Remember how you make that resolutions or projects list every year in January and then kind of put it aside and lose track of it at some point when your motivation isn’t as high and promising as it originally was. There are some tricks you can keep up your sleeve to fuel your motivation tank when you need to, but be warned some of these may have side effects such as sparkling eyes and jumping through the roof energy level.
The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain
1. Visualize your future dream life. Picture your future self, how balanced, mature and accomplished you will be and how far you will get in your life in terms of career, relationships, living and working environment and more importantly what kind of person you want to be. I remember watching one of Jeanna Marbles videos on Youtube and hearing her say something that struck me. She shared that she would imagine an older cooler version of herself talking and reassuring her current self.
We generate fears while we sit. We over come them by action. Fear is natures way of warning us to get busy. – Dr. Henry Link
2. Get started and celebrate your good moves. This one is very simple. Sometimes, starting can be scary or stressful, but once you kick things off, ideas and motivation will start building up. Remember to celebrate small victories and keep a box or web page with you track record as a reminder of what you can do. It can be your social media profile with photos of your memories of all the places you visited, events you attended, people you met, the list of all your career accomplishments, a box filled with trophies and honors certificates, etc.
3. Watch (listen to) motivational Youtube videos. I love this video, simply because it’s like you’re watching a movie that’s literally talking to you and giving you the electroshock boost you need in very straight forward points.
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows. – Ralph Martson
4. Attend an inspiring conference. First of all, you should know I am a conference addict and I will literally travel for it! What I love about conferences is all the learning and inspiration you get from listening to a leader who knows what he’s talking about, has been through good and hard times, how he dealt with those and his winning strategies and mistakes lessons. At the end of the day, remember that everyone has good and bad days and it’s part of the game.
5. Get a coach/mentor. Sometimes having someone following your progress and giving you professional feed back based on expertise and experience is the key. You can find mentorship through Jeune Chambre de Commerce de Montreal, many entrepreneurship incubators. A coach will be a bit more straight forward versus a mentor who is more like a guide. You can find different types of coaches such as life, career, business, health and career coaches here. You can also join groups sharing the same passion, activities or evolving in the same industry which usually have inner micro groups that could become your close support group. I will elaborate on this in an upcoming post.
Photo Credit: Chris M.