MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 20
They say procrastination is the thief of time—actually deadlines are 😬.
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New research from the University of Otago has found that if it is best not to set a deadline at all 😮. But if you do set a deadline, make it short 😉 (here we’re talking about a deadline of a short/small project or a deadline of STARTING some big project).
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Professor Stephen Knowles, from the Otago Business School tested the effect of deadline length on task completion 🧐.
Participants were invited to complete an online survey in which a donation goes to charity. They were given either one week, one month, or no deadline to respond.
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The study found responses to the survey were lowest for the one-month deadline, and highest when no deadline was specified 🙃.
No deadline and the one-week deadline led to many early responses, while a long deadline appeared to give people permission to procrastinate, and then forget 🤷♀️.
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Quite surprising, huh? Remember about that when planning some new project! 😉
It is also said that if something is said to take 5-10min of your time, do it straigh away. Don’t postpone it over and over again. For example, if you need to call your bank to ask for something or you need to buy something online – just go and do it! Procrastinating is the worst 🙄.
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And that’s the end of our Monday Motivation series! 🤗 Whenever you feel like you lack motivation go back to those steps:
➡️Remind yourself what motivation exactly is (step 1)
➡️ Why you may lack it (step 2)
➡️ Read again how to set a goal (step 3)
➡️ Successful methods to boost your motivation:
🔸️ visualisations (step 7)
🔸️ training your willpower (step 8 & 9)
🔸️ deferring gratification (steps 11 & 12)
➡️ Remember what may weaken your motivation (steps 10, 14 & 15)
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➡️ For practical tips to use in life (not only learning about motivation in theory) keep coming back to steps 18 and 19 – those are my ‘secret weapons’ how to get yourself to work! 😉
Happy planning your projects for this year and I wish you plenty of motivation and will to work!
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 19
Couple more quick yet effective tricks to boost your motivation 💪:
➡️ 1. Plan 📋 what you need to do exactly (e.g. step by step) the day/night before and lay out everything you’re gonna need.
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➡️ 2. Remember why you want to do it – envision the success if you do it and feel the regret if you don’t 😎.
Quick visualisation of yourself at the end of that path (whatever it is that you’re working on either being thin if you’re trying to lose weight or being rich and successful if you’re e.g. starting your own business) always boosts motivation and will make you wanna get to work!😀
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➡️ 3. Stop thinking, just do it! 😉
Simple as that! Stop wondering „what if I can’t make it?” 🤔 or „maybe today isn’t the best day to do it?”🤔. Just do it! Remember, doing something is still better than doing nothing!
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➡️ 4. Act as if you were motivated 🙃
You may be able to trick yourself into feeling motivated by changing your behavior. Instead of sitting on a couch in your pjs get dressed and start moving 🚶♀️! This always gets me going!
If it doesn’t work on you take it step further – put on a jacket/coat and go for a walk 🌳, use it to get creative, to get inspired and then when you get back home go straight to work, don’t sit down on a couch even for a second! 😉
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➡️ 5. Always reward yourself for hard work! 🏆
It can be as simple as metaphorical (or literal if you want) patting yourself on a back, saying/thinking that you’re proud of yourself that you did the work (even if it was just a little bit) and do something fun afterwards – make yourself a tea ☕ and watch your favourite movie 🎬 or another episode of some TV show, go meet your friends etc 🤗
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But remember to balance it well 😉– don’t reward yourself with a marathon of movies or 3 days off after working for 1-2h 🤭. Make sure that the „reward time” is proportional to the time you spent working.
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Those are all the steps that work on me and that get me going! 😃
Do you like them? Will you try them out to get to work when you don’t feel like it?
Let me know if it works on you! 😊👇
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 18
We’ve already went through theoretical part of our Motivational Monday series 📝. We’ve learned what exactly motivation is, what may be a reason of lack of it, how motivation works with different emotions, how to set a precise plan of action etc. Now it’s time to learn useful practical tricks that you may use when you don’t feel like working and you want to boost your motivation (and it’s so needed for our new year’s resolutions, right? 🤩)
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3 quick tricks you may do to boost your motivation 💪:
➡️ 1. Argue the Opposite 🔛
Often when we don’t feel like working we come up with plenty excuses 🙄. So to any excuse your mind will give you like „I won’t succeed anyway” quickly think „But what if I do? Plenty people succeed so can I!” 😃; instead of „It’s too dificult, I won’t make it” think „It may be difficult at first but I’ll learn how to do it and it will get easier with time!”. 😎
Arguing the opposite can help you see both ends of the spectrum. It can also remind you that an overly pessimistic outcome isn’t completely accurate.
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➡️ 2. Use the 10-Minute Rule ⏰ – this is what works best for me 😄
Give yourself permission to quit a task after 10 minutes. When you reach the 10-minute mark, ask yourself if you want to keep going or quit 🤔. You’ll likely find that you have enough motivation to keep going. So in the end you don’t have to push yourself to work for 6-8h or how long but you just need to push yourself for those 10min and the rest will go with the flow 😉.
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➡️ 3. Pair a Dreaded Task With Something You Enjoy 🎶
Boost your mood by adding a little fun to something you’re not motivated to do 😃
Here are some examples:
🔸️ Listen to music while you run.
🔸️ Call a friend, and talk while you’re cleaning the house.
🔸️ Light a scented candle while you’re working on your computer.
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Which one do you think would work best on you? 🤔
Those are just a few. Come back next Monday for more! 🤩
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 17
Welcome to last Monday of 2021!
It’s time to sum up this year 🤩 First of all, think what happened this year – if something bad happened draw conclussions, let it be a lesson 😎 and forget about it 😉
Now focus on all the good things that happened and take only that with you, only good emotions, good memories 😊
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Now in order to finish this year well and to know what you need to work on in the next year I want you to mark several segments of your life in 2021.
Mark from 1 to 10 how happy you are about your:
🔸️ career in 2021
🔸️ self-development in 2021
🔸️ relationships
🔸️ hobbies & passions
🔸️ finances
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Now looking at your marks think if you’re happy about your results. What do you need to work most on in 2022? 🤔
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Another excercise – draw a circle and mark how much time you spend each day on something – whole circle is 1 full day so if you e.g. work 8h a day mark 1/3rd of the circle as ‘WORK’. How mucy time daily do you spend working on your passions? 🧐 How much time do you spend on learning new things? How much time do you spend on working on your relationships so spending time with your family/friends? How much time do your spend working on your health so having a good nice sleep, working out/going for a walk etc.? 🤔
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Now look at the circle you’ve created and think if you’re happy about the results. What do you want to work on in 2022?
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Last one – take a piece of paper and write down (yes, write them down, this is a crucial step in planning your goals) what are your goals for 2022 📝
Now put it up above your desk, next to a mirror or somewhere where you can see it everyday! 😃
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 16
Have you noticed that when you’re angry 🤬, sad or feeling any other strong emotion you tend to react totally differently than how you’ve planned? 🤷♀️
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I, for example, tend to be very motivated when I’m rested, when I’m planning upcoming days e.g. on Sunday evening. I am full of positive and motivated thought and I plan so many things for the week but then when the next day comes and when I have to do the things I’ve planned I don’t feel like it, I can’t get to work etc 😪.
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How to get passed it? 🤔 First of all, keep your mind open when you’re planning. When, like me, you’re planning your week on Sunday evening keep in mind that you won’t be that fresh and rested on Monday evening like you are on Sunday 😅 (that is if you’re planning some extra project that you’re doing after your full-time job like me).
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Second of all, remember to rest ⚠️. If you keep working and pushing and pushing without resting you’re gonna lose your motivation at some point 🤷♀️.
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So go on now and have some proper rest during Christmas time, then we’re gonna come back next week on last Monday of the year to sum up everything and prepare for actual motivational excercises in January to walk into 2022 big, strong and motivated 💪. That’s the last step of our theorotical steps and in January we’ll be using motivational excercises in practice 😎
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 15
We’ve talked about different reasons why we may lack motivation: lack of „I desire” power (or it’s too weak 😔), being too stressed or too tired😴, mind traps etc… Today we’re gonna focus on sabotaging thoughts that often come to our mind and ruin our plans or desire to work 😬
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They often appear on a subconcious level so we might not notice them and that’s why we tend to think that they’re „stronger” than us 🤷♀️
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Try observing them while you’re fighting with some temptation or you feel like resigning from some important activity (e.g. workout). What do you notice? What happens then? 🤔
Mine are usually: „I don’t feel like it”, „I’m too tired” or „I don’t know exactly how to do it”.
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Don’t judge them but also don’t ignore them – take them seriously. Even if they seem silly, weird or without any sense to you carefully look into them 🧐.
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Sabotaging thoughts can:
➡️ Bring down your self-confidence 📉
➡️ Let you reject knowledge, good advices or hints from others 🚫
➡️ Increase general stress level (and that weakens your strong will! Remember!!)
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Keep observing your sabotaging thoughts (and when you notice them, write them down! 📝) while remembering to be good to yourself! 😉. Then for each sabotaging thought create a supporting thouht or helpful recreation 🤗. Now you’ll be able to not only notice a sabotaging thought but to stop and choose how you wanna react❗.
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 14
Try to think why you lack motivation 🤔 Maybe you’re too tired and need rest? Or maybe you don’t have a precise plan? 🧐 Or maybe you’re trapped in one of the mind traps : „everything or nothing” thinking, excessive pessimism or exaggeration 🤯
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If you are, create a list of counter-arguments that will help you look at reality without falling into those mind traps 🤗
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Come back to the source of your „I want” power, visualise your goal, try to find your motivation 🤩
Sit down and answer those questions:
➡️ What encouraged you to set this goal?
➡️ What will happen when you reach it?
➡️ What will you gain?
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If you want, find something that reminds you of important reasons why you started . It can be notes, picture of someone who succeeded and inspired you , some symbol of your motivation 💪. I always get most motivated by other people’s success 🤗.
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 13
How can we weaken temptations and strengthen our will to act? 🤔
Do you know that saying „out of sight, out of mind”? Turns out that scientific researches prove that wisdom when it comes to fighting temptation and empowering willpower! 💪
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Brian Wansink, american psychologist did an interesting research with James E. Painter that he describes in his book „Mindless Eating” 🧐
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Gentlemen gave their secretaries chocolates 🍫. Some of the sweets were in a box with a see-through lid where they could see all the chocolates and some of the sweets were in a normal not see-through box.
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What do you think, which chocolates tempted more to be eaten? 😅 Of course those with a see-through lid. Women that could see the chocolates were tempted 71% times more! They were reaching for chocolates 7,7 times a day while those women who had „hidden” chocolates reached for them only 4,6 times a day 😋.
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You see? Out of sight out of mind and it’s not only about sweets of course! If you need to learn or work late don’t do it in front of a TV, better yet, go to some quiet place 🤫, without TV, without any games or non-scientific books in your sight. Turn your phone off and focus on your task.
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Now how can we strengthen our will? 🤔 First of all write down a list of reasons WHY do you want to reach your goal, WHY do you want to follow that dream 📝. This so-called Benefit Card will help you a lot in a moment of crisis 😃
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If you’re wondering why bother writing them down and you think „I remember them all easily” I’ll surprise you: in moments of lost motivation it is easy to forget why you want to reach your goal that much 😉. When there is a temptation in eyesight (and within reach of a hand), you’re feeling stressed, tired and/or you’re in a bad mood, believe me, those reasons suddenly fly away and it is so hard to remember those 😬
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In those kind of situations Benefit Card might come very useful! Carry it with you everday and read it in any moment of weakness.
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 12
Last week we’ve talked about deferring gratification – does it apply to you? 🤔 Does your brain demand a reward here and now? 😬 Do you forget about your goal when you see something you want (e.g. a cake while being on a diet) and you easily succumb to temptation? 🧐
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Don’t worry! The art of deferring gratification can be learned, same as you can train your willpower 💪.
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Try this exercise from Kelly McGonigqal’s book „The Willpower Instinct”: It appears that 10 minutes is not a long time to wait for something we want. Neurologists however discovered that it has great impact on how your brain processes the vision of reward 🏆. If instant gratification is supposed to come after 10 minutes then our brain sees it as future benefit 🔜. Hence the system that processes the promise of a reward calms down and strong biological impulse to instant consummation weakens ⬇️.
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In order for your brain 🧠 to think straight try waiting 10 minutes before you succumb to temptation. If after 10 minutes you still want it, take it/do it 😄. Before the time passes though try to think of long-term benefits you’ll get for resisting temptation. If it’s possible, try also creating some physical or visual distance ↔️.
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If you need to do something you don’t feel like doing you can also use „10 minutes rule” to help you resist the temptation of delaying necessary actions and to force yourself a bit to do them😉. Try making it „do it for 10 minutes, then you can stop”. Let yourself stop working after 10 minutes – it might turn out that as you already had started you will want to continue 😉. For me, it’s always the most difficult to start working and when I do I usually want to finish so this trick works on me quie well 👍
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Try doing that excercise and write down your results. „10 miutes rule” might work great when you don’t feel like working! ☺
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 11
What ability do you need to learn/practice in order to empower your strong will and be able to stand up, take that first step and go work on your dreams/projects when you don’t feel like it? 🤔
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Please read and let me know if it sounds familiar 🧐. Your friend brings cake to work and you can’t resist. You feel lilke dropping everything and taking an evening off to watch TV instead of work (and you keep doing that everyday)…
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Your brain 🧠 demands a reward here and now! You forget about your goal and all the reasons why you wanted to achieve it. You succumb to temptation…🤭😜
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Or maybe…? With your last remains of strongwill you leave that cake from friend somewhere out of sight, you turn TV off and and work on your dreams thinking thay each hour spent working gets you closer to your goal 💪.
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The ability to postpone pleasures or rewards is called ➡️ ‘deferring gratification’ ⬅️ in psychology. It is crucial to realize long-distance goals because it helps you not to succumb to temptation each time 😉.
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Why is it so hard to defer gratification? Because seeing temptation or reward instantly launches more primitive and oldest part of our brain demanding gratification right away 😬. Luckily we also have prefrontal cortex (part of our brain 🧠) that can cool that instant rush because it is responsible for controlling our impulses .
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Task for today 📝: think how deferring gratification looks in your case? In what situations is it easier or more difficult to you? What helps you defer gratification?
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 10
3 mind traps that can weaken your willpower 😳
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➡️ 1.Thinking „everything or nothing” 😬
Have you ever thought „I need to do everything from my ‘to do’ list or drop everything”? 🤔
If yes, then you got into „everything or nothing” trap which can have huge impact on your actions and effects (or lack of them 🙄). Thinking like that you don’t see your failures as small errors that you can learn from, you see it as total failure and you might start withdrawing generalized conclusions about yourself like „I’ll never succeed”, „I’m a failure” etc. STOP! ⛔
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➡️ 2. Excessive pessimism or optimism „If I haven’t succeeded in 1 year I’ll never succeed” – that’s excessive pessimism when you have only negative thoughts about your future 1👎. Excessive optimism is when you ignore your past attempts and previous experience and keep thinking that „this time will be different, it will be perfect” 👍. For example, you wanted to workout regularly, you’ve had couple attempts at it and failed each time but now you think that you’ll have the willpower and you’ll workout 6 times a week for 3 months 😬. If you know what I’m talking about write all of such examples down. Now try to make each one of them more realistic e.g. „I’ll try to workout more regularly. I probably won’t be able to workout 6 times a week right away so I’ll workout 2 times this week, 3 times next week and keep improving”.
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➡️ 3. Exaggeration – You exaggerate all difficulties and make everything sound impossible 🙄. „I won’t make it”, „I never do anything right”.
If you do that write all of those thoughts down and write a counterargument to each one 👍
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 9
I’ve got good news for you – willpower can be trained! 😃
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It is often treated like something you either have or not but psychology researches show that you can train your strong will just like your muscles 😃. And nobody was born with a 6-pack, right? 😄
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It is great news because those who aren’t scrupulous naturally can train it. You’ve actually already started it by building your plan using your strenghts and weaknesses (steps 5-6) and by creating visualisation (step 7) 😉
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Since willpower works like a muscle it has limited source of energy and strength. There are things that empower it 👍but there are also things that weaken it 👎. Your goal is to get to know and, if possible, remove your obstacles to having strong will.
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Those most basic ones are stress, tiredness and lack of sleep 😴. It seems so simple, right? Yet you do not always see the connection between those factors and your willpower.
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Task for today: Observe and write down 📝(or analyze past experiences if you’re calm and rested today) how stress and tiredness have impact on your willpower: What situations are those? 🤔 What happens then? How do you react? 🧐
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 8
How willpower actually works?🤔
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Willpower divides into 3 parts:
🔸️Power „I want to” – power to do something even though you’d prefer to avoid it
🔸️Power „I don’t want to” – power helping push temptations away
🔸️Power „I desire!” – power that remembers what you desire in long-term
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Willpower is what differs us from animals😉. By forseeing future you are able to not give in to impulses or instincts. We often want to delete lower impulses or some feelings but they are important too! 😉 For example disgust protects you from bad food 🥩, fear from danger ⚠️ and desires help you set goals 😊.
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If you want to improve your willpower it is not about fighting impulses but about using them to help you 🙃.
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Do you know that sometimes you make decisions on autopilot? 🤔 And that’s good because there are so many of them during a day that your brain would not be able to get to them all! 🤯
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Your task for today is to notice that autopilot and improve your self-awarness 😉. Observe and write down the situations when you need your willpower. What thoughts, feelings, impulses appear in those situations? 🤔 Which moments/elements are crucial to making a decision? Noticing them will help you stop that bad autopilot and prepare for those situations earlier. 🤗
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If you want to learn more about it I advice you to read Kelly McGonigal’s book „The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It”
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 7
You often hear that imagining success helps you get motivated 💪. Research shows though that it is not imagining success that helps but visualisation of process so imagining the path that takes you to your goal 😉. This way you practice in your mind the difficult path that awaits you and it helps you get ready for its all steps.
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What works best on you? A positive ending and what happens when you reach the goal 👍 or negative outcome and what happens if you don’t reach it 👎?
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➡️ If positive visualisation is for you (like me 🙃) imagine yourself working hard, reaching next steps towards your goal 📈. Imagine yourself with a strong will and e.g. staying home to work on your business, or whatever your goal is, instead of going to a party 😉. Imagine yourself making smart decisions like getting up 30min earlier in order to workout before work or to meditate 🧘♀️ to begin a new day with a calm mind. Imagine how you feel having picked those wise decisions 🤔
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Now imagine yourself at the end of the line, you’ve reached your goal! 🏅 Imagine your friends & family congratulating you on a fullfiled dream, imagine yourself giving some interview to a newspaper on how you managed to get where you are! 😎
So powerful! I usually am so pumped up after such visualisations!
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➡️ If you feel more motivated seeing negative outcome and what happens when you don’t succeed imagine yourself e.g. fatter, not earning as much as you’d want and not being able to e.g. give your kids everything you’d want to.
Imagine that your family and friends tell you that your laziness problem becomes more and more serious. You walk into a party and people look at you and gossip. Now imagine how you can avoid those situations. You work hard. You put your goals first. See with your imagination getting an award.
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➡️ Now think of your visualisations.
Decide whether you are more sensitive to punishments 👎 or to rewards 👍.
Imagine the proces taking you to your goal– make sure to imagine specific situations.
Write your visualisation down 🖊
Keep reading it when you need it
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 6
Today let’s talk about how to plan your ‘to do’ list using your weaknesses and how to be ready to fight any excuse! 👊
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You’ve already extablished what are your weaknesses, now knowing what could be your excuse against getting to work in the future, plan your response in advance! 😃
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Imagine some future scenarios that could be an obstacle on your way to reaching your goal and find solution for it. Write them down like this: “If situation X happens, I’m gonna do Y”. 📃
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➡️ For example, if you want to lose some weight and you plan to work out 4-5 times a week but then when that moment comes you don’t feel like it and end up staying on the sofa, prepare that strong anti-excuse sentence for you! 👊
🔸️ “If I’m gonna feel lazy and not willing to workout, I’m gonna watch supermodels on a runway to get motivated to look that way.” 😜
➡️ Or when you need to work on your start up business but don’t feel like it:
🔸️”If I’m gonna start watching tv instead of working on my business plan, I’m gonna stop and read some inspirational stories of famous entreprenours and how they started to be more motivated.”
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It is important to prepare those anti-excuse sentences earlier when you feel very excited and motivated about some new plans! 🤩 E.g. I am always very motivated and ready to get busy on Sunday evening when I plan upcoming week, I tend to plan plenty things to do the next couple of days and then often don’t feel that excited & motivated to actually do them when that time comes 🙄 – that’s why it is so important to prepare those powerful sentences earlier (I’m preparing them on Sunday when planning everything) and write them down 📃. Then in a moment of weakness read that sentence! Something like a message to your future self! 😉
Try it out!
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 5
Building your plan/ ‘to do’ list using your strenghts and weaknesses 😉
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First lets focus on your strenghts. In previous step you named all your advantages, what you are good at, what comes easy for you. Now use it in building your plan! 🤗
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🔸️Your strenght: I’m very organized 🤓
➡️ Example in practice: I’ll plan each week and each day precisely, what do I have to do to reach my goal. It’s easier for me to get to work with a propper ‘to do’ list.
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🔸️ Your strenght: I’m flexible / creative 😜
➡️ Example in practice: Whenever new situation/obstacle appears don’t freak out. You’re creative, you got this! 💪Just sit down and think of a new way/new plan how to solve it/go around your obstacle 🤔.
E.g. I often work longer hours at work and end up with shorter time to work on my personal projects or suddenly get some family issue BUT I don’t cancel my ‘to do’ list completely 🚫. I work around it, leave those things that I can still manage to do that day and move some other stuff to the following day. Sometimes I change my ‘to do’ list even 5 times a day 🤪 but I never cross a thing to do off my list completely.
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🔸️ Your strenght: I am able to work late hours but I’m not an early bird 😴
➡️ Example in practice: You know yourself best! If it’s hard for you to get up early (e.g. on Saturdays) don’t plan anything for early hours thinking (“ah, I’ll definitely manage to get up this time!”). If you’re a night owl plan your stuff to do for evenings! 😉 You know what your most productive time of the day is, use it!
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Next week we’ll talk about how to plan your ‘to do’ list using your weaknesses and how to be ready to fight any excuse!
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – step 4
We’ve already talked about common reasons of lack of motivation, we’ve learned how to set a goal and a deadline, now we need to get to know ourselves better in order to work better later on! 😉
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In order to make yourself work/boost your motivation and will to get something done we need to establish what are your strenghts and weaknesses!
Tell me:
* what are you good at? 🤔
* what comes easy for you? 😉
* what do you feel powerful/strong at? 💪
* what do others appreciate in you? 🧐
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Now think deep and name your weaknesses. It is important to know what we need to battle with and how to set your ‘Plan B’ for situations when you don’t feel the desire to follow your dreams.
So tell me:
* what do you struggle with? 🤔
* what kind of situations scare / overcome you? 😬
* what part of your character can become an obstacle in reaching your goal? 😶
* what weaknesses would your close ones name in you? 🤔
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Write all of it down!
I promise you we will work on some excercises to boost your motivation soon but those steps before it are crucial in order to know what we actually need to work on!
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – Step 3
What is your goal? What do you need motivation for? 🤔
We’ll get to tips/steps how to work on our willpower and how to boost our motivation soon but 1st we need to learn to set precise goals we want to reach and how to estimate deadline for it 😊
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Do you know a SMART method of setting a goal?
A goal needs to be:
S – Specific – Provide enough detail so that you know exactly what you should be doing. For example, don’t set a goal like „I need to lose 10kg in 3 months”. Make it more „I need to start eating more vegetables and workout 4 times a week” 🥦💪. This is more doable and you have more control over it
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M – Measurable – A measurable goal has an outcome that can be assessed as a hit or miss ✔❌. So e.g. you can easily check whether you worked out 4 times this week.
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A – Achievable – An achievable goal has an outcome that is realistic given your current situation. Make sure you actually have the time 🕰 to e.g. workout 4 times a week. Don’t set such goal if you know you won’t make it.
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R – Realistic – Start small. If you set your goal too high („I need to lose 10kg in a month”) there’s too big pressure and you will give up quickly if you won’t see results you’d want 🤔
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T – Time Bound – Set a timeframe for the goal: „in three months”, „by six months”. Setting an end point for the goal gives you a clear target to achieve 🏁
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Now how to set good time bound/deadline for it? 🤔
I recently learned that there actually is a mathematical formula for estimating a time that you need for some project and you can calculate it using the PERT Formula 🧐
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The PERT estimate (E) is based on a formula that includes your optimistic time estimate (O), your most likely time estimate (M) and your pessimistic time estimate (P). The basic equation is this:
E = (O + 4M +P) / 6
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So now go on set a goal and estimate the time you need to reach it!
I want to workout 4 times a week and start writing my 2nd book (+couple more). And my deadline is Oct 27th because we’re starting holidays then and going to…Mexico! 😊
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So tell me, what are your goals? 😊
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – Step 2
If you lack motivation the 1st step to take is to wonder what’s the reason behind it 🤔
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If you’re a perfectionist your lack of motivation or procrastination may come from the fear that you won’t complete the task flawlessly 🙄. You need to understand that something done is better than something perfect and that you shouldn’t postpone some task over and over 😉!
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Here’s other common reasons for lack of motivation:
1. Avoidance of discomfort: when you need to do some task you know it’s unpleasant (e.g. working out) it is hard to get to it because the idea of staying in comfort is more appealing 🤷♀️. In those kind of situations you need to focus on long-term results (e.g. your body after regular working out)
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2. Self-doubt: when you think you can’t do something you’ll likely to struggle to get started. In those kind of situations just focus on doing the task itself, don’t think about the outcome of it 😉
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3. Being over-extended: when you have a lot going on in life, you’ll likely feel overwhelmed. I tend to be in those kind of situations and the key to getting out of this feeling is to cut down the amount of task/project you have running. Pick max 3 things you want to focus on now and work on those. Cross out the rest or postpone it a bit 😉
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4. Lack of commitment to a goal: when you need to do something simply out of a need of obligation but when you don’t really want to do it 🙄. Try to think of some personal benefits for you after accomplishing that task. This will make you feel more commited to the goal.
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5. Mental health issues: a lack of motivation is a common symptom of depression. It’s important to consider whether your mental health may be affecting your motivation level. If so, please see a specialist.
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These are just a few common reasons why you may lack motivation but naming what is the reason of it is a big step to work on improving your motivation and willpower so go on and think which scenario do you classify in. In next steps we’ll learn how to improve our willpower 💪
MOTIVATIONAL MONDAY 💪 – Step 1
What is motivation? 🤔
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Motivation is the process that initiates and guides goal-oriented behaviors. It is what causes you to act 😉.
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Motivation devides into 2 types:
➡️ Extrinsic motivations – motivators that come from outside, could be some contests, awards etc but also social status or praise
➡️ Intrinsic motivations – motivators that come from within the individual, pure desire to self-evolve, to learn new things to be better just for you/for your health
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Understanding how motivation actually works will help you improve the efficiency of your work, help you take action, help you feel in control and will improve your overall well-being and happiness 💪.
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There are three major components of motivation: activation, persistence and intensity.
🔸️ Activation is about action, e.g. a decision to initiate some behavior, such as taking up new hobby, taking some class to learn a new skill
🔸️Persistence is about keeping the initial desire to achieve/get something, it is moving constantly forward towards your goal even through obstacles.
🔸️ Intensity is basically how hard you want to reach a goal, it is about your focus on it and vigor that goes into pursuing a dream.� For example, lets say that two people want to learn a new language. One will take couple classes until he/she knows the basics while another one is really focused on those classes but also does some extracurricular things like watching movies in this language to practice understanding it in hearing, reads some books in the foreign language, takes some quizes online etc. First person lacks the intensity ☺.
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In the next couple of weeks we’ll learn more about how motivation works, how to boost each type and component of it and how to be more motivated and eager to work on your goal 😎.
Stay tuned and come back next Monday! 😁
How to be HAPPY 