MOTIVATING SELF-IMPROVEMENTMETHODS TO STAY MOTIVATED
AIMI BURGOYNE, FACULTY OF POLICY MANAGEMENT, KEIO UNIVERSITYTAKASHI IBA, FACULTY OF POLICY MANAGEMENT, KEIO UNIVERSITYIn this paper, we propose the Motivating Self-Improvement Patterns, a pattern language that shows various ways tosustain ones motivation towards any task that can then result in the improvement of ones skills. Many people havetrouble staying motivated in certain activities, even if they are very passionate about it. These patterns were createdwith the hope that they can help improve the lives of such people. In this paper, we will further delve into the purposeof these patterns, summarize the making process, introduce the patterns themselves, and expand on our plans for the
future of Motivating Self-Improvement.
Categories and Subject Descriptors: [Social and Professional Topics]: Professional topics
General Terms: Motivation
Additional Key Words and Phrases: Growth, Accomplishment, Self-Improvement
ACM Reference Format:
Burgoyne, Aimi and Iba, Takashi 2017. Motivating Self-Improvement; Methods to Stay Motivated. HILLSIDE Proc.
of Conf. on Pattern Lang. of Prog. 24 (October 2017), 9 pages.

1. INTRODUCTION
Virtually all people have some sort of activity that they enjoy doing and wish to improveat. It can be anything from sports, writing, making videos, designing, drawing, music or evenvideo games. One big issue many people face, however, is that no matter how passionate they areabout that activity, there are going to be times in which it is difficult to stay motivated to improve
one selves’ abilities. These patterns will address some options for when faced with such times.
Self-Improvement, quite obviously, is the improvement of oneself. Although thisdefinition leaves quite a lot of room for interpretation, in relation to the Motivating SelfImprovement Patterns, we use this phrase as such. While we will address the patterns as if thereader is looking to motivate themselves to improve their skills in a certain ability or hobby, they
can be used to motivate oneself in any component of one’s life. By this, we mean that the term
“Self-Improvement,” in this paper, refers to improving one’s skills, knowledge, character, or any
other part of oneself through one’s own efforts.
Another important point to notice is that we believe the one who measures improvement isoneself. The most vital point of improving is recognizing it yourself. This does not mean that it isuntrue when other people say that you have improved. On the contrary, hearing from others thatyou have improved can help you realize such yourself. But if you do not acknowledge your own
growth, there has not been self-improvement. While not everyone will feel as such, many people,
Authors E-Mail Address: s16557ab@sfc.keio.ac.jp
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otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specificpermission. A preliminary version of this paper was presented in a writers' workshop at the 24th
Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs (PLoP). PLoP'17, OCTOBER 22-25, Vancouver,
Canada. Copyright 2017 is held by the author(s). HILLSIDE 978-1-941652-06-0

by knowing why they are motivated and recognizing the effort they put in to stay motivated, will
be more likely to notice and acknowledge their growth and improvement.
Motivation itself is a tricky subject as well. The most common way that people, sometimes
unconsciously, tend to motivate themselves to do things they don’t want to in the moment isthrough incentives such as rewards. However, most people do not go further than this. While
simply rewards are enough for some people, some others need more to stay motivated. It is alsodifficult because one must be motivated in order to look for other ways to stay motivated. We will
go more into detail of this in the next section.
2. PURPOSE & USAGE
As mentioned in the last section, staying motivated can be difficult. However, we also
understand that all people are different. While some people only need a small push or very rarely
feel a lack of motivation, some people require a lot more effort to stay motivated and are
constantly suffering with a lack of motivation. While there are external factors that cause thesedifferences between people, such as environment, family situation, and even the different
activities they are engaged in, it is just fact that every person is innately different and so requiredifferent things.
By mining the experiences of various people and seeing what worked for them, we wereable to make a pattern language. Our reason for making this into a pattern language rather than aself-help book or clear guide is this difference between people. Patterns are made to be abstractand interpretable in many different ways. Any group of people should be able to all read the same
pattern and all come up with different ways of applying it into their lives. As we will further
explain in Section 5, we did not have as large of a voice as we initially strove for, so a patternlanguage is especially effective, as depending on every individuals innate differences and different
situations, their application of the pattern will change to suit them.
As was brought up in the Introduction, even reading these patterns and striving to stay
motivated takes motivation. This paradox can go on forever, as you can say that even that needs
motivation. There is no definite way to bypass this paradox. No matter what, there will be somepeople who cannot reach that level of motivation, and some people do not necessarily consider
this a problem. Our hope, however, is that the people who are able to read these patterns will be
inspired to share them to others who may need them or are simply interested.
3. CREATING MOTIVATING SELF-IMPROVEMENT PATTERNSIn this section, we will describe the process undertook to create the Motivating SelfImprovement Patterns. As University students, we understand how detrimental a lack ofmotivation can be. This served as our main reason for creating the Motivating Self-Improvement
Patterns. We first went through a mining session (Iba and Isaku 2016) with the members of ourLab (Figure 1). We all shared some experiences of times when we were dealing with a lack ofmotivation or needed to complete something that we did not have the enthusiasm to do andexplained how we got through those times. At the same time, we wrote tips and methods wenoticed in both our own and one another’s experiences on sticky notes.

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Figure 1: Mining Process for Motivating Self-Improvement

We split the mining process into two sessions to give ourselves more time to reflect on ourpast experiences. We also interviewed a few people outside of the seminar so we could hear arange of experiences.
After the mining was over, we had 70 separate sticky notes that we began to group (Figure 2).
We put the sticky notes into groups with fundamentally similar ideas. During this process,we removed some sticky notes we believed were redundant or did not relate to our subject. We
also ended up adding a few sticky notes with ideas we thought of from looking at the groups thatwere forming. From these groups, we extracted the elements that would serve as the buildingblocks of the patterns.
From there, we went on to writing and creating the individual patterns based on what we
had extracted.

Figure 2: Sticky notes in the process of being grouped

4. THE MOTIVATING SELF-IMPROVEMENT PATTERNSThe Motivating Self-Improvement Patterns consist of six separate patterns, each a separate
method for spurring motivation.
These patterns include:• Small Treats: Recognizing the importance of small tasks• Outside Eyes: Support through an outside point of view
• Effort Log: A record of your accomplishments• Investment for Growth: Making opportunities to improve and grow
• Visual Reminder: A space to remember your purpose• Honest Coach: An objective person to help you grow
Motivating Self Improvement: Page - 3

No. 1

Small Treats
Recognize the value of small tasks.

You tend to have a lot of short term goals.
▼ In this context
People tend to procrastinate due to the amount of time and energy needed to focus on andcomplete small tasks.
• When the thing you want to complete, such as cleaning your room, reading a chapter, or
finishing a paper, is a fairly short task, it can be a lot more tempting to procrastinate. You
know that it’s a “short” task that you can finish right away, but you keep putting it off forlater. This is because it’s not doing the task, but rather starting the task that needs
motivation.
• The same point applies when the thing you want to complete is something that takes more
effort, such as going to practice or a class, going somewhere to find a specific book or
supplies, or doing a drawing that you’ve been telling yourself you will do. In these cases,
thinking of the labor involved, despite it being fun while doing it, can also be a big part ofholding off on it or skipping it entirely.
• A significant reason people cannot find the motivation to start and complete these tasks is
because they tend to not recognize the importance and value of small tasks. Rather than
thinking of the outcome and the rewarding feeling that comes with effort, they think of thetime and energy needed to complete the task.
▼ Therefore
Recognize that completion is a reward.
Realize that small tasks are important and necessary. By completing these tasks, you are
improving yourself, leading to larger successes. Help yourself recognize this by adding to yourEffort Log (No. 3) as you progress in these small tasks. The completion of these tasks is a treat toyourself. However, there are time when the success is not visual, making it difficult to recognize
this. In these cases, you can materialize your success through small rewards or incentives. For
example, it is difficult to visualize the value of learning or studying for half an hour. Treating
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yourself afterwards can be a way to materialize your accomplishment, making it easier tovisualize. The praise you get from Outside Eyes (No. 2) can also be a Small Treat (No. 1).

No. 2

Outside Eyes
Get an outside point of view.

You are on a rather long term task.
▼ In this context
When aiming high in a goal that takes time, you may get lost on the way.
• You want to keep up a pattern or schedule or just make sure you are constantly reachingfor your goals, but this is hard by yourself. Even if you slack off, the only person who willknow about it is yourself, and it’s very easy to make excuses to yourself.
• With goals, if nobody else has heard them, it’s very easy to just change them to somethingeasier or twist them into something entirely different.
▼ Therefore
Find support in the people around you.
Keep people updated on goals or tasks you plan to complete and share your progress. By sharing
your goals with others, you will be more motivated to actually do what you initially said you
would in order to not disappoint them. The people you confide in can also support you directly.
Praise from someone close can be a Small Treat (No. 1) that further pushes you to put in effort. In
this case, however, one should be careful to not have receiving praise be their only motivation.
One example is a person who tells their family that they are trying to quit smoking and thinks of
their family to keep them from relapsing. This can help them quit, but if not disappointing theirfamily is the only motivation, it can be difficult to keep the final goal. While it can be using theapproval of those precious to you as motivation, it can also be mutual. For example, a group of
students may all make the same goal of passing a specific class and motivate one another to do thenecessary work and study.

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No. 3

Effort Log
A record of your accomplishments.

You want to remember your achievements and accomplishments.
▼ In this context
People tend to forget the effort they put into their tasks/goals.
• When looking back at past events, it’s common to see them as failures and forget what you
did good in that process. Many tend to only look at complete successes positively andforget the Small Treats (No. 1) that come from putting in effort, whether or not theoutcome was a success.
▼ Therefore
Create a record of your accomplishments to look back at.
Record all of your accomplishments, no matter how small they may seem. Especially in relation to
any goals you have, record the small tasks you achieve in order to remember your Small Treats(No. 1). By keeping this record written, even if the final goal is not reached or does not go as
wished, you can still recognize that you put in effort that ultimately helped you grow. Because not
all accomplishments are easy to recognize by oneself, you can even record when a Honest Coach(No. 6) points out your growth or when you are praised by Outside Eyes (No. 2).

No. 4

Investment for Growth
An opportunity to grow.

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You want to find a way to improve and further yourself closer to your goal.
▼ In this context
You tend to forget that sometimes just being passionate about something is not enoughmotivation.
• When striving for improvement, there will be times in which it feels as if you are not
improving at all. In these times, finding motivation can be very difficult. Because you are
putting in effort and do not see improvement, your will to continue putting in effort begins
to diminish.
• Especially if it is something like sports practice where you are surrounded by the same
people, it can be especially frustrating and somewhat embarrassing to not be improving as
much as you would like to.
▼ Therefore
Invest in something that will further help you reach your goal or expand your domain
within the activity you enjoy
This should be something directly related to your goal or activity. For example, buy new
equipment to improve in a sport or other activity, join or take a class related to your activity, or
travel to places relevant to your activity. If it is something that costs money, saving up for it isalso a part of the process, and you can help yourself do so by including it in a Visual Reminder(No. 5). An example is a photographer who is either saving money to buy new camera equipment
or saving up to travel to someplace to take photographs and includes pictures of those parts or thelocation on their Visual Reminder (No. 5). The difference between simply treating yourself andmaking an Investment for Growth (No. 4) is that the latter is meant to bring you further towards agoal or help you expand and improve. One should be careful to not see it as too much of a simply
materialistic incentive, for it could easily become simply treating oneself.

No. 5

Visual Reminder
A space to remember your goals.

You want a way to keep your motivation level high.
▼ In this context
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It’s easy to forget your goals or purpose• Even if you want to stay motivated, if your goal or purpose is not in mind you may forget
why you are doing something and not be able to see the point in putting in effort, keeping
you from doing that activity.
• Especially if it is an activity that requires a significant amount of effort and time, you caneven forget that you find it fun.
▼ Therefore
Create a Visual Reminder of your goals and purpose.
Gather pictures or quotes that remind you of your goals and happy memories and put them inplaces that you see every day. You can put up reminders of an Investment for Growth (No. 4),
some mementos of your Small Treats (No. 1), or simply things that prompt you to remember yourpurpose. Because what’s needed is a way to subtly remind yourself of these goals and happy
memories, this can range from something like making a large collage and putting it on your wallor desk to simply putting a picture full of fun memories as the desktop background for yourcomputer. By having these reminders, by just looking at them, you can remember your purpose,
whether that is to reach a certain goal or simply to have fun.

No. 6

Honest Coach
A person to help you grow.

You want to improve a skill.
▼ In this context
It’s difficult to know how to improve and if you are doing so.
• When working to improve your skills through solely your own efforts, it can be difficult tobe sure if you’re going the right path. For many activities, if there is nobody there to point
out your mistakes and tell you how to fix them, you can be stuck in a slump where, despite
putting a lot of time and effort in, you are not improving.
• Even if you are improving, it can be difficult to recognize so.
▼ Therefore

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Find someone who will be blunt with you and help you grow.
This should be a “coach” who will watch your growth objectively and help guide you down thecorrect path towards improvement. This person can especially help when you are in a slump andare unsure how to further your skills. They can also serve as Outside Eyes (No. 2) that will help
and point out where you have improved. By being trustworthy and always having an objective
point of view, you can trust when they say you have made an accomplishment or improved,
causing you to more easily be able to recognize your growth.

5. THE FUTURE OF MOTIVATING SELF-IMPROVEMENT
The largest drawback of the current state of the Motivating Self-Improvement Patterns is
the lack of voices. From the initial mining, we only had the experiences of our lab members as abase for our patterns. Additionally, other than our professor who also shared some experiences,
we are all University students. While on one hand this means we are all very familiar with dealing
with a lack of motivation, it also means that our patterns do not accurately reflect other age
groups. To deal with this issue, we plan to interview people of various backgrounds, including
more students and professors but also many others, and gain a larger viewpoint. After hearing
more experiences of others, we will create more patterns based from these. We also hope that once
we have mined enough patterns, we can build them into a Pattern Language book to publish andshare with others.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Tan Jeet Qi for being the original creator of this language and all
the members of our lab who shared their experiences and assisted in the mining and grouping
process: Ayaka Yoshikawa, Hitomi Shimizu, Nur Nameerah Mohd Fadzil, and Marino Kinoshita.
We would also like to thank the other people who we interviewed in the mining session: Tanon
Taworntawat, Erika Sarantos and Bradley Suzuki. I’d also like to thank the members of myWriter’s Workshop, including the moderator Jenny Quillien, and the members: Meryem Dural,
Joao Dias, Mary Tedeschi, Tatsuaki Kanai, Hiromitsu Fujiwara, and Miho Tsutsui.
REFERENCES
Iba, T., and Isaku, T. (2016) “A Pattern Language for Creating Pattern Languages: 364
Patterns for Pattern Mining, Writing, and Symbolizing” in the 23rd Conference on Pattern
Languages of Programs (PLoP2016).
Leonard, G. (1992). Mastery: the keys to success and long-term fulfillment. New York:
Plume.

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