Thankfully I read tons of materials on how to stay motivated which brought my happiness back. I learned many valuable lessons in the course of those readings. I have compiled those simple motivational tips below to share my knowledge. I hope it will help you too.
1. Goals will gear you up
The first mistake that everyone does in life is to live without any purpose. How can one feel content and be happy with this way of living. Of course everyone wants to achieve everything they dream of. But how many of us turn their dreams to goals. Goals are nothing but dreams with a deadline. Goals give direction. It gives purpose. If you are one who never set goals, then please do it immediately. The happiness of achieving a goal is tremendous.
2. Rewards – The little motivator
We human have great attachments to rewards. Sometime it is very easy to set a goal, but it takes a little push to achieve it. That is when rewards play a crucial role.
I always love to exercise five days a week. But there are days or even weeks I hate to think about doing it. On those hard days I use this reward system. I would tell myself that I will go and watch a movie this week only if I push myself to finish this week exercise routine. Once our mind is tempted with a reward, it will immediately perk us up and gear us to pursue our goals. Once we hit the goals we get highly motivated, which in turn would bring more happiness.
3. See the brighter side
Life is not a bed of roses. Every day is an adventure. Some turn out to be good while some days will get us down. Even in those bad days, please dare to look at the brighter side. We often complain and get struck out of negativity that we rarely see the positivity of the situation.
Few days back I had a sudden travel commitment for which I need to spend my entire day on travel. Of course this made me mad as it derailed all my plans for the day. But I didn’t give up. I thought what is the advantage of the situation? If I can take my laptop during the travel I can finish off most of my tasks as planned. And, yes I was right. In fact that day I finished off my tasks a lot more earlier as I don’t have any interruption from my kids like I would have had at my home.
4. Comparison is the thief of joy
Many feel miserable and unhappy because of the evil habit of comparison. Every one life is different. We all have our ups and downs. If you compare your life chapter 10 with somebody else chapter 20, yes it will feel awful. Be grateful for whatever you have. Always remember that there are plenty of people who would die to live a life that you are living now.
5. Stay away from negative people
You will exactly behave the way like with whom you spend the most of your time with. If you are depressed or stressed all the time in spite of making sincere effort from your end, then look around the people with whom you are living with. You can never satisfy everyone around you.
If you tie your happiness with these people, then you can never progress in life. Toughen up and stay away from these people as much as possible and do yourself a big favour. Life is a onetime event and don’t waste it for those negative people.
6. Self-Love is the secret
Have you ever felt the need for someone to love you unconditionally? Of course who will refuse to have an unconditional love? But the mistake that we are doing here is why we should even wait for that dream person, why can’t you take the role of that person. Love yourself as much as you expect your dream person to love you. This will be the biggest favour you will be doing to yourself.
When you put yourself first and do the things that is important you, you will realize how beautiful life could be. If you keep sacrificing your wishes for the sake of others, one day when your life is about to end, you will regret it. So when you have time, love yourself and enjoy.
7. Money doesn’t matter
Money can never take you in the direction of happiness. This has been told many times, yet people tie money to happiness and feel miserable even when they get rich. Instead of tying your goals to money, try setting goals related to passion. Then you will feel the difference.
Instead of setting goal that I want to earn 80k this year, try I want to follow my passion and write two books this year. Money would automatically tag you if you follow the passion and bring you more contentment and happiness.
8. Put it on Paper
Put your thoughts on paper. Why? Because it will make you learn about yourself. If you practice this for a period of time, you will be surprised how much you don’t know about yourself. Why should I learn about myself, You may ask. If you learn about yourself, you can easily find out things that keep you motivated, things that bring you joy and a lot more about yourself. If you practice this regularly then you know how to stay motivated all the time and achieve happiness.
9. Photographing
This technique has helped me a lot to bring the shine back when I was extremely low. I have the habit of recording every single happy moment in my life. I usually post them at Instagram just to keep them as a reminder to myself that how I have lived my life. So whenever I get so low, I just browse through this gallery and keep reminding myself how much I have come across at life.
Instantly I feel grateful for the life I have lived so far. This will immediately motivate me to look at the problem at new angle and help me find a solution for it. Pictures have a way to motivate us and make us stay happy.
10.Practice Gratitude
Don’t just look at the people above you. Also look at the people below you. I have already mentioned this but I will mention it again. There are millions of people who would die to live your life today. Gratitude is an art that you need to practice every day.
Take a paper and write down five things for which you are feeling thankful today. Do this every day. Then you will realize that we are wasting our energy by complaining about the things which we can’t control. Make your mind to feel thankful even at the worst phase of your life. Then happiness cannot stay away from you.
In spite of following the above motivational steps to stay happy, there will be days, where you just want to shut down from everything and give yourself a break. If that is the case, please do so. But don’t give up on the next day. We fail only if we quit. Get up the next day and don’t afraid to set one more goal. Happiness comes to people who refuse to give up.
