HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED
- Magali Mansion
A few weeks ago, you were still very excited about your New Year's resolution to get you back in shape and change your lifestyle. Back at work for a while, you have both feet in the routine. For some, you may have abandoned and postponed, for others, you persist and you are proud of you, because you have put all the chances on your side.
You are dealing with a trusted professional who guides you and motivates you. Know that even if you are charged to block, it is possible that suddenly your motivation will disappear without you knowing why. According to several observations and studies, some actions could prevent this. Depending on what you are going to adopt, they could project you into 3 distinct areas related to motivation. Here are some scenarios you may have experienced: After a few weeks you have sometimes deviated from the plan you had set for yourself. You forgot a training session or a meeting with your coach. You skip tasks that are essential to your new routine.
You stop doing certain exercises because you do not like them and you believe they are not essential after all. In addition, at the last check-up, you expected better results, you thought you were losing more weight or gaining more, you thought that all people would start telling you that you changed, or you thought to perform faster . This is how doubt arose. After this disappointment, it is the sofa that finally brings you more comfort. It has again become your favorite exercise spot, as well as the bag of vegetable chips: your healthy alternative to let you believe you are still in the running.
You did not want to give up yet, what happened? You have fallen into the area of demotivation. You no longer believe that it is possible to do this, that you do not have the skills to succeed and that it is lost in advance because the challenge is too complicated. You do not see interest anymore. When you fall into the area of demotivation, of course, your thoughts will be consistent with the idea that it is no longer worth it and that's when excuses and justifications begin. The intermediate zone is associated with a low level of motivation. It is a risk zone because your actions as well as the time factor will be deciding to make re-tilt either in the area of motivation or demotivation.
For example, in the case where you are without great pleasure or conviction, you still decide to force yourself to continue and you take your pain patiently. You constantly doubt to be able to get there, the motivation is then fragile, you are in the intermediate zone: it passes or that it breaks. Finally, the area where people are highly motivated, the one where persistence is demonstrated through discipline and an organization that you will not derogate for a minimum of 30 days.
Those in this area notice small changes that encourage them, they understand what they need to do, their expectations for results are realistic, and they focus first on immediate benefits, on a day-to-day basis. How do you access this category? Once we get there, how do we stay there?
Why motivation is something that appears and disappears? The study of motivation in psychology is extensive and offers several articles on the subject, as motivation has a major impact in several areas: marketing, education, production, sports and management.
You are not alone in this situation. Summary of the most relevant articles and published studies on the subject. Some essential rules for staying motivated seem to come up regularly. We offer 10 of them that would greatly increase your chances of achieving effective and sustainable motivation.
Much of the points presented here come from the field of education: both in sports and in school. We invite you, if you are parents, to think of applying your rules to your children in order to support them in their school and sports efforts. Choosing the goal is essential even before starting a motivation plan.
All individuals, when faced with a task, always evaluate the possibility of accomplishing it according to two criteria:
1) their level of difficulty
2) their skills. At this point, the result of this evaluation will determine whether you go to adjust your goal or if you seek help from a professional in the field. If you think you do not have the skills to get there, you can discourage you.
Ask for help from someone of experience and whom you trust, and you will see all the difference. The second important step, once your goal is well defined, concerns your expectations of success. Do you have a chance to succeed? Do you have a sense of being effective? Do you feel that you can be autonomous and have some control?
If you are afraid of failure, you have doubts and these questions lead you to question your project, you may have more difficulty maintaining your level of motivation. We invite you to redo your homework and redefine a more realistic goal that will respond to the first steps.
For your goal to be challenging, it must give you a sense of challenge, without being a threat (compared to your skills to meet this challenge). If, during the process, you believe you are not successful, you risk giving up. Who would want to engage in something if he believes it is lost in advance!
However, if you do not have a skill in the field, you may not be assessing your chances of success. Let's go back to the importance of being surrounded by professionals. Are you ready! Your goal is realistic, you have a plan, you perceive it as a challenge, tools to help you. Excellent! Here are 10 important points to apply throughout the process by the actions you will choose to achieve your goal:
- This must have meaning (meaningful) for you. That means you have to value what you do.
- Must harmonize in your projects. If you give value to the activity to be done, you will integrate it more easily into your daily life. And of course, you will not feel that your daily life is suddenly disorganized.
- Keep an impression of control. If you establish links between what you do and the results in the short and medium term, you will then have a feeling that what you are doing has a positive impact.
- Be authentic. The objective you have chosen and the activities that will result from it must be chosen by you, with honesty. This will allow you to be realistic and apply it in life & reflect your real personality.
- Commitment. Always in line with your goal, if you accept that it requires commitment, you will also understand that during the process, you will need to develop strategies and invest all your abilities to achieve success.
- Become accountable. Staying motivated means that you will have to make choices and assume them. Being responsible for your goal will lead you to choose what will be best for you without waiting for approval from others.
- Collaboration and interactions with others. Grouping yourself with people who want to achieve a goal similar to yours or rallying to a group with a common goal, keeps you motivated.
- Make links. In the process, the more connected you are to the notions gained in relation to your goal, the more motivated you will be to pursue. For example, if you want to improve your health, you notice that it gives you more energy. Your work productivity is better, you are more patient at home, and so on.
- You must have clear rules. The daily actions to be done need to be accurate and you need to know exactly what you have to do. If you want to stay motivated, you do not have to understand too long what you need to do, because it will quickly plunge you into a sense of incomprehension or doubt. If it gets too complicated, you will believe that you would not be able to succeed.
- Establish a sufficient period of time. Your time must be realistic. You must have enough time to adjust and finish, but this should not be too long because you must be able to consider an end!
- You now have all the information needed to reach your goal. Motivation is not a matter of chance. Staying motivated is a matter of commitment. If you are a coach in the field of health or business, it is also good for you to consider the factors proposed here when you will set goals for your clients. A specific customer is a motivated customer. Success is the only option!
References: BROPHY, J. Motivating students to learn, New York, McGraw Hill, 1998. McCOMBS, B. L. et J. E. POPE. Motivating hard to reach student, Washington, D.C., American Psychological Association, 1994. PICHÉ, S. Précurseurs motivationnels des performances sportive et scolaire, Québec, Université Laval, 2003, Maître ès arts (M.A.) Karim Mahboub. Modélisation des processus émotionnel dans la prise de décision. Intelligence artificielle