Are you motivated? If your answer is yes, that’s fantastic! But if you aren’t, or if you find motivation and drive difficult to maintain long-term, then the missing ingredient might just be mindfulness. But why do other types of motivation go away so quickly, and what can you do about it? If you’re an achiever of any kind, you’re probably already acutely aware of how easily motivation fades and you can get stuck back in a “daily grind” mentality. What if I told you that you don’t have to struggle to stay on top of things every day? I invite you to join me and explore the most effective ways to stay motivated and keep your momentum going as we move into our next month.
If you’ve ever gone through life inundating yourself with motivational materials or depending on certain favorite things to motivate you every time, you’ve probably noticed that each time you try to use the same thing to get motivated, it’s a bit less effective than it was the first, second, or maybe even third time. As a society, we are so desperate to feel good and feel it instantly that we forget one very key truth:
Our most valuable work happens in the mind. This means that our most important emotions come from within, not without… including happiness and sustainable motivation.
The more involved you get with trying to motivate yourself through external influences, the less your internal influences have a say. The more you’re trying to accomplish, the more you’re likely to need an extra push of motivation. It energizes you, makes you feel alive, and makes you want to work hard to accomplish your dream… but only for a week or two before it fizzles out and you’re back to seeking more motivation from outside of yourself. If left unchecked, this can become a vicious cycle that is difficult to break free from.
Here are five ways to ensure that you stay motivated the mindful way while you and your team work toward your goals this year.
1. Make sure that what you’re working toward aligns with your deepest values and beliefs, or at the very least, that your reason for working toward that specific goal has some pretty deep roots (no superficial, wishy-washy projects!).
2. If you practice mindfulness meditation, keep doing so. If you don’t, it might be time to begin =). You may not notice the effects in an obvious way at first, but meditation has been proven to help you stay more focused, relaxed, and creative in the long term. Five to ten minutes a day is plenty to get you started, and if you need more help, take a look at our short mindfulness meditation videos.
3. Quiet motivation is much more powerful than over the top excitement. If you’ve never experienced the difference between these two types of motivation, you may be missing out! Long-term motivation and drive simmer under the surface and don’t cause extreme emotions one way or another (unless you’ve been working your tail off and finally see some measurable success… or failure). If you sit down and do the work, lose track of time while you do, and still want to keep going even if it’s ten at night but you want to finish what you’re working on, then you’re definitely on the right track. If you lose interest after a week or two, then you may need to figure out whether you’re working toward the right things or not.
4. Stay focused. Don’t worry about side projects; if you have ideas, write them down for later and stay focused on your task at hand. If it’s a pretty big project such as a novel or a course, make sure you do a little bit each day and be proud of your small accomplishments such as writing an epic blog post full of incredibly valuable information or creating your first slideshow video. No matter what you’re doing or learning, celebrate each step along the way and don’t get distracted by other ideas just yet.
5. Take care of yourself. If that means eating better, do that. If it means exercising for a few minutes a day (yoga can be beneficial with just ten minutes a day), do that. If it means getting better sleep, then do that. If it means taking a day off to clear the steam from your brain and slow down for a minute, then do that. Whatever your needs are, making sure that the basics are covered can make an immensely noticeable difference in your daily energy levels and happiness.
As always, continue leading mindfully and always keep learning! For more mindfulness techniques, resources, and information, please visit http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement.
Please check out our YouTube Channel for dozens of videos on mindfulness and Meditation.
