A Brief Back-story

This project (the ebook itself) was an inevitable outcome for Leo and myself.  Both passionately pursuing our best possible life, we’ve had a lot of experience with this sometimes elusive subject.  Motivation is something that is hard to nail down.  It’s one of those subjects that can be difficult to turn into a tangible topic.  Yet we feel confident that we’ve done just that, both on our blogs and the new ebook.

The Main Purpose of The Essential Motivation Handbook

The obvious reason for devising such a point of reference is to give people a powerful tool to push past those bumps in the road of life so that they may achieve the goals they’ve set to accomplish.  Yet another purpose of this ebook that many may miss is its ability to save you mass amounts of time and energy.

No longer will you have to search through countless blog posts and search results on Google to find the absolute best content on the subject of motivation.  We feel if this book can save you just ONE HOUR of your precious time, from searching and separating the wheat for the chaff, the price of purchase is paid for.  And as a bonus, you have all this great content wrapped up in a nice, neat, portable PDF package.  You just can’t beat that!

Speaking of Bonuses…

Another new aspect of this great product is the new bonus material we’re offering with each purchase (if you’ve already purchased The Essential Motivation Handbook you will be receiving these bonuses).  Leo and I created a 3 part bonus video where we answer reader questions regarding the topic of motivation.  We cover many aspects of the topic and dive into the depths of what gives a person the power to push past the mundane.

Become An Affiliate Today!

Last, but not least, we’re offering a 50% affiliate payout and would love for you to make money while helping us spread the news of this great new motivational resource.  So be sure to sign up for an affiliate account today! You’ll find some newly created banner images of differing sizes to help you effectively promote the product.

Final Thoughts

Thanks for taking the time to read through this rehash of our recent launch.  As mentioned above, be sure to check out the new site and enjoy The Essential Motivation Handbook if you’ve already made the purchase.

If you have any questions about any of the things mentioned you can feel free to contact me or find me on Twitter, otherwise, you may purchase The Essential Motivation Handbook here.

Eric

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post by Ali Hale of Aliventures.com.

You’re right at the start of a new project, or you’ve just set yourself a particular goal. You’re feeling energized and fired up. You get going, and it’s great: you’re in the flow, you’re enjoying yourself, and you’re certain you’re going to succeed.

The problem is, that level of motivation isn’t permanent. Pretty soon, you find that your motivation’s clocked out and gone home. Your project or goal doesn’t seem quite so thrilling any more. In fact, it’s beginning to feel like a bit of a drag.

All too often, this is the point at which people give up. They start smoking again. They ditch the diet. They skip the gym. They abandon their book, two chapters in. They stop blogging.

Which is a shame, because motivation isn’t a one-shot deal. It might feel like it’s gone, but it’s not irrecoverable. You can get it back.

Why Does Motivation Go?

Have you ever woken up in the morning and realized that your initial enthusiasm for your new diet, your meditation routine or your small business has simply … gone?

I think that motivation is a bit like heat energy: it dissipates over time. You boil the kettle and make a coffee – the water’s nice and hot. Boil the kettle and leave it for five hours, though … and it’s going to go cold.

If you took that just-boiled kettle and dunked it in a bathtub of ice, it’d go cold a lot faster. Motivation’s a bit like that too: you can be feeling really keen on something, then a friend or relative scoffs about it, laughs as you, or just doesn’t get it … and wham. Your motivation’s gone.

To get yourself re-motivated, you need to do things to maintain or ramp up the heat.

Get Fired Up Again

We’re all unique. What works to motivate one person won’t necessarily work for you. But these are some general ways of rekindling that motivating fire inside: in each, you’ll need to figure out what tone or style works best for you. (A good place to start might be learning how to motivate yourself.)

It’s not quite as easy as switching a kettle back on … but there are some specific things you can do:

1. Daydream and Visualize

Our motivation can start to ebb fast when we feel that there’s a long hard slog ahead with no end in sight. A great way to turn that around is to focus on what you’re going to get at the end of the journey. Is it:

• A healthy, fit body that you’re proud of?
• A completed book?
• A successful business – which will allow you to quit your day job?
• A degree or qualification?

Imagine how you’ll feel when you’ve accomplished your goal. Think about how you’ll look and stand and walk. Will you have more confidence? Will you be proud of yourself?

2. Read Motivating Materials

When I’m feeling low, discouraged or apathetic, I find that reading something inspiring and encouraging is a great pick-me-up. Find a few blogs, magazines or books which never fail to put a smile on your face, or which make you want to take action towards your goals.

It’s not necessarily the content that matters, but the tone. Reading something that’s written by someone who’s impassioned, enthusiastic and generous will help you to get into that mindset too – even if the actual material isn’t directly related to your project or goal.

Some of the motivating blogs on my list (for their style more than their content) are:

• ProBlogger (Darren Rowse)
• The Simple Dollar (Trent Hamm)
• IttyBiz (Naomi Dunford)

The current books I dip into when I’m feeling demotivated are:

• Career Renegade (Jonathan Fields)
• 4 Hour Workweek (Timothy Ferriss)
• Personal Development for Smart People (Steve Pavlina)
• The Success Principles (Jack Canfield)

Try out some of my recommendations – or ask others for theirs – and figure out a few blogs and books which work for you.

3. Talk to Someone Energizing

Have you ever talked to someone about your big goal or project, and found that they lit up with enthusiasm? Did they eagerly ask you for details, offer their encouragement, or simply convey an infectious sense of enthusiasm?

Just as there are “energy vampires” out there who seem to suck out your motivation, leaving you cold, there are also “energy donors” who get you fired up and ready to go.

Some great sources of these folk are:

• Seminars and conferences in your field
• Clubs or groups of people who share your interest or goal (make sure the feeling is one of enthusiasm and encouragement; some groups are full of people who’re just there to complain…)
• Friends and family who are always supportive of your plans
• Life coaches – it’s their job to keep you motivated, and accountable!

Motivation comes and goes – but you’re the one in control. Just like putting the kettle back on when it’s cooled, you can take action to get your motivation levels up again.

Has your motivation gone cold recently? What’re you going to do to get the temperature back up?

Ali Hale blogs about getting more from life at Aliventures. (Click here to grab the RSS feed.) She’s a freelance writer, a part-time student of creative writing, and – being English – isn’t a big coffee drinker but is very partial to a nice warm mug of tea.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post from Celestine Chua of celestinechua.com.

How would you gauge your motivational level? Are you constantly motivated, or do you need to keep doing self-talk in order to motivate yourself to get on with things?

What if I tell you that there’s a way to be endlessly motivated? What if I tell you that this is something everyone can do?

I’m a highly energetic and motivated person. Many of the people who have interacted with me before would comment on my incredibly high energy level. They usually remark with some tinge of amazement on how I can always remain so hyperactive and happy. One of my coaches even compared me with the Duracell bunny as a way of expressing how he felt about my high, endless energy levels. I have yet to decide on whether I like that particular analogy, but you get his point.

However, I was never always like this. Just last year, there was a period of time when I felt constantly tired, drained and vacant. At that time, I was working in a brand management role in my ex-company, which was among the Fortune 100. During the weekdays, I would wake up in the morning and feel a sense of drudgery from having to go to work. Throughout the week, I would subconsciously count down the days toward the weekend because that was when I get to do things I liked. When the weekend finally arrived, I would be spending it by watching TV shows, online videos, shopping, or sleeping (which I later found out to be escapist behaviors). Before I knew it, the weekend would be over and a new week had begun.

Honestly? It was an empty period of my life. I was always one to enjoy living and to see the upside of life. Having to go through life in this manner was just eating away inside of me. It felt terrible. It didn’t even feel like I was living life at all. Deep down, something didn’t feel right inside of me. Somehow, I knew that life shouldn’t be about living in emptiness.

When I delved into the situation, I realized the issue. I had lost my passion for my job. In place of that, my deep-seated passion towards helping others achieve personal excellence was calling out to me. It was a passion which had been present since a few years ago. A passion which I chose to set aside at that time as I didn’t want to miss the rare opportunity of working in a Fortune 100 to gain exposure and experience.

When I came to the realization, it was clear that I had to break away from a job I wasn’t passionate about to pursue my real passion. It was then that I made the decision to resign from my Fortune 100 career. It didn’t matter that the job with a high level of prestige factor, gratuitous paycheck, great career developments or attractive ancillary benefits such as travel. What mattered was I needed to do what I truly loved. The rest of the factors were secondary. What’s more, they were not exclusive to my corporate job and I knew I could always reattain them from new endeavors.

This decision to resign was the single most impactful decision I’ve made in my life.

Today, I really, really love life . I’m continuously motivated to drive onward and forward. I’m living every moment in joy and I can’t wait to see what’s next. And the reason why that’s the case is because I’m living my passion. I’m doing what I love – to help others be their best self and live their best life. While I’m busy every day writing at my blog, doing my coaching and conducting speeches, it’s a kind of busyness which I relish in. In fact, I simply can’t get enough of it – I just want to do more and more, because I love all of this so much!

So how do you become endlessly motivated? Follow your passion. This is my single one answer to you. I can list to you some laundry list of 40-50 motivational hacks you can use to boost your motivation levels, but these are just going to be short-term measures. If you aren’t fundamentally following your passion to begin with, no amount of external motivational stimuli can help to perk you up. Following your passion is the only sustainable, long-term path towards being motivated.

What is your passion? What is it that you love to do? What is it that gets you going? What do you want to be doing if you will definitely not fail?

Find it. Connect with it. Then start pursuing it. This pursuit can be in small tiny steps if you are someone who is afraid of big changes, or big strides if you are all about speed and action. Whatever it is, just make sure you are acting in increasing alignment to your heart’s desire. When you do that, you will find yourself more and more connected to your inner motivational source. You will find that you start feeling more and more alive each day, to the point where one day, you are finally fully pursuing your passion and experiencing the state of endless motivation.

Celestine Chua is a personal excellence coach who writes at her popular The Personal Excellence Blog to help others like you achieve excellence. Some of her top articles include: 50 Ways to Boost Your Productivity and Cultivate Good Habits in 21 Days.

A Pair of Passionate Writers

Leo Babauta of zenhabits and myself have brought together our best efforts to write, what we believe to be, one of the best books on motivation you’ll find anywhere! After much collaboration and pulling together our best work on the subject, we put together a powerful tool for anyone in need of more drive, efficiency and effective habits.  ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’ is your ticket to finally getting things done and moving past the mundane!

A Perfect Companion To A Best-Seller

You may or may not know this, but Leo is the author of a best-selling ebook on productivity called Zen To Done.  The reason it has done so well is because it actually does what it says it will.  People who read it actually become more productive.  Much of the time we purchase a product that says it will meet a need, but after we’re through, we fail to see the results advertised.  Well, Zen To Done does deliver and so does ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’.

Now, for the companion part.  When putting this work together, Leo and I wanted to not only create a stand alone solution to your motivational needs, but a perfect companion to one of the best books on productivity out there.  The fact is, learning how to be productive is only half the battle.  You need the ability to harness your internal fire to actually make things happen.  That’s where ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’ comes in, and it’s the combination of these two awesome books that will help anyone actually reach their goals and stop just dreaming of that elusive day that may never arrive.

The Book…

Here is the table of contents, listing the powerful insight you’ll find in this book:

1. How To Motivate Yourself

2. The Only Two Secrets to Motivating Yourself You’ll Ever Need

3. A Guide to Beating the Fears That Are Holding You Back

4. Task Ninja: Form the Action Habit

5. Top 20 Motivation Hacks

6. The Ultimate Guide to Motivation – How to Achieve Any Goal

7. Progress, Progress, Progress! 5 Tips To Keep You Moving Forward

8. 7 Steps to Turn Your Self-Improvement Desires Into Reality

9. 25 Killer Actions to Boost Your Self-Confidence

10. 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline

11. 16 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You’re in a Slump

12. 5 Tips For Motivational Recovery

13. The Magical Power of Focus

14. 10 Ways to Beat the “Can’t Get No Satisfaction” Syndrome

15. 30 Incredible Places to Turn When You Need Inspiration

16. How To Deal With Negative Feedback

17. How to Doggedly Pursue Your Dreams in the Face of Naysayers

18. Achieve Your Dreams Despite Pressures of Work and Family

19. Why You Should Celebrate Your Mistakes

20. How to Actually Execute Your To-do List

21. The Yin And Yang Of Persistence

22. Enduring the Valley to Get to Success

23. How To Relax And Why It’s So Important

24. The Simple Guide To Single-Tasking Success

25. Stop Reading About It and Do It

How Much?

The book is packed full of over 100 pages of powerful content and yet you can get your own copy for only $14.95!  And not only that, but if for any reason you believe this book doesn’t deliver, we offer a full 100% money-back guarantee, so you can buy with confidence!

This is a must-have for anyone in need of drive, inspiration and the tools to achieve any goal!  Get your copy here:  The Essential Motivation Handbook.

For Bloggers: If you’re interested in selling ‘The Essential Motivation Handbook’ on your site, sign up as an affiliate here.  We’re offering an amazing 50% affiliate payout and our 100% money-back guarantee covers your sales as well!

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post from Scott Quitter who blogs at A Couple of Quitters.

Ever have those days where you’re sitting on the couch with the TV remote in your hand going over the same tired channels again and again while you’re thinking, “Okay, I really need to get motivated!”? Has your life fallen into an endless routine of sameness where one day blurs into the next? Do you think about how just a few years ago, you were motivated, energized and very active but you don’t know how to get it back?

For some reason, many people, at one time or another, seem to innocuously slip into the no-motivation zone while their attention is somewhere else. We suddenly wake up and realize that we have no ambition anymore. Why? While there are a million reasons for this, you don’t need to know them all before taking steps to get your motivation groove back. Here’s a list of 12 motivation tricks that can give you the jolt you need to snap out of your sleep-walking life.

1. Start a new relationship. You don’t have to replace your boyfriend, girlfriend or spouse, but simply starting a new relationship with a new and interesting person with whom you have a lot in common can add some spice to your week and move you out of the doldrums. Go somewhere new and strike up a conversation. It works!
2. Pick up a new hobby. This is especially nice if you can involve a friend–perhaps a new friend! Also, if you have children, a spouse or significant other, start together and enjoy each other’s company. Picking up a new hobby or reconnecting with an old one can jazz you up and substantially boost your level of motivation.
3. Work out! Yes, I know this idea may hurt, at first, but if you don’t overwhelm yourself, in a very short amount of time, you’ll begin to feel like a million bucks. Grab a friend, set a goal, and hold each other accountable. Working out with a friend is a great motivator and so is losing weight and looking better. Don’t focus on what you’ll be losing (free time, excuses to be lazy), focus on what you’ll gain (feeling better, looking great). If you take exercise seriously, the gains you make in your energy level, your confidence, and your motivation will skyrocket.
4. Eat more fruits and veggies: Like exercise, if you can incorporate even a modest improvement in your eating habits, your psyche will turbo-charge your body and you’ll feel more motivated to take on new challenges.
5. Get inspired! Seek and explore inspirational teachers, coaches and people. Perhaps you need a life coach to get you inspired. Maybe you need a good book like the quotes of Abraham Lincoln, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Maybe finding some new music that has great energy is just the thing. Have coffee with someone who is very optimistic and ask what inspires her. Start or find a local group of people who get together once a week to talk about how to get inspired. Very often, looking for inspiration in the company of like-minded people will intensify the results. Whatever your source, finding a way to get inspired is a great way to quickly get your motivation muscles moving.
6. Teach someone a new skill. Find someone who is looking to learn a skill in which you are an expert. Spend some time teaching him. The reciprocity and motivation will flow both ways.
7. Have some fun. Sometimes we get into motivation a rut because we haven’t done anything fun for a while. Break out of your routine by participating in a fun activity. Go bowling, hiking or play putt-putt golf; find people to play board games with; go sight-seeing or antique shopping; play laser-tag, go roller-skating or bungee-jumping; spend the day at the zoo; visit a museum you’ve always wanted to go to. Make a list and do something fun!
8. Sleep more. If you’re running on four or five hours of sleep each night, not only will you feel lethargic, but your brain chemistry will be all out of whack. The brain regulates feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin. The simple act of getting enough sleep can balance out these chemicals and increase them to their natural levels. This, alone, could restore your normal level of motivation.
9. Laugh out loud. Laughter is one of the best ways to quickly enhance your mood and electrify your motivation. Make a run to the video store and rent a few good comedies. Then, while your mood is all bubbly, go out and have some fun (see item 7) or call someone and make him laugh.
10. Set a meaningful goal. In the back of your mind, there is probably something you’ve always wanted to do, be or have. Set a goal to practice or start working toward your objective. Then take some action right away. When you’re done, decide on when you’re going to come back to it so you can keep moving forward. Nothing motivates like a meaningful goal and regular progress toward it.
11. Discover a cause. Sometimes in life we become uninspired because we’ve stopped moving forward. But finding a cause that we connect with such as building houses for charity, providing drinking water in depressed villages, giving coats to homeless people, or anything that gives your life more purpose while helping others can totally rock your world! Get involved and volunteer to help! Who wouldn’t feel motivated by doing something like that?
12. Motivate another person. One of the absolute best ways to get your own motivation groove on is to motivate another person. Seeing the other person getting totally excited and enthusiastic causes a mirror response in your body. You feel great for helping to motivate another person and suddenly you feel motivated too. And now you’re ready to take on the world.

Be sure to join Scott and his wife as they seek to escape the 40-hour work week at their blog A Couple of Quitters.  Also, don’t forget to follow him on Twitter @ScottQuitter.

This is meant to be an exhaustive list of the very best motivational and personal productivity quotes in existence.  Over time, as it builds in size, my hope this that will be a great recourse for those who need a motivational boost and/or some fresh insight into the challenges of personal productivity.  So to reach this status as the very best motivational and personal productivity quotes around, I need YOU to help in the process.  I would like for you to share with us what you believe to the the very best motivational and personal productivity quotes.  The ones that have really made a positive impact on your life.

The way this works is simple.  The comments below have the ability to initiate direct replies to any one specific comment.  They can go 6 deep which means that one comment can have up to 5 replies.  I’m am allowing each commenter to have their own grouping of up to 6 total comments (all connected by direct replies).  You can only post 3 total quotes and then use the other 3 spots for you own personal thoughts about the quote.  Maybe you can expand on the quote or tell us why you feel it is one of the best quotes around.  Also, I would encourage you to include at least one quote that is your own, if you have one that you deem worthy to make this list of the very best.  Don’t be shy, WOW us with your amazing insight!

An example of this layout would be as follows:

Comment #1: “Quote” ~ Quote Author

Reply #1 to Comment #1: Personal thoughts/insight.

Reply #2: “Quote” ~ Quote Author

Reply #3 to Reply #2: Personal thoughts/insight.

Reply #4: “Quote” ~ Quote Author

Reply #5 to Reply #4: Personal thoughts/insight.

Sorry if this seems complicated, but it’s super simple.  Just lay out 3 of the very best motivational and personal productivity quotes on the planet and reply to each one with your own insight and do so by sticking to your boundary of on comment grouping.  The point of this list is the be clearly focused on sharing the best quotes, not holding conversations, so try to keep your comments focused on that goal.  This list is intended to be a growing resource for inspiration, insight and all out motivation.  So let’s make it that way!

I’m going to start by sharing some quotes from a man who has had a lot of impact on many people’s lives and who has said many powerful things to boost our motivation and personal productivity.  His name is Zig Ziglar and here are 8 of his quotes that I believe simply and clearly sum up this very subject.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

This is something I struggle with.  I seem to split achievement and helping others into two separate categories.  But I’m finding that these two actions couldn’t be any more interconnected.  Sure, you can be a tyrant and get what you want, but few of us want that.  And the fact is, people aren’t stupid.  Our intentions our as clear as day and those around us are inspired by honesty, a positive outlook and the desire to make OTHERS successful, not just have the whole pie to ourselves.

“The greatest good we can do for others is not just to share our riches with them, but to reveal theirs.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

Along the same lines as the first quote, this one represents a passion I’ve had ever since I started seeking success in my own life.  Nothing inspires me more than being able to help another human being see their own unique abilities and the amazing possibilities that lie ahead.  It goes along the lines of the idea that if you, “Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man how to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.”  (OK, so I kind of snuck two in their… )

“It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

It may sound a bit corny to some, but I can’t think of a more simple and direct way of summing up motivation and the idea that success comes to those with the highest tolerance to friction, not the highest IQ score.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.. that’s why we recommend it daily.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

I LOVE this one.  How many of us get motivated to do something and then become SHOCKED when that drive doesn’ t last.  We have to CONSTANTLY reconnect to our passion and drive, reminding ourselves why we are moving in a particular direction.  Fail to do so and we’ll find ourselves stranded on the side of the road with no gas station in sight.

“You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind. “  ~ Zig Ziglar

Between our self talk, the TV/Internet and the people around us, we are constantly bombarded by manipulation.  Just by changing what goes INTO our minds, we can change so much of what comes out of them.

“If you don’t have daily objectives, you qualify as a dreamer.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

OK, so this might not qualify as the most powerful quote to have ever graced our visual receptors, but I believe that it holds a truth that we need to be aware of.  I relate so much to this quote because I am SUCH a dreamer.  Part of what makes me such a driven person is the fact that I can see so much possibility on the horizon.  I day dream about great things, but with out a daily road map of what I need to do to actually REACH those wonderful destinations, I’m nothing more than a day dreamer, living in the mirage of my own made up metropolis. (And you can QUOTE me on that! )

“The major difference between the big shot and the little shot is the big shot is just a little shot who kept on shooting.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

The essence of motivation and the results of personal persistence!

“You need a plan to build a house. To build a life, it is even more important to have a plan or goal.”  ~ Zig Ziglar

Many of us live our lives under the illusion that a life is just a mix of whims and chance.  That somehow our location in 10 years is up to the direction of the wind.  We need to map out our desired destinations, learn the ins and outs of our abilities and then harness the many great opportunities around us to push ahead.  We may not have complete control over the obstacles just ahead, but our heading is absolutely determined by our own personal decisions.

Choose wisely!

You have 3 slots to share what you believe to be the very best motivational and personal productivity quotes on the planet.  Don’t feel the need to do so all at once.  Feel free to come back months from now and lay down your next great quote.

And whether or not you share anything with us, I hope this page becomes a powerful resource for motivation, inspiration and personal productivity insight.  That you may be driven to passionately push ahead as you pursue a life that is an extraordinary act in the making!

Eric

It’s been a long time coming.  A blog called “Motivate Thyself” has yet to hit on this very specific topic.  It’s one of those subjects that many try to touch on, but few do more than repeat the obvious.  “How to motivate yourself?” is a question that only YOU know the answer to.  Hidden deep inside all of us is both the desire to do great things and the knowledge to strive for them.  But for many of us, these are things that are buried beyond our normal understanding of ourselves.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you have to first learn a bit more ABOUT yourself.

First: What IS motivation?

Think about a car, sitting on a flat, paved road.  The engine’s not running and the break is not engaged.  Your job is to push the car past a certain point.  So you lean into it and start pushing with all your might.  At first it’s barely budging, but then starts creeping ahead.  You dig deep and give it all you’ve got.  The tires start to make their way around and the car starts moving forward.  Now your energy is beginning to transfer from brute force to a kind of flow.  The further you push the car, the easier it gets as momentum starts to make its way into the scenario.  The motivation was the act of breaking the barrier between frozen and forward motion.  Once that took place, momentum was born and your energy enhanced.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you’ll need to decipher your own personal tricks for breaking that barrier.

Second: Know what TRULY turns you on!

When I was a car salesman, my manager always tried to motivate us with money.  I remember one specific instance when I had been working really hard and was looking forward to the following day as it was my day off.  There was a big sale going on and the more salesman on the lot, the better it was for the dealership.  So my manager came up to me with a kind of evil grin and said, “You gonna be here tomorrow?”  (He knew it was my day off.)  “Because you’ll sure make a killing if you ARE here!”  In my mind I just rolled my eyes as I HATE being manipulated, but the point is, my manager just didn’t know my hot spots.  Sure, I like money and all that, but I cherish my time much more.  If he had honestly come up to me and said something like, “Hey Eric, I know you’re off tomorrow, but we could really use you on the lot.  And if it helps, you’ll probably make some good money, which never hurts.  But I totally understand if you can’t make it.”  I may not have come in either way, but that kind of honest request lights a fire inside me that is much more likely to drive me to action, than just shaking some cash in front of my face.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you’ve got to know your REAL hot buttons.  I have been the one to dangle money in front of my face many times, only to crash and burn when my drive shows its shallowness.  But when I hit on what TRULY matters to me, nothing can slow me down.

Third: Focus on making the car move, not on moving the car.

Going back to the ‘car pushing’ scenario, I want to point out the importance of short sided thinking when it comes to motivating yourself.  Focus takes energy and energy is the resource that starts the car moving.  If our focus is spread out, our energy will be weak.  So we can’t afford to worry about anything AFTER the car starts to move.  That part will take care of itself.  (ADHD moment…)  It’s kind of like a magnifying glass in the sun.  If the glass was flat and therefore spreads the light equally over the object in its path, nothing would happen.  But by manipulating the glass to focus the light onto a pinpointed area, you harness all the power that the light has to offer, creating a powerful beam.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you have to stop concerning yourself with the whole process.  Your job is to JUST break that ‘freeze barrier’.

Forth: You’ve got to CUT THE FAT!

Do you ever have those times in your life when even a few common tasks feel like a strain?  Chances are, you’re bearing the weight of so many invisible burdens that EVERYTHING is a challenge.  How can you put ALL your energy into starting that motion if half of it is being drained by these unnecessary burdens?  I’m not suggesting that we can go throughout life, totally care free and lightly loaded, but much of what we willingly take on becomes a burden, not a future asset.  Look at your days, see what takes up your time and determine the value of these tasks.  Then cut those responsibilities that drain more than they produce.  (Another ADHD moment…)  You know when you get a new computer and there’s all that CRAPware preloaded on it?  You know, those free trials of this and advertisements of that?  And you know how sluggish everything runs because of it?  Then you uninstall all the junk and suddenly your computer feels fast and efficient, the way you expected it to.  Well this is precisely how many of us live.  Loaded down with good intentions and what seemed like good ideas, we sluggishly go through our days, wondering why we can’t get anything done.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you need to go to ‘Add/Remove Programs’ and take care of some business.  Unless, of course, you have a Mac.  Then you can just sit there and laugh at the Windows users. 

Fifth: Learn to use past motion for future motivation.

I like to run during the winter.  It’s easy to do when it’s cold outside and a great way to get some fresh air.  But if I get out of this healthy habit, I find it much harder to act on.  But if I can push through a few sessions, I find that the ones ahead are much more fluid.  One positive makes the possibility of a second much more viable.  Five, even more so.  So if you want to know how to motivate yourself, you need to learn the magic of momentum as you harness the power of your past positive motion.

I hope I’ve done this topic justice.  I would like to think that “Motivate Thyself” knows a little bit about how to “Motivate Yourself” (that domain name was taken, by the way. )  But in the end it’s completely up to YOU.  There’s no magic pill or formula to make it happen.  Your drive is the product of your own doing and your willingness to endure the pain on your way to prosperity is key.

1-Live a healthy life.

I know this is stating the obvious and has been mentioned many times before but it can’t be left out of a list like this. The kind of passion I am referring to is fueled by a healthy lifestyle.

2-Know yourself.

One of the things that is crucial to maintaining passion throughout your life is knowing yourself. The more you know about your personality, likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses, etc… the better off you will be. Know what tempts you and you will have a better chance of enduring temptation. Know what truly drives you and you will most certainly stay driven.

3-Always do what you believe is right.

One of the things that can really trip you up in life is falling prey to temptation. We may cross the line or venture into shady territory for a chance to get ahead. But the kind of positive passion that I am talking about is fueled by purity of heart. If you don’t feel that what you’re doing is something to be proud of, then it will only be a matter of time before you lose your desire to push ahead.

4-Keep a routine that helps you pursue your goals.

The more you get to know yourself the more you know the kind of routine that you thrive off of. Figure out the daily tasks, events and rituals that help you stay on task and stay motivated. For me, going for an afternoon run helps me sleep better which helps me have more energy which helps me get more done which…you get the point.

5-Learn from your mistakes, don’t dwell on them.

I remember a lot of the big mistakes I’ve made so far in my life (notice I said ‘so far’), but it’s those mistakes that have helped me make some of the better decisions of recent years. This is because I’ve chosen to see these mistakes as a guide on what NOT to do. Not a reason to feel bad. Learn from your history’s mistakes and you won’t repeat them.

6-Always have a healthy escape ready at a moments notice.

I absolutely love to go the our local radio control airfield (an old airfield that is now used by an RC club to fly radio controlled airplanes). Not just to fly my planes but to just relax and enjoy the scenery. Its a little ways in the country, away from the roads and the sounds of the city. A river runs through the lower field and the sky always seems a little bluer and the air a little fresher when I’m there. This is one of my main ‘healthy escapes’. Every once in a while, when life seems too much to handle, I’ll go here and just lay on a bench and look up at the clouds. The buzzards, hawks and sometimes a pair of Bald Eagles, like to soar through these clouds. I just dream that I’m one of these birds flying higher and higher. This is a place where I ALWAYS come away more relaxed and content than before I came.

So it is essential that you find your own brand of ‘healthy escapes’ and always keep them near by. Because when the walls start to feel like they’re closing in, you’ll be glad you have a healthy haven to run to.

7-Encourage others.

One of the great things about encouraging another human being is that you are almost always encouraged in the process. When you are telling someone else to never give up, to keep pushing forward, there’s a part of you that is saying the same thing to yourself. An example in my life is this blog. The more I write about making the most of your days, the stronger my own determination becomes. I want to see you succeed and that makes ME want to succeed.

8-Always listen but don’t always believe.

It’s very easy to disregard what people say. But in doing so we can miss out on some great advise. There are also a lot of negative ideas going on all the time that are just waiting to sabotage your passion and desire to succeed. So learn to distinguish between the constructive advice the destructive nonsense that often times spews from other peoples mouths.

9-Stay involved, ESPECIALLY when you don’t feel like it.

Having interaction with others and involvement in activities outside your bubble is always a great thing. But when you are struggling to keep that bounce in your step, this involvement is even more important. Having other people and activities to get you out of your head is a great way to help you clear you mind. And it is a clear mind that is essential to helping you get through those hard times and back on track with your daily pursuits.

10-Know when to throttle back.

Sometimes I just start to feel burnt out. I know when this occurs because everything I think about seems pointless or too hard. Trying to push through this is a challenge that may help you grow stronger, but sometimes it’s just better to back off a little and give yourself a break. There’s a difference between pulling yourself out of a slump and pushing yourself too hard. Know the difference and adjust accordingly. But when you start to reach your breaking point, slow down, give yourself the rest you need and you’ll be back on track in no time.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a guest post by Ali Hale of The Office Diet and Alpha Student.

When undertaking a big project – losing weight, starting a new business, writing a novel – you probably draw motivation from your expected end result. Perhaps you cut out a picture from a magazine to represent an ideal weight, imagine your bank balance increasing month-on-month with your business running well, or picture that book with your name on the spine.

This sort of visualization is definitely a boost to motivation, and gives you the push you need to get started on the path to your goal. If your enthusiasm seems to occasionally wane along the way, though, you’ll want to look for some lower-level, day-to-day motivations.

When you’re wondering whether all the healthy eating and exercising is worth it, when you’re still struggling to get your new business off the ground, or when your novel has stalled part way through chapter three, that end goal can seem very far away. Here’s how to keep your motivation and enthusiasm up:

1. List what you enjoy about actively working on your project

(By “project”, I mean any long-term set of actions leading to a specific goal – not necessarily a work-related “project”.)

Get a piece of paper, or open a new document on your computer, and list what you enjoy most about working on your project. These are the benefits you get on a daily basis, as you head towards your end goal.

For example, if your big project is writing a novel, the day-to-day things that you enjoy might be:

• The fun of creating characters and putting them in difficult situations
• The sense of achievement when you meet the day’s wordcount
• Sharing your work-in-progress with friends in a writers’ group

If you can’t find anything that you enjoy on a day-to-day basis, it’s time to reconsider whether this is a goal you should have. With any big goal, the journey to get there is as important as reaching it: don’t assume that achieving the goal itself is what makes you feel happy or fulfilled. So if you want to have written a novel because you’d enjoy seeing your name in print, but you dread approaching the keyboard each day, rethink your goal.

2. Set small and specific sub-goals

If your end goal is going to take a long time to reach, it helps to break it down into smaller chunks, and set these as specific sub-goals. This lets you get a regular sense of achievement, and the feeling that you’re making progress – very important for your motivation levels!

For example, if your big project is to redecorate your entire house, you might set sub-goals like:

• Clean out the basement
• Paint the spare bedroom
• Get the hallway recarpeted

Any project can be broken down in this way. Even if your project can’t be “seen” until it’s finished (maybe you’re creating a website), you can still set sub-goals of completing small parts of it. For an extended written piece, try setting word-count goals. For any project, you can set goals of spending a certain amount of time working on it.

3. Track how far you’ve come towards your goal

When you’ve been working for months, and you still have a long way to go, you might feel quite dispirited. It helps hugely to see how far you’ve come, and this simply means keeping track of progress – ticking off sub-goals as you achieve them, or recording statistics related to your project.

For example, if your big project is to lose weight, you could track:

• How much you weigh each week
• Your eating habits each week (to see how they’re improving)
• How you look – get someone to photograph you every 2 or 4 weeks for a visual record.

When you’re three or four months into your project, you can look back over all those weeks of records to see that you have made progress and that you’re infinitely nearer your goal than you were before you started on Day One!

4. Celebrate milestones along the way

Setting small sub-goals, and tracking your progress, puts you in an ideal position to celebrate the milestones that you reach. Most projects will have significant moments where you can say with confidence that you’ve achieved something worthwhile – even though you aren’t yet at your final goal.

For example, if your big project is to get your Bachelors’ degree, your milestones might be:

• Successfully being accepted onto a degree course
• Passing your first set of exams
• Completing your first significant piece of coursework

Reward yourself when you reach a milestone: go out for a nice meal, buy champagne, treat yourself to a day doing whatever you like, or buy a CD or book that you’ve been wanting to get your hands on. Celebrating your achievements in this way can give you added enthusiasm to push on towards the next milestone; most of us are more motivated by rewards than we like to admit.

5. Get rid of niggles in your project

However much you set yourself small goals, track progress and reward yourself, you’ll find that there are some aspects of your project which bore you, frustrate you, or take up too much of your time. Identify these “niggles” – and be ruthless in eliminating or at least diminishing them.

For example, if your big project is creating a successful blog, you might remove niggles by:

• Paying someone else (or bribing a spouse/child) to do routine administration tasks
• Automating as many tedious, repetitive aspects as you can
• Asking a friend to guest-post once a fortnight for you

Try not to get held back by niggles or feel that they are an inevitable part of your road to success which must be endured. There are few unpleasant aspects to your project which you can’t overcome with a bit of creativity. Even if your project is something like “healthy eating” (you can’t really outsource “not eating chocolate”), you can take action to reduce food preparation time or to make resisting temptation easier by not having junk food in the house.

6. Set a schedule for working on your project

Most of us feel motivated when we’re fully on top of things, and ahead with the work which we’re doing (whether that’s paid work, or work towards a personal goal). And most of us feel correspondingly demotivated when we feel that we’re behind, floundering and getting overwhelmed. Setting a project schedule can be a huge step towards feeling in control.

For example, if your big project is starting a freelance business “on the side”, you might:

• Devote half an hour each morning to reading about your industry
• Make the first hour of your evening “freelancing time”, to look for clients or work on client projects
• Set aside a full morning or afternoon at the weekend for freelancing purposes

Having a specific day of the week, or a specific hour of the day, devoted to your project – and sticking to it without making excuses – means that you have a structure in place to help you towards success. Trying to fit your project in when you “have time” almost inevitably means you’ll end up getting very little done.

What big project(s) are you working on? What helps you find your day-to-day motivation for making progress towards your end goal?

Ali Hale is a writer, blogger and postgrad student. She runs The Office Diet (RSS feed) and Alpha Student (RSS feed), and writes for several large blogs.

ALSO, if the subject interests you, be sure to check out her post on Up-And-Coming-BLogger called Staff Blogging: Get Paid To Practice Your Blogging.

By Dr. Bob Rotella

A consulting client of mine, Dr. Bob Rotella, is a Sports Psychologist as well as an author of numerous books.  Golf is his main area of expertise, but his talents range far and wide.  His wife, who also happened to be my 2nd grade teacher , was nice enough to give me some of his books to read.  I’ve started one and have been very impressed by it.  It’s very inspiring and right up my alley.  It’s called “Life Is Not A Game Of Perfect” and it’s a spin off of a previous book he had written called “Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect”.

The book, so far, is all about how our real talent is not derived from our God given genes so much as our drive, focus and all out determination.  He states that our ‘free will’ is “the most fundamental of real talents”.  He boasts, “Real talent is something anyone can develop.”  This is a view that I hold and try to promote on this blog.  Here is an excerpt from the end of chapter one where he is referring to his view on why today’s society have and/or will fail to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them.  (Preceding this, he has introduced the reader to a friend of his who is a big wig at Merrill Lynch so that is why he refers to the company about half way through the excerpt.)

“I think that’s a reflection of the way our society raises children. Our schools and our families devote enormous attention to cultivating the personal characteristics that we have been told comprise talent. American parents spend lavishly on private schools and tutors and prep courses to improve their children’s scores on an endless series of acronymic intelligence tests, from the first IQ to the last GRE. After school and in the summer they devote copious resources to the things that television tells us are the athletic talents–dunking or dribbling or driving golf balls.
But I know of few if any school programs that teach and develop the characteristics of real talent. If the typical school pays any attention at all to personal strength of character, it wastes its time on superficial efforts to assure that each child has high self-esteem. Regardless of how the children perform, it tells them that they’re great, they’re marvelous, they’re talented. Kids see through this. It does no good.
In the end, our system spews out millions of graduates who become the three out of four who fail to grasp the opportunity they’re afforded by companies like Merrill Lynch. Because ours is a wealthy society, they don’t starve. For the most part, they find niches where mediocrity is tolerated. They go on to have careers of no particular distinction.  They retire with a vague sense of dissatisfaction and bitterness.
I see this as a terrible loss. I know that this society could be unimaginably more productive and a great deal happier if people knew the truth about talent and acted on it.
And I see myself as very fortunate, because I grew up in a home and in a town and at a time in which real talent was appreciated and cultivated.”

These words ring true with me.  How about you?  Do you agree with the idea that our society is too focused on either celebrity status or self-esteem?  Do you think that real talent comes from a determined heart, a never give up attitude?  I don’t know about you, but this is how I see the world around me.  This is at the heart of my drive and the core of this website.  Let me know what you think and why you agree or disagree.