HOW TO MASTER YOUR MOTIVATION

First thing is first… If you want to master motivation, you need to master your internal game first.

What do we mean by this?  You need to have a solid set of internal motivators…. And the best way to have this, is through the creation of a compelling goal or goals.

Why do you need compelling goals you ask?  Because, when a compelling goal is created, it will pull you towards it.

We love what Best Selling author, Dr. Joe Vitale shared during an interview that the owner of The Strive conducted with him a long time ago.  He stated that achieving goals are fun and easy for him, and that he finds real pleasure both in working towards those goals, and the actual attainment of them.

Now, if you listened to that interview, you’d know that he has authored 70+ books, which is no small achievement.

And from the sound of it, he did so with a smile on his face….

And the way he was able to do this, was by creating compelling goals that pulled him towards his achievement.  In other words, he created goals that were exciting and energizing to him.  Goals that he could hardly wait to accomplish.

MASTER YOUR INTERNAL MOTIVATION

So, rule #1 to master your motivation…..is related to internal motivation.

You need to set goals for yourself…and not just any goals, but extremely compelling goals.

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LEVERAGE EXTERNAL MOTIVATION

Alright, rule #2 to master motivation……is to leverage external motivation.

A while back, we wrote an article related to optimal motivation.  And the consensus was this, that in order to find optimal levels of motivation, one needs to have sufficient levels of both external and internal motivation.  The two need to be married.

Now, external motivation, is motivation that stems from the outside….   Here is a nice little definition of external motivation for you….

“External motivation refers to behavior that is driven by external rewards such as money, fame, grades, and praise. This type of motivation arises from outside the individual, as opposed to internal motivation, which originates inside of the individual.”

So, great external motivators come in the form of watching a movie, video, or reading a good book… as they have the ability to remind you of the money, the fame, or the praise that you’ll receive once you reach your goals!!

As such, when we have  strong compelling goals, and we combine them with a healthy dose of external motivation, i.e movies, books, media. Etc… we can really prime ourselves to heightened performance and improved goal achievement…..

And this leads me to third rule we must pay heed to, in order to master our motivation.

You ready for Rule #3 for mastering motivation?

USE HABIT TRIGGERS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF

Rule #3 for mastering your motivation is to create a habit trigger around motivation.

High Performance coach Brendon Burchard, … talks extensively on the importance of having habit triggers set in place to keep us doing the things we most want and need to do.

In other words, if we want to stay energized and motivated for achieving our goals, we need to ensure we build in habit triggers that remind us to stay fired up….to keep moving forward, to keep grinding….to keep taking the actions that are going to get us to our mountain top!

Many of the people I’ve interviewed on the podcast in the past, have mentioned how important they found having a morning routine is… to staying motivated….   And in those morning routines…. Many have said they watch motivational videos, or listen to motivational podcasts as part of their morning routine.

In short, they’ve habitualized motivation.  The morning routine is their habit trigger.

Now a powerful technique for habitualizing motivation that Brendon Burchard  suggests… is to simply set a timer on your phone.

Now he speaks about setting a 50 minute reminder to get us up and move around, drink water, and do a bit of exercise every 50 minutes of working on a specific task or project… the result is increased productivity.

However, this same habit trigger hack can be used for motivating oneself.

If you’re a regular reader of The STRIVE, you’ll be doing this unconsciously…because just about everything we publish weaves powerful and motivational quotes, videos, or insights that can get you fired up.

And there you have it guys… 3 ways to master your motivation…..

Here they are again….

1) Focus on your internal motivation: In other words, create compelling goals that pull you into action!

2) Focus on using external motivation: tap external stimuli  (movies, videos, books, magazines) from time to time to remind you what you’ll get when you  achieve your goal.

3) Focus on habitualizing your motivation: create a habit trigger to ensure you are staying fired up for accomplishment.  This can be in the form of a morning routine, using a timer every few hours, or whatever works for you…  Wait a minute…

CONCLUSION

Mastering your motivation is a choice, and you now have the insights and the tools to make it happen.

Keep going for those dreams friends!

Till next time…..

STRIVE

PS – If you enjoyed this post on how to master motivation, then you’ll enjoy these other supporting resources on motivation:

• 14 Ways to Get and Stay Motivated

• 10 Best Ways to Get Moving In The Morning

• 7 Best Ways to Get Truly Motivated