STOP trying to take such giant leaps.
- and STOP judging yourself for "not doing enough".
Instead, if you really want to succeed: take ONE tiny step toward your goal TODAY. And when I say tiny, it could be TINY.
- If you want to write but are having a tough time - your step might be go to your computer, open Notepad. And type "hello". This is SOMETHING. And something is better than nothing
- If you want to learn to take photographs - your step might be to pull our your camera phone right now and take a picture. That's it. 2 minutes of time.
- If you want to learn to speak another language - your step might be to go to google translate and type any word you are thinking of. Then remember that word.
- If you want to be in better shape - your step might be to do 10 push ups and 10 sit ups. If 10 is too many, try 5. If 5 is too many do 1. Do SOMETHING. Because something is always better than nothing.
- The list goes on and on.
So - What are you going to go do now?
Go now and take that step. Do something really small just to get started. And if you end up LOVING it and want to keep doing it for another hour, that's fine too. But remember, you have a small step to take again tomorrow.
My step for the day was to just write a few words about motivation - and over a few days this article happened. My step for tomorrow - another small step...
Thanks for checking this out. Leave a comment and let me know what you think! And if you have a specific question on what small step you can take for your personal goal - let me know and I'll make one for you. Now take that first step!
Cheers,
Joe
Follow : @joe01