You can be anything you want if you can develop the right habits. Even if you don’t get to the level you wish to, you can get a lot closer than you currently are today. Being self-motivated is a prerequisite to any dream. You can't even get on the dream track until you learn to motivate yourself. You can't rely on others to do it or something to motivate you outside of yourself.
The optimistic person sees the positive, and they focus on how they can be better. The pessimists focus on all the wrong things, and then they beat themselves up.
Optimism is a Must to Stay Self Motivated
Any self-motivated person is going to be bursting with optimism. Think about this for a second. Why would anyone work towards anything if they were not optimistic? No one works hard when they expect to fail?
Optimism changes your entire world view. Bad things happen to everyone. Everyone has to deal with job loss, rejection, feeling unloved, and not being enough. The optimistic person sees the positive, and they focus on how they can be better. The pessimists focus on all the wrong things, and then they beat themselves up.
When you are bursting with optimism, not only do you lift yourself, but you also lift others. You feel so good about your life that you are willing to try anything because you can only see the positives.
Choose Principle Over Feeling
When it comes down to it, you always are choosing between principles and feelings. A principle says that you need to work out and eat well. Your feelings say stop at Mcdonalds and get two apple pies with that Big Mac. Principle knows what the right thing to do is when you follow the right path, its always backed by a promise.
When you choose feelings, you get to feel good for a moment, but you think pathetic in the long run. No one eats McDonald's and feels good about themselves. No one skips a workout or watches TV all day and feels good about themselves when you stick with your principles. It's way different! Principles build you up because you are doing more of the things you know will make your life better.
If you keep choosing to do what you feel, you will be zapped of all your self-motivation. But the more you stick with principles, the more self motivated you are to keep things going.
A Daily Routine Will Keep You Self Motivated
Successful people develop daily routines to stick with their principles. Here at Habit Stacker, our system teaches you how to build Habits through Habit Stacking. The goal of habit stack is to use one habit as a cue to another habit. You can keep this chain going and knock out a bunch of habits at one time.
I wake up at 3:10 AM, and that is the lead habit that triggers me to make the rest of my habit. By 7:00 AM, I have accomplished more than half of my daily habits.
The daily routine kills your feelings. Regardless of what you feel like doing, you crave getting your routine done. Habits are automatic behaviors that You don't need to think about doing. That means you can develop habits of success without thinking about starting.-
Focused On Long- Term Mission
The most self-motivated people are working towards something much bigger. You need to have this because that is how you push past obstacles. If someone is in the way of what you want right now, you focus on the big picture and what you want to happen in 10 years.
Focusing on the future has a way of making problems shrink. Did car break down? Will this matter in 10 years most likely not so do the best you can with what you have and keep it moving. People who have a long term mission, use excellent habits to work towards that. Its easier to stay motivated when you can see what needs to be done to succeed in the first place.
The Early Riser is Always Self Motivated
Getting up early makes you feel like a monster. Most people can't do it! They love their beds too much. Even if you do, you find a way to break through that. The morning is when you have the most motivation and will power. If you can get by that initial feeling of dread that you have when you first open your eyes, you will be okay.
Waking up early leaves you with nothing to do but grind. What else can you do at 5 AM? If you are up, there is no one to talk to; the sun is not up yet; there is no point in watching TV. The wee hours of the day were made for grinders. Because you have more time to grind, you also see more progress. Progress will motivate anyone to keep going.
Listen to Motivational Content
The one thing about being a self-motivated person is that you may spend a lot of time building up others. That can be draining! You have to take time to fill yourself back up.
The great thing about the world we live in is that there is a tonne of free resources you can use. PepTalk app has a tonne of motivational content you can use. YouTube is jam-packed with the motivational content. You can access all this stuff for free! Ted Talks offer great informative speeches that you can listen to for free.
Sometimes you can be motivated, but everyone needs a pick me up. I find that these motivational talks can even help me a lot when I am just feeling down or tired. You may not be feeling the day, and that motivational talk will help you remember why you are doing all this.
Hang Around People Who Are Self Motivated
Last but not least, you want to hang around go-getters. You want a tight-knit group of people that you can talk to who are also self-motivated and chasing big dreams. These people will remind you that you are not crazy.
Your tribe will support you and help to pick you up, as well. Sometimes you need people to talk to who gets what your day to day grind looks like. Try your best to make this group of people all at a higher level than you. The more you hang with people at the next level, the more motivated you will be to get there.
Conclusion
Being self-motivated is about having the right daily habits. It starts with being optimistic. Once you have that, there is nothing that can get in your way. You will see all the beautiful opportunities out there that will help you to stay self-motivated.
If you don't have a long term mission, you need to get one today. You can always improve it later, but the mission is what you want to accomplish on your death bed. It should make waking up and chasing the dream 100% worth it. Even if you fail, it should still be worth it. You can track if you are doing these things or not using the Habit Stacker App.