Jul 27, 20234 min read

Helpful Tips for Motivation

Updated: Jul 27, 2023

By Michelle Lowden, CCSS

There will undoubtedly be times when the going gets tough in life. You may face seemingly insurmountable obstacles or find yourself needing more motivation. Setting goals is good for mental health and life satisfaction, but it takes work to motivate yourself. Many people need help with getting and staying motivated. Motivation is an interesting concept because many think it is crucial to maintaining their routine. Not staying consistent can create frustration, threaten our self-confidence, and sometimes make us feel worse than before setting said goal. Fortunately, there are ways to hack your motivation to stay consistent with your routine. When you make working toward your goal a habit—an automatic conditioned response—you no longer have to rely so much on feeling motivated. In this post, we'll explore some of these methods and how you can implement them in your life.

Tip #1 - Set Realistic Goals

The first step to staying motivated is to set realistic goals. Starting is much easier when the task is small and can help build momentum naturally with less mental resistance. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of starting a new routine and set unrealistic goals that are too difficult to achieve. Whatever your big goal may be, start by breaking it down into smaller chunks. Being a more present parent might be a big goal. Smaller goals could be practicing deep breathing for the next seven days, playing with your kids for 30 minutes every night, or reducing screen time daily by 15 minutes this week. Notice that these goals all have a specific time frame assigned to them. Connecting those actions to a specific time makes your goal more actionable.

Tip #2 - Find Your "Why"

To stay motivated, you need to have a reason for why you're doing what you're doing. Ask yourself why you want to establish a routine. You may want to feel more confident, create structure, or break bad habits. Whatever your reason, remind yourself of it often to stay motivated. Please avoid getting caught up in doing what you feel pressured to do by others around you. It's important to dive deep and find what will keep you consistent. If your why isn't motivating you, you may need a new why to connect your goals back to your purpose.

Tip #3 - Create a Routine

Work, paying bills, cleaning, cooking, shopping, exercising, getting enough sleep, and taking care of children are just some of the things millions of people do each day, and it is easy to be overwhelmed. It can feel impossible to get everything done, let alone take care of yourself – especially if you're already struggling with a mental health concern like depression or anxiety. By creating routines, we organize our days so that taking care of tasks and ourselves becomes a pattern that makes it easier to get things done without having to think hard about them.

Tip #4 - Acknowledge Your Progress

Remind yourself that baby steps are still progress. We need to be careful about our inner critic when evaluating what progress looks like. Building new routines takes time and patience, but the best things come from dedication. Rewarding yourself is all about cultivating new habits and long-term personal growth. Knowing that there's a reward waiting for you at the end can help keep you motivated to push through the tough days. Remember, you can be rewarded in non-materialistic ways, like listening to your favorite music playlist or self-validation.

Tip #5 - Surround Yourself with Motivation

The people we surround ourselves with impact how we think, act, and feel daily. Stepping out of your comfort zone can be challenging but worth it. People who encourage you to step out of your comfort zone are the people you need to spend time with rather than people who believe in living inside a bubble, in relative comfort.

Staying motivated can be challenging. Still, it's essential to achieve your goals by setting realistic goals, finding your "why," creating a routine, acknowledging your progress, and surrounding yourself with motivation; you can hack your motivation and stay consistent with your routine. Consistency is key, so stay motivated and keep pushing toward your goals. However, we can't predict everything that could happen, but we can anticipate those obstacles that are likely to occur from time to time based on our unique circumstances. Accepting that not every day will go exactly as planned, and that's okay.

If you struggle to get motivated, talk to someone you trust or a mental health professional who can provide valuable strategies. You might need guidance to get your spark back at a certain point. No shame in that! Therapy or support groups are fantastic resources you can benefit from in good and challenging times. Having someone to help you take that first step can give you all the momentum you need to return to yourself.

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