85 Ways to Motivate Yourself

Photo by willysaw

I wrote this article inspired by Mike King on 100 Ways to Be a Better Leader. The original idea came from Luciano at Litemind. It should be the list of 100, but I think 85 is more than enough. 

Listed below are collected motivation advices from well-known figures of inspiration all over the world. I have summarized and also modified them a bit to make it easier for you to understand. Don’t think that you must follow all of the advices at once. Choose some which you think you could do first and focus on them. After you become used to implementary them, you may continue with the rest.

1. Behave and act accordingly as if your life is about to end.

2. Dare to dream and live that dream of yours.

3. Keep affirming what you want to achieve.

4. Bear a successful and happy result in your mind.

5. Be firm and strict to yourself. If you are afraid of something, do what you are even more afraid of.

6. Think in simple ways. Focus on just one aim at a time.

7. Always look for something positive behind negative/unpleasant things.

8. Listen to songs/music and watch movies which could motivate you.

9. Note down what you have accomplished so far, so you have a record that proves your competency to do your tasks in the past.

10. Convince that you somehow are creative in some way. Being creative doesn’t necessarily relate to originality, rather it deals with the unexpected.

11. Read books that could affect the deepest of your personality or which could motive you so much as to make you its fanatic admirer.

12. When you’re driving your car, make use of the time effectively by listening to some motivation audio.

13. Plan carefully what you want to do. A good plan will maximize your productive time.

14. Adhere to the thought “I don’t get used to it yet“ rather than “I am no able to”, because “I don’t get used to it yet” may optimistically means sometime in future “you will be able to”.

15. The most important thing is not how fast you complete your duty. In fact the slower you do it, the faster you get it done.

16. Choose friends that support you positively.

17. Convince yourself that it is your own thinking which determines your future. It is not your background or personality that make you either successful or not.

18. Spare some time to be alone to do some reflection. Some great ideas might be born just when you are all by yourself.

19. Try to find some way to make whatever you’re doing pleasant or amusing.

20. Stop worrying because usually most of the things you worry about never come to existence.

21. It is you, not other people’s thoughts or your surroundings that should plan and build your own life.

22. Accept your inadequacies as they are, don’t be ashamed of them, be yourself, stay cheerful all the time. Your honesty will make people appreciate you greatly.

23. Cut down watching TV or if need be, stop watching. It is simply related to answering this question: “How much are you really inspired by the TV programmes you watch?”

24. Do things that challenge you most because challenges make you grow and expand.

25. Regard your future tasks as games you are going to play. You have the option whether to react or to create.

26. The ability to imagine is more a habit rather than a talent. By imagining, some innovative solution will likely come up to help you dealing with your problems.

27. Face and deal with your fears directly. If you run away from them, it will only make them pursue you.

28. Create good relationships with other people.

29. Make your conversation with other people interactive and nice.

30. You must realize that nothing will happen until you generate a will to make it happen. Be honest and discipline with your own resilience.

31. Find your own version of small virtuals to function as warming-ups to motivate you prior to doing your tasks.

32. You must realize that happiness depends not on your achievement of something. Happiness lies within your mind so you could feel happy anytime if you want to.

33. Dare to say “No” to temptations. Each time you reject a temptation little or great, you again some strength.

34. Change any negative-connoted words into positive ones, for example: “it looks like I will fail” into “I am still trying hard”.

35. Filter out all news coming to your brain. Most news today have negative nuances: murders, robberies, frauds, corruptions, scandals, accidents, gossips, etc. All of those are definitely harmful inputs for your brain.

36. Focus on today’s agendas, no need to live in the past or worry about the future.

37. Keep your brain cup empty so it is ever ready to catch in any new knowledge coming. Be like kids who naturally have great curiousity.

38. Help other people to get what they want. Give them inspiration, encouragement and support.

39. An optimistic knows that the up-and-down cycle of life will always be there, so you shouldn’t be frightened or fuel defeated when you happen to be in the down position.

40. You must live and survive on your own strength. You must set in your mind the situation as if no one will ever help you.

41. You must decide first what the aim of your life is by asking this question: “what can make you happy“ and ”what can make you excited”.

42. Always regard whatever you must do as something simple, then you will find it is easy to do that.

43. See your job as a game to play. You may ask your co-workers to join in a competition of performance. Salesmen should see that the more complicated a prospect is, the more amusing it is to try to get a sale. Online businessmen should see that the harder it is to get the traffic, the more amusing it is to tinker with the web.

44. Even your mind sometimes needs relaxation. Try painting, music, etc.

45. Make today the best and the finest day in your life by doing the greatest thing you can possibly do, as if tomorrow never comes.

46. Enjoy all your problems, not only because they are inevitable, but because they can make you more self-reliant and strong.

47. Visualize your motivation words and thoughts which you don’t want to forget. For example, by sticking them up on your table, on your bathroom’s wall or any other places you often dome to.

48. Create simple commitments for yourself to implement every day.

49. Prepare a book for your dreams. Write down separately each thing you want to achieve in that book and set a time limit for achieving each of them.

50. In deciding your future, you must think out of the box and never let yourself influenced by your past.

51. Don’t worry too much about having to do your task perfectly. It is alright to do “badly” in the first effort. Optimistic people believe more in process, rather than in result.

52. Learn to keep being optimistic. Naturally optimistism is coutagious. It opens door to possibilities. Pessimism is just the opposite, it allows withdrawing and closing the doors of opportunity.

53. Every misfortune is a blessing in disguise, so it is wise to turn any misfortune into something good and useful.

54. Make a list of ideas by way of brain-storming. A member of great ideas might result from brain-storming process.

55. We don’t sing because we are happy. We are happy because we sing. So let us sing!

56. We live in an era where individual competency matters and is appreciated regardless of age and status. So secure for yourself an ability you really master. Be a part of the future.

57. It is always difficult to drop your old habit immediately. So replace it gradually with some new better habit, for example: smoking is replaced by doing crossword-puzzle or reading motivation article or discussing current topics, etc.

58. You must know that you can’t manage time, you can only manage yourself. Imagine your day as an empty canvas and the painter in yourself.

59. One essential thing that can motivate you is the air you inhale. Running, walking or just taking deep breath will supply some nutrition to your brain making it refreshened and creative.

60. Find someone honest and open-hearted who is ready and willing to feed back you in bringing about self-motivation and growth you need.

61. Recognize what harmful habits are trapping you. Replace them soon with ones you truly desire which enable you to develop positively.

62. Always ask yourself these questions:
1. What good things are there in my life?
2. What is still remaining to be done?

63. Make a promise to someone, either personally or professionally, that you will do something or your own choice. Making promises is a forceful and effective way to motivate you.

64. How to make you fortunate? By making other people feel lucky! When you are in luck, you will be more motivated.

65. Be ready to compete anywhere you can.

66. If you plan to change yourself, try to break down the change into small ones. Remember that a journey of 1000 miles is covered by taking small paces.

67. Fantasize your vision. Imagine what you want your future to be like.

68. Lighten your problems by making jokes of them.

69. Ask yourself this question: “If I live in poverty, how much love and attention I could give to my children or other people?”

70. Note down all things you can think of which can motivate you. Keep the note with you anywhere you go and consult it whenever you feel unmotivated.

71. Find out what you are pursuing in this life and why?

72. Note down all things worrying you, then do something about them. When such action is taken, fear will disappear.

73. Try to get more enjoyment rather than more pleasure. For example: money is a pleasure for a lottery winner, but for hard workers, money is something to enjoy.

74. Mind and body are very closely related, so doing some regular sport will help your brain to function more clearly.

75. Take a closer look at your weakness, it may turn out to be something of your advantage. Creative possibilities might come up from there too.

76. Consider that “you are the problem yourself”. By thinking so, you can come to see yourself as “the problem solver”.

77. Multiply your target reasonably. More challenging targets will force you to be more creative.

78. Decide upon someone to become your “hero” or “idol” who will force you to be more creative.

79. If the present vision you adhere to fails to make you jump out of your bed each morning, change it by building a new vision which could stimulate you to act just by thinking about it.

80. Your knowledge is your basic power driving you to move on, so you must control what you know. The more you recognize what motivates you, the easier it is for you to motivate yourself.

81. To lie and to be partly honest will be burdening you on and on. On the other hand, complete honestly will clear up your mind and supply the energy and clarity needed for self motivating.

82. When you read something important, read it loudly. You will get twice as much effect compared to what you get by reading it by heart.

83. Don’t wait for your feeling to motivate you. Just laugh out your feeling even if there is no reason to.

84. If you find it difficult to decide what you want in this life, just start with what you don’t want.

85. Remember that God doesn’t let even the birds on the sky to starve, moreover us, human. Always pray and ask strength from our creator