As humans, we spend much of our time wandering around within the confines of our minds. Sometimes, this often mindless wandering brings us to thoughts of dreams or ambitions that we have locked deep inside ourselves. Rather than pursuing them, we allow a feeling of responsibility to serve as an excuse for not getting motivated to achieve our goals. Even worse, many people set high goals with the fullest desire and intention to reach them but struggle to get motivated enough to even start. As quickly as the idea came, it gets filed away with all the other big thoughts we’ve had throughout our lives.
It can seem that achieving something—anything—can become tangled in the webs of our ever-moving lives. Yet, at the same time, we spend a lot of time spinning our wheels. The trick to achieving something, whether large or small, is getting motivated to do it. Motivation is like any other feeling—it’s different for everyone who feels it. Some lucky people are easily motivated by just a dream or the thought of something better, while many others find it hard to dredge up the motivation to get out of bed every morning. Fortunately, there are some tricks to kick your motivational energy into high gear, so even the most slovenly person can finally, yes finally, finish that looming task or meet their dreams in life!
How to Tap Into Your Motivation
Nowadays, we frequently hear about life coaches. Among their many jobs, they are supposed to help fully grown adults finally grow up and spark motivation. The good news is that you don’t need a life coach or psychologist to get motivated. What you need is a vision, a goal, some excitement, and a sense of purpose. The most important factor above all else is the ability to get excited about something again. When boring adults become excited, they are urged to move forward. It could be the vision of your dream coming true that causes you such glee, or it could simply be the fact that you are finally doing something you’ve always wanted to do. It doesn’t matter why you feel excited—just that you do. Being excited about our lives and the millions of opportunities that lie right outside our front door is the first step in getting motivated.
Even if you can’t clearly see the opportunity, you should be able to envision it. Think about all the things your mind can create. Think about the power that resides in your very own imagination. Just because you’re grown doesn’t mean you have to set aside “pretend play.” In fact, imagining yourself in exactly the place you desire to be will only help you get excited, which will help you get motivated. When you decide on a goal—no matter what it is—try to be like a child and imagine it coming true. Allow yourself to experience all the wonderful feelings of achievement, and bask in the knowing that you can make a difference in your life.
Another helpful tool for getting motivated is to create a vision board. This is essentially something you may have done in high school with your friends. You can cut and paste pictures, magazine articles, inspirational quotes, your own positive thoughts—whatever strikes you—onto a canvas. Your vision board should include all the things you see for yourself in the future, all the things you want, all of your desires, and culminate in a mini collage of your dream coming to fruition. Frame it if you like and keep it near your workspace or on your fridge. The vision board is yours, and you should take ownership of it just as you take ownership of your goal. The point of these actions is to make your dreams real. Even if your dream is as simple as renovating the landscaping in your yard, you need to bring it to life. This will not only get you excited and give you a realistic view of your vision but will also motivate you to start working towards your goal. Be creative and allow your imagination to take the lead!
Another great tool to use when getting motivated to act is to take a long, hard look at the life you’ve led. Then, look forward 30–40 years and realistically see all the things you want to add to it. Life is too short for regrets. Most of us can say for certain that there are things we would have liked to have done differently. We can assess opportunities in our lives where we wished we had acted. In most cases, we simply did not have the motivation to do so. Imagine how different your life would be right now had you listened to that calling of your inner voice and took the leap of faith to dive headfirst into the pool of your dreams. This will convince you that there is no time to waste and that you have very little to lose by trying.
Getting motivated is often about believing in ourselves and believing that what we think, feel, and dream about becoming is actually feasible. Every good thing in this world was born out of thought first. There is nothing—nothing in this world—that didn’t sprout from thought first. The simplest and most complex things had to be thought of before they could be accomplished. From post-it notes to an iPod! Consider how this world would be if everyone was afraid to get excited or hold onto a vision or dream. We would have nothing—not a fork, car, school, home, or road. Your thoughts are just as powerful and have the same ability to transform the world as any inventor who has ever lived. Perhaps you won’t be inventing an incandescent bulb like Thomas Edison, but you will be reinventing your stagnant life into something more. You will be getting motivated to take the steps necessary to make all your dreams—large and small—become realities. Once they begin coming true, you will be infused with the knowing that you can achieve anything you want. You’ll be getting motivated to dream and set even more goals.
The age-old phrase, “Reach for the moon, because even if you miss, you will still be among the stars,” is truly words to live by. There is no one in this world who couldn’t use a shiny little star to call their own!
