The Truth About Staying Motivated

March 19, 2016 Riley

Is there a secret to stay motivated?  Is there a secret to stay positive?  Is there a secret to be happy?  Each of these questions has the same answer… Yes.  It’s not what you’d expect to hear nor necessarily want to hear but it’s the truth.  Not everyone has the “gift” of happiness, the “gift” of diligence, the “gift” of motivation, the “gift” of positivity, or the “gift” of  patience.  However, we all have the “gift” of opportunity, opportunity to cultivate each of these and more.The secret to saying motivated is summed up in one word, effort.  I will tell you how I found out the secret of staying motivated, I will tell you how I stay motivated and I will tell you how you can too.  With that, how did I find the secret?

 

The only way for me to learn something is application.  I need the hands on experience for anything to make sense.  That means I had to learn how to stay motivated by being unmotivated.  I am generally happy, driven, and diligent but there are times when I do not want to be those any one of those things. As I said, we all have certain “gifts” to help us get along.  I have a gift of hope, I can look at the future, an issue, or a situation with a positive-mind.  But it’s not always easy to have a smile on my face.  I want to make sure all those around me are taken care of.  There was a time when I did not want to put a smile on my face and tell others everything is just fine.  Here is where I learned that effort is the key to motivation. I realized that by putting on a smile and telling others that everything is just fine was what I needed to do in order for it to be true.  As I made the effort to be motivated I became motivated.  It was entering the lack of motivation zone where my motivation was tested.  I had to lose my motivation to learn to stay motivated by consistent and constant effort. Effort is the secret to a life of motivation and it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

 

You and I both know that it’s not easy to think positively, live positively, and talk positively 24/7.  I will admit it is hard work.  True motivation is not easy, that’s why we need to stay motivated.  If we didn’t have to put effort into motivation then we would be like robots going through the motions. Here’s how I stay motivated.  I wake-up when I don’t want to wake-up.  I stay up when I do not want to stay up.  I read when I do not want to read.  I write when I do not want to write.  I think positively when I do not want to think positively.  Again it’s by entering the lack of motivation zone where you can be actually motivated by something that has been tried and tested therefore proven to be strong and genuine. Real motivation requires a lack of motivation to be “real” motivation.  I have days where my motivation is so low I don’t see it coming back, but I always see that effort is the secret to renew my motivation.

be happy.