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.
I can confirm that. Doing something you’re passionate about not just boosts your energy levels while you’re doing that given activity, it gives you high stamina for the whole day coming. Whenever I go to rehearsal with my band (I play the drums) or add a new post to my blog I feel that I’m refueled. Passion = fuel.
True things said.
Thanks Eric for the opportunity to guest post at your lovely blog!
Zoltan: Indeed, whenever I’m working on my passion I’m getting connected with my inner source/fuel. It’s recharging in itself
Hi Celes,
It is true that people can have all the tricks that they need to get motivated but it isn’t going to work if they are not doing something that they are passionate on.
Cheers,
Vincent
I agree. Doing what you love and have a passion for is for important for staying motivated. I don’t think that is all. It is a good first step. But as with anything there are ups and downs associated with your work. Your passion is what keeps you going through those not as wonderful moments.
Ill be sure to keep this in mind. thanks for the awesome post!
Thanks Vincent, Koby and David for your comments!
Hope you guys are blazing trails pursuing your passion 
Hi there Celes,
Thanks for the post – I think back to my ‘almost’ career / life choices sometimes, and realise I would be completely bored with them by now… Passion and enthusiasm for what you do in life (work/play etc) has such a bearing on motivation, doesn’t it!?
I like this line, “it’s a kind of busyness which I relish in.”
I enjoyed this article. Though… when it comes to things outside what we enjoy (the job we seek for example), and to what we do not enjoy as inherently, it is then that positive self-talk can be extremely valuable and highly effective.
There are some things in life that require our motivation and effort, that we sincerely want to do–but fail to have the requisite motivation. So, while this approach can be highly valuable for our work, it doesn’t necessarily hold up for other areas.
For example, I am currently working on going to bed earlier and waking earlier. While I do want to do this, part of me doesn’t! There isn’t always a full alignment in ourselves of what we want to do. In fact, there often isn’t.
It is in these times, that we must use positive self-talk to get us to do what the wiser part of us wants us to do. In many areas of life doing what’s best isn’t the most natural thing in the world–it requires a concerted effort of positive self-talk and reflection.
Hey Celes!
Nice to see a guest post from you here! I think you said something that is very important and that is finding and pursuing your passion. It really isn’t as easy as it sounds though, finding your passion. I think a great place to start is looking at what you are naturally good at. Take that list and see what you actually enjoy…might not get everyone there but it’s a great place to start! Great post!
Nick
Ross, Nick: Thanks for your kind comments!
Hope to connect with you guys more in the future too 
Bamboo: Thanks for your insightful comment Bamboo! With regards to your point on alignment, I have a different take on it. The misalignment is a result of fragmented parts of us inside our minds, each with conflicting view points. My opinion is that full alignment is possible and should also be the goal. In the example of waking up early, I would get to the underlying reason on why I want to wake up early. The likelihood is the reason is stemmed from a place of higher desire and for betterment in the future. Then, understand what are the things stopping me from not wanting to sleep. Seek out where the misalignment is coming from. From there, work through the misalignment (it might not be possible to do it at one go cause usually many misalignments come from deep embedded incidents/issues in the past, but the importance is progress). In the long-run, this will lead to congruency in actions and an increasing alignment towards our higher selves. Positive self-talk works as a short-term patch, but unless we address the internal misalignments at the root, we’ll keep finding the same problems surfacing again and again (e.g., not wanting to sleep early, being late, and so on), because the root is not pulled out. Of course, this short reply doesn’t really warrant the attention the topic deserves – probably need to write a full article on this!
@ Celes: Thank you for the reply.
And I appreciate your take on it, but am not really in agreement.
When it comes to attaining true self-mastery, there are always going to be times where what we want to do and what we feel like doing are at odds.
And it requires self-awareness and willpower to get ourselves to act how we truly want and in ways that truly reflect who we want to be.
So… we basically have to use our own positive self-talk (thoughts or words) based on our own beliefs to propel us in the direction we truly want to go–independent of how we feel.
While it’s true, if you make something a habit it can become as if it’s 2nd nature, but to get it to that level, requires many previous efforts in which one has to overcome internal resistance.
There are many traits that we have that are natural, but not necessarily good, such as: jealousy, anger, being depressed, etc. These are all very natural, and this is why we must overcome them through our own will. And ‘will’ is not limited to brute force, because it also requires willpower to take the time to figure out a better plan and a better strategy that bares the most fruits possible.
I happen to believe, that we as humans, absolutely do have negative tendencies within us. The root of it really means very little. Maybe some of it was exacerbated from a rough childhood. Maybe some of it was made worse by not having the proper guidance during the early years, etc.
The bottom line, however, is that there often *is* internal resistance to doing things the best way we can do them. And it does require a sustained effort to get our character traits just the way we want them.
This quote sums it up well in my mind:
“Following the path of least resistance is what makes rivers and men crooked.”
By the way, sorry if I’m coming off as argumentative. And what I’m saying really isn’t strictly about your post, but more about an element that is necessary in developing positive character traits.
This blog post has struck a chord with me. Even I had been experiencing a strange feeling of emptiness and inner void.I felt as though I was just leading life rather than living it.After contemplating over this issue I have realized that I am not passionate about the job I am doing. It is time to move on and pursue the things I am passionate about.It just reminds me of those beautiful moments when I was actively pursuing my passion of public speaking.Life seemed like a heaven at that time. I felt fired up and ready to face whatever challenges life posed on me.I agree that passion is the ultimate source of motivation. Thanks for this post. Now I feel that I have taken the right decision by quitting my job and planning to pursue my further studies in the field I am passionate about.
@Celes: Thanks for this awesome piece of powerful writing. You speak the truth and we all know it.
I was just thinking about this the other day, how we are always seeking ways to be motivated and yet without the missing ingredient of personal passion for our daily endeavors, we’re sunk before we even begin to sail.
Great stuff!
Eric
Swati: That’s great to hear!
All the best in pursuit of your passion in public speaking and I’ll love to know how it works out for you! I’m sure you’ll do absolutely well in it 
Eric: Once again, thanks a lot for the opportunity to guest post at Motivate Thyself! You have a great community here
I feel a similar lack of passion for my job. However, I cannot quit right now because I have two children and benefits. How can I leave a job I don’t like to pursue passions that would strip my family of healthcare and greatly diminish their lifestyle? Perhaps I can wait seven more years when they will be out of the home.
Your post is the absolute truth. It seems like the higher people aim in an endeavor, the more difficult the obstacles are going to be to fulfill it. Only when someone loves what they are doing will they have sufficient motivation to keep going when it seems almost impossible to succeed.
Terrific message. I’m going to look out for more of your posts.
I really appreciate and agree with the points expressed over here. Thanks to all for such nice thoughts.
well, i used to love what i am doing now, but now i do not have the passion anymore. what should i do?
Your insight into excapist activities really strikes a nerve. I complain about not having enough free time and then when I do, I lay in front of the t.v. or head to the mall.
I used to have so many passions and interests but life can really beat it out of you. A few months ago, I was at the amusement park and kept riding a roller coaster, hoping it would bring out some feeling in me. Nothing.
So, now I am taking some radical steps to change my life. It’s hard to alternate between fear of change and a determination that something has to change.
Hey Kay, I just saw your comment and I had to reply.
You really hit the nail on the head about how we complain about life and then don’t do anything about it. And how ‘life’ seems to beat the passion right out of us and we seem to just accept a lack luster, non-satisfying/fulfilling life as if it’s just the way it has to be.
I’m really glad to see you taking steps to push through this and make the necessary changes to live a life that is more in line with your true thirst for life, not just the accepted, mundane existence that many of us choose.
I hope the best in all of this!
Eric
Wow. That was beautiful. I really enjoyed this Celes. Only this year have I myself discovered my true calling, and your words couldn’t be more right. It’s like when you’re doing what you love, time just doesn’t seem to matter and you’re in a perpetual state of bliss.
“Follow your bliss.” – Joseph Campbell
Motivation stems from doing. Taking action is the key.You can only be truly motivated with in these perimeters
1. Passion
2. Goals
3. Perseverance
Keeping these three character traits within your conscious mind will create endless motivation. All things start with the one who has a passion to achieve a particular outcome or dream. A burning desire kept Thomas Edison hungry enough to fail 10,000 times before he created electricity. It can do the same for you. Look within your heart for the source of direction and listen to the beat for instructions. Follow your intuition because that is your source speaking to you.
Peace!Love?Truth;
Hi Celes,
Great post and great writing, I have felt what you were feeling. I did something similar years a go. I started a business, I never worked so hard in my life, but I enjoyed every minute and always had energy for more. I believe it is all in our minds.
hello there.i really found this article interesting especially when you mentioned the *escapist activities. currently, i am a graduating student and finally next month will be my last term. anyways, though i am an achiever i started to feel weak for the past weeks. i can’t figure out the cause of my behavior but i rather stay in my room and watch online videos and read articles. anyways, i hope that you can still add interesting articles…
I WANT TO LEAARRRNNN!!!!! though, at my own pace :/ Doesn’t really quite work out with the education system of today.
So true and so important. I am so happy to be doing what I love and I try to encourage others to do the same but many are afraid of risk so choose to continue in a secure job even though they hate it. Thanks again for posting this