This is obviously a rhetorical question since most of us wake up from an alarm clock of some sort on most days. But what I'm really referring to is what motivates you to wake up each day and do whatever it is that you like doing?

#Motivation is something that can be elusive at times making us lazy when things need/ should get done. For example, say you want to learn a new skill such as investing by reading and doing research often on that particular concept. Well if you come home from a long busy day at work, sometimes it can be difficult to once again apply yourself towards another goal such as learning to invest.

Everyone has those moments where this kind of thing happens to them. They told themselves when they woke up they would do it at the end of the day, and then that time comes and they just don't. It's completely normal.

One of the most important concepts to understand about self-motivation is that it's all about self-awareness.

If you can understand why you haven't done something in the past that you wanted to or were motivated to, you can actively determine a solution that will lead to favorable outcomes in the future.

I personally was very unmotivated for many years until about my sophomore year of college. I had been relying solely on my intelligence and not fully applying myself towards setting and achieving goals. Coasting through life just fine, but not to the level at which I knew I was capable of and desired to be at.

It really wasn't until sophomore year when I set my career decision, (or so I thought at the time) and began deciphering what steps were necessary to take to attain ultimate happiness and success for me. The reason I became self-aware of my lack of motivation and goal setting was because I was forced with the decision on what I wanted to do with my life. No more half-assing and skating by. It was time to make a change and actually try to become great. Everyone will come to this crossroad at some point in their adult life, and must make a decision on what they want to do, and how they want to go about achieving that.

There are a few different strategies you can utilize to assist in the process of motivation and reach your over-arching long-term goals. I'm going to go over a few that I use to promote healthy growth and success.

Determine What Means The Most To You

Motivation is all about personalization. Now I don't mean custom Nike's or cars when I say this. I'm talking about making sure you're driven towards goals that mean something to you, no matter what other people think. If I could tell my former self one thing before sophomore year it would 100% be "focus less on trivial things that serve a short-term need, and more on whats the most important for YOU to do in your lifetime over the course of decades." It's always easy to default to what needs to be done on a week to week basis, but it's crucial for your personal success to always be vigilant on what your overall long term goals are, and what you're doing to get closer to them each and every day.

Figure out what interests you, what you absolutely can't die without accomplishing, or what makes you curious. These are excellent paths to start with as your source of motivation should be something, or a number of things, that are salient to you. One great place to start on this is meditation. Relax your mind and find out what makes you tick. Meditation can lead to several new avenues and paths you could potentially use to reach your desired destination. If you're unfamiliar with meditation, or just curious about how to improve your meditation exercises I wrote a three part series that ties in perfectly with the concept of self motivation😊. Part One, Part Two, Part Three. They're not very long, and cover practices I use in my daily life to generate a healthy mindset and active motivated lifestyle.

Do A Goal Setting Exercise

One of the major reasons most people have a hard time motivating themselves can be due to the lack of direction in terms of what they're actually reaching for. For example, some people will say they want to become a millionaire, but yet have nothing written down on when they want to do this by, or how they plan on getting to that level.

With direction comes clarity. Before you can achieve your goals you must understand what it is that you actually want to attain. Whether that be a successful relationship and a family with someone you care about, financial success, or something more altruistic such as helping as many other people as you can. You must figure out what it is that wakes you up every morning*. To do this, I suggest going through a goal setting exercise.

There are so many varying goal setting exercises all over the internet, so just do a Google search and try some out. Find one that interests you. These exercises are designed to help you determine direction and focus towards your goals. Remember: with direction comes clarity.

I personally recommend starting with the higher level longer-term goals first, and then narrowing your focus down to lower time frame goals such as what you want to achieve by the end of the year, month, week, and day to get ever so closer to that long-term goal. This helps you determine what your regular day to day schedule should look like, and adds an element of organization to your scheme.

Post Your Goals Somewhere You Constantly See Them

One thing I found very helpful when figuring out what works best in motivating myself is posting my goals sheet in my room where I can always see it. Repetition is one of life's best teachers, and consistently waking up and seeing what I'm striving for every day helps put things into perspective for me in terms of where I'm at in my journey, and where I need to be. You could even hang your goals sheet at work too if that works better for you. This concept also applies to my fourth strategy being modifying your environment, and the importance of changing surroundings to change behavior.

That sheet on the wall is a constant reminder and means of measure on your current progress. Use it to your advantage to leverage motivation when you wake up by referencing it to see where you're at.

Modify Your Environment

As most people are aware, there is this on-going debate in our world about nature versus nurture. I'm not one to get involved with stuff like this, but I will say that I do know your environment that you're constantly inside of will impact the type of person you are as a result to some degree. I'm not just talking about the people you're friends with either.

The way your room is set up, the ease of accessibility of things, and many other factors can impact the degree of likeliness of doing a specific behavior. I studied #psychology in college, and came to find out that I was actually making it far less likely to reach my everyday goals because my room was set up in a way that promoted lazy behavior.

In short, the concept that I'm referring to is called discriminative stimuli (DS) and has to do with conditioning. Conditioning has to do with training your brain to behave in a certain manner. You can condition yourself to do any number of things, and DS help to "set the occasion" for your behavior. For example, if you everyday come home from work and lay down on your bed and watch tv, the DS would be the remote that's right next to you within arms reach on the bedside table, and the tv that is setup right in front of your bed. This sets the occasion for you to come home, lay down, and watch tv after work. Another example is the people you hangout with. If you only hangout with a couple friends who like to do drugs on the weekends on Friday nights after work, you're far more likely to behave in a similar fashion. The friends set the occasion for your response to do the drugs. They're the DS, and the place that you do them at all the time is also a DS. These stimuli tell your brain that it's time for (insert behavior). If everything in your environment is set up the same every time you engage in a behavior, how do you expect your brain to behave in a DIFFERENT way the very next time you're in that same environment with those discriminative stimuli?

That's why if you want to change your behavior, you have to change your environment. Move stuff around, get rid of things that enable bad behavior, and determine how you can set yourself up for the RIGHT type of behavior. Instead of that remote next to your bed for the tv, maybe you have a book on investing there instead to reinforce the idea of that behavior. (If that's what you're into:) )

I'd say the best place to start is with the places and people you're in contact with the most. If those things aren't aligned with your goals, you need to find a way to make sure they are. Modifying your environment is HUGE in the grand scheme of bettering yourself and achieving goals. Change your room, your house, and your work space. Also, speak with your friends and family and let them know what you're doing as to enhance the effects. If everyone and everything is set for success, you're on the right path towards easily behaving in the way you want.

All of these strategies can help with motivation, but in the end it comes down to you sticking with it. You have to set a plan and hold true to yourself and the plan throughout your life until your goals are achieved. Simply changing things around and expecting there to be some magic difference isn't what does it. It's all in your mentality and how you approach each and everyday. Do you approach it as an OPPORTUNITY or as just another day?

As always I'm always here to talk and share ideas with people, so leave a comment if you'd like 👍 Let me know what you guys would like to see a post on next.

Zion