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If you are struggling to get motivated, think about other times where you were able to stay on track and accomplish your goals. Think about the outcome of what you accomplished and how you felt when you succeeded. For example, if you are struggling with motivation to exercise, think about a time when you powered through and exercised and felt great afterwards. Think about how you felt during your workout, and how you felt about yourself afterwards for pushing yourself to pursue a worthy goal like getting fit. Even if you don't feel motivated, just try getting started anyways. Sometimes we build things up in our minds and make them seem like they are going to be way worse than they actually are. This is called affective forecasting, and we tend to be terrible at it. By the time you get started you will often find that things aren't so bad. For example, if you are having trouble getting motivated to write a book, open the keyboard and just start typing. Tell yourself that you will type for 5 minutes and if you still aren't motivated you will stop. You may find that by tricking yourself into starting, you will gain motivation and continue to write for much longer than 5 minutes. Part of the battle with motivation is that there are often other seemingly more interesting things in our environment vying for our attention. You can help become motivated to do something by removing the possibility to engage in other actions. For example, if you are trying to get motivated to do your homework but you keep getting distracted by text messaging friends or browsing the web on your phone, then turn your phone off. Once your phone is off, place it somewhere that you cannot see it, such as deep in your bag. Make it difficult to get to; move your bag so that it is out of your reach. Once you no longer have the easily accessible options of texting with friends or browsing the web, you may find that the alternatives to not doing your homework are not as exciting, and so finding the motivation to do your homework may become easier. A great way to stop being distracted by video games or browsing the internet is blocking it off for a period of time. One of the tools that could be used for this is a software called Cold Turkey which is free. Some people are motivated by competition. Think back on your past and whether there have been cases where you were motivated to accomplish something because you were competing with someone else (or yourself). If this rings true for you, then foster some friendly competition. The other person doesn't necessarily need to know that you are competing with them, even. You can turn to others to help you with motivation. Tell your friends and family about what you hope to accomplish and what you are struggling with. Don't struggle to tell them thinking what will they think about it. Talking it out with them can help you stay motivated and keep negative feelings that sap motivation at bay. Surround yourself with people who are positive and are themselves motivated to accomplish their goals. You can catch their positive emotions and positivity and this will help you to be motivated.
Think about past successes. Try just starting. Remove distractions. Compete. Get support.