Passive observation of other people’s success on social media doesn’t work as a source of motivation because it only causes different emotions, and this reaction is transient, and its action isn’t enough to infect you with a sustainable desire to change your life for the better. But there are techniques that are effective in finding motivation. These are the main ones.
Record Your Progress
If you weigh yourself every morning, keep a journal or download an app to record your daily progress. When you start yoga, don’t be lazy to take a “before” photo because in two or three weeks, you’ll be able to enjoy the “after” photo, and in another month, you’ll see that you’re able to bend lower and keep your body straighter in different asanas — isn’t that a reason to be happy and proud?
Count everything you can count: steps, kilometers, hours of exercise, days without added sugar or caffeine… Avoid meticulous calorie counting, as it isn’t safe in terms of forming eating disorders and an unhealthy fixation on food.
Celebrate Progress With Small Rewards
Psychologists recommend rewarding yourself with small gifts for making progress: let it be a lipstick or pendant, a new yoga mat, or a beautiful water bottle. However, if you don’t support excessive consumption and prefer to adhere to the principles of minimalism, exchange things for impressions. Go for a walk in your favorite park, play a few rounds at the online casino Vave, visit an interesting exhibition, and go to a silly movie and spend a couple of hours laughing at funny jokes.
Don’t forget that when you mark your progress, your brain also makes marks in its “journal of achievements” and each time gives you a little dopamine, which feels like anticipation of new victories and a desire to stay the course.
So don’t neglect to record your successes: take photos, write them down, and share your skills on social media.
Take Care of Your Emotional Well-Being
If you are in a bad mood or in a state of chronic, unresolved conflict at work or in the family, it can drain your psychological resources and reduce motivation. To be in tone and regularly feel the desire to move according to the plan, remember to close the basic needs: eat a balanced diet, sleep at least eight hours a day, alternate work with rest, communicate with pleasant people, reduce interaction with unpleasant ones, and monitor your own mood background.
Negative emotions, even if they are short-term, can cause you to suddenly lose motivation.
For example, if someone insults you on public transportation, you get upset and angry. The first impulse in such a situation is to withdraw into yourself, hide at home under a blanket, and spend the evening watching the series. In general, nothing terrible will happen if you do so. However, if you are prone to emotional swings, you often get upset about anything, you easily get frustrated, and you take every little thing to heart. This can be the reason why you can never achieve the desired result: to make the body more relieved, lose weight, improve stretching, or learn a foreign language.
In this situation, a psychologist can help. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy removes habitual unhealthy patterns of thinking, which time after time lead you to the embrace of a blanket on the couch with a bag of chips. It will take some time to learn to see the world differently, but it’s worth it. Because a psychologist can teach you to recognize your thoughts and feelings and work with them effectively, instead of diving deep into a negative state and getting stuck in it.
Answer the Question “Why?”
Motivation doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s important to realize what all this effort is for. Do you want to lose weight so that your knee and ankle joints stop hurting? That’s a great reason to enroll in a fitness program with a gentle trainer. Do you need to diet because you recently had your gallbladder removed? It’s a great solution because eating a balanced, pre-planned diet will help you feel good all the time, work, and spend time with loved ones, rather than lying in bed with nausea and abdominal discomfort. Do you want to learn Spanish so you can make new friends on the web and then maybe travel abroad for a personal or professional life? It’s not a bad plan, but it lacks specificity. Find out when and where you want to go, calculate your budget, and make a plan of action.
Now look again at popular blogs where authors share the secrets of their success. Try to determine what was the motivation of this or that blogger when he or she was at the beginning of the journey? Maybe a similar formulation of the task for the future will work for you?
It’s always a good idea to enlist the support of loved ones as well as professionals. A psychologist, nutritionist, or dance teacher — find an expert and a teacher you trust. Motivation can and should be cultivated like a plant, using a variety of ways to nourish it.