Motivation is a secret to success that is overlooked yet so important. When it is focused on and improved, people get the most out of the hidden potential they have inside. So how do you unleash this lava-like fire? Below, I’ve listed 3 quick tips for you to try.
1. Stimulate Your Subconscious With Vivid Imagery
Vivid imagery will evoke your senses. If you just say that you want to get rich, it stays in your logical brain as words.
But if you visually imagine what you want with scenery, it changes that motivation to something more impactful and evoking. This is because humans are genetically wired to remember and respond to what we see. Books are a relatively new development in the lifetime of human civilization.
Let me give you a real example to put this into practice. Let’s say my goal is to become a world traveler. I can say, “I want to travel the world” and maybe even write it down. Or I can picture the sand beneath my toes, the turquoise blue sky, the wind in my hair, the hot sun, and the tropical waves. I can picture in detail the wooden chair I sit on and the coconut palm trees beside me.
“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” – Jonathan Swift
Which one do you think will work better in motivating you? I recommend building on this further and putting images (or vision boards, as some people call them) everywhere in your life to remind you. I save pictures of my goals as phone screensavers.
2. Drill Down By Asking Yourself Why Numerous Times
You need to find your true reason for doing things. On the surface, it may seem like you already know. But in reality, there is a deeper reason. By finding this, you might uncover a stronger motive that will propel you through.
For instance, most people stop at “I want to be rich.” When I drilled down, I found that I wanted to be rich in order to visit beautiful locations and improve my dating life. Not only did this clarify my true goals, it helped cut needless wastes of time. Many wealthy people realize that they could have gotten to their true goal much faster if they didn’t spend so long accumulating needless extra money.
In my case, I found through studying travel hacker blogs that it won’t take more than $100,000 a year to travel to the most exotic, beautiful destinations. In fact, if you’re willing to compromise, you can travel to some beautiful locations in third world countries for as cheap as $25,000 a year if you cook your own foods, pick the right country, and travel slow.
I have encountered millionaires who were depressed because they chose a random number that they chased after and wasted decades of their lives to only realize that they didn’t need to make that much money to achieve their true goal of traveling.
Ask yourself why numerous times. For example, why do you want to do what you do? Because I want to get rich. Why do you want to get rich? Because it will make me happy. Why do you want to be happy? Because it will feel good. By doing this, you can cut out all needless goals.
“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
3. Be as detailed as you can in describing your goal(s)
Vague goals lead to vague measurements and no direction. You cannot start moving towards your goal if you don’t have it fully described because you cannot map steps to move towards it. With a specific goal, you can start identifying methods of moving towards that goal rather than sitting stagnant.
For example, “I want a better dating life” is too vague. How about “I want a smart, young, fit, ambitious girl as a girlfriend.” This detail motivates you and sparks fire inside of you. If you recognize a girl like that, you’re more likely to have more fire inside of you.
A detailed goal also evokes the visual imagery part of your brain rather than keeping your imagination at bay. You want that detail to spark you into seeing how amazing achieving it would be. This helps you stay on course and unearths untapped motivation.