What is Self-Motivation and How to Enhance it?

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What is Self-Motivation?

Every aspect of your life contains some form of motivation or self-motivation. For example, eating is motivated by hunger, and acquiring knowledge is related to the desire of educating yourself.

Motivation is the driving force behind goal-oriented actions; it helps people achieve things like losing weight or getting a promotion at work.

Simply put, motivation is the reason why someone does something. It refers to the emotional, social, mental, and physical reasons behind a person's actions.

There are two main types of motivation: intrinsic and extrinsic.

Recognition from others, trophies, money, and other external rewards are forms of extrinsic motivation. This term refers to motivation that comes from outside the individual.

On the contrary, solving a complicated puzzle is intrinsically motivated because it comes from within the individual. The reward we receive comes from within: it is the sheer pleasure of solving it.

Self-motivation, a key element of Emotional Intelligence, is related to intrinsic motivation. Does not need influence from external sources: refers to the ability to perform tasks without the need for other people or specific situations.

Motivated people encourage themselves to keep working towards their goals, even in the face of difficult tasks. They turn problems into challenges that they feel motivated to solve.

Why is self-motivation so important?

There are many ways to get motivated: external sources like teachers, bosses, or parents. However, the only sure way to get what we really want is to acquire the ability to motivate ourselves.

It means cultivating deep confidence in ourselves and our abilities and decisions that do not change based on external experiences or events. If we have a high capacity for self-motivation, it is easier to overcome the obstacles that we find on the way.

The term self-motivation is often used in the workplace. During job interviews, candidates are often asked about their motivation.

This question is asked to determine if a candidate fits into the company's culture and if he is excited about the future work he will do.

This sometimes weighs more than skills or resumes when deciding on one person or another to fill the position.

How to get more self-motivation?

As we have seen, self-motivation is very important. But can you get more motivation? To be motivated, you need a clear understanding of what you want. This stems from our own psychology and desires, which is why many people do not find motivation.

For example, in the case of sentimental relationships: we can ask ourselves why we want to improve the connection with our partner.

Thinking about the reason and having an answer can help us when things get tough and we need an extra boost to keep going, that is, when we need to motivate ourselves.

Take responsibility for your life

Self-motivation is complex because it comes from ourselves. In order to be effectively self-motivated, we must first recognize the underlying internal issues that prevent it.

If we don't, we'll blame others for our lack of progress, but we won't make any progress either. It is normal to have the help of friends and external sources to motivate us.

Ultimately though, it's up to us to work and take control of our lives.

Discover your "why"

It is necessary to have a "why" before we can motivate ourselves, having an idea of why we do what we do gives us a sense of purpose.

This means having goals that go beyond professional success or material desires. We must look for inspiring and powerful motives to stay motivated. Ultimately, success is doing what we want, when we want, and with whom we want. By connecting our goals with our purpose, we will never lack the motivation to achieve personal success.

Go from obligations to decisions

Many thoughts begin with the phrase “I have to…” We all have routines, customs, or even self-imposed rules in our lives that are not really personal decisions.

It is important to reevaluate our life projects, not stagnate and create new goals that allow us to progress.

Not changing and sticking to habits and routines that do not satisfy us is the way to end up feeling unmotivated and dissatisfied.

Be true to your own values

When we talk about values, we refer to the intrinsic convictions that determine our way of acting and facing life. These have to be unique and come from oneself, no one can impose certain values on us.

That is why they are so powerful, if we act in a way that makes us proud, we will feel motivated and empowered when it comes to acting and moving towards our goals and objectives.

Understand mistakes as part of learning

The constant striving for perfection is the surest path to failure. Instead, understanding mistakes as a necessary part of the learning process and maintaining a positive attitude toward them sets us on the right path to success.

Once we understand and are able to understand our imperfections, we will begin to improve significantly.

Maintain a positive attitude toward life

Learning self-motivation is hard when we're stuck in a negative spiral or constantly complaining. If we want to motivate ourselves, we need to focus on gratitude and maintain an abundance mindset.

It's important to be grateful for the good things we have in our lives, instead of focusing on what we lack. The more we focus on the good and cultivate a positive mindset, the easier it will be to stay motivated.

This does not mean interpreting negative events as positive or cultivating inner peace without acting, but rather working on our resilience and facing life with enthusiasm.

Play some music

Surely more than once you felt more motivated after listening to one of your favorite songs. This has an explanation, our brain is programmed to respond to music.

So it's a good idea if we're feeling tired or notice our motivation levels starting to drop, to take a break and use the power of music for an extra boost in our mood or energy.

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