5 SUGGESTED WAYS TO GET MOTIVATED

Have you ever had to do something you don’t want to do? All of us have at one time or another. It’s hard to get motivated to do that thing. You know that thing. It’s the term paper you don’t want to write, the report you don’t want to prepare for your boss, or the closet you don’t want to clean out.

You procrastinate as long as possible. You look for every excuse in the book to not do that thing.

But if you go ahead and do that dreaded thing, then it’s done, and the relief you feel will be so great. You will feel as if a weight was lifted off of your shoulders. You would think that the expected relief would be enough of a carrot to entice you to do that thing, but for most of us, it’s just not. We need extra help to get motivated and stop procrastinating.

Here are some ways to help with that motivation and stop procrastinating.

1. Give yourself a tangible reward to look forward to when you have done that dreaded thing. It has to be a reward that you really want. I do this myself sometimes. I will reward myself with 30 minutes of a TV show I love if I just get up and vacuum the floor. I hate housework, so vacuuming for me ranks right up there with root canals. I tell myself if I vacuum the floor, then I can just take a 30 minute break and watch TV. If I watch TV instead of vacuuming the floor, the dog hair from our dog overtakes everything, so even as much as I hate it, vacuuming is a necessary evil. Find what works for you. You can promise yourself a fancy coffee if you finish your paper. You can take yourself out to dinner if you finish your report. Use any reward you like and see what happens.

2. Ascribe an emotion to it. If you have something to do that is really hard, and you don’t want to tackle it, get angry about something and take it out on that thing. This works especially well for physical stuff like scrubbing the house or working out or weeding the garden. It can be very cathartic. Angry catharsis might not work at your job, but a flip of that you can try would be to get happy and do the thing while you are in a good, happy, energetic mood. Good moods make people more productive.

3. The reverse of giving yourself a reward is thinking about the consequences if you don’t do that thing. If you don’t finish the report you’ve been putting off, the boss is going to get mad. If you don’t clean the gutters, the roof may become damaged over time. If I don’t vacuum the floor, our house is overrun with dog hair. Negative consequences can be great motivators.

4. Feeling a sense of accomplishment can be motivating. Think about how proud you will feel of yourself once you have tackled the hard thing and finished it. Knowing how good you will feel about yourself for doing the hard thing can be highly motivating. We all want to feel good, don’t we? If you keep procrastinating about something, the guilt starts to creep in, and the negative self-talk starts. Don’t let it. Just do the thing, and then you’ll feel great. You’ll feel like you accomplished something.

5. Tell someone else you are going to do the thing. That is highly motivating because you want to be able to tell that same person, “look, I did it.” “I stuck to my diet and lost 10 pounds.” “I ran 5 miles on the treadmill to train for the race.” “I painted the kitchen like I said I would.” Whatever it is, just share with someone you are going to do it, so that you have some accountability outside of yourself. Then they will be proud of you. You know you don’t want to face the embarrassment over not doing it when they ask about it. And you know they will ask.

So what’s it going to be – the carrot or the stick? The reward or the consequences? Are you in need of catharsis or doing the happy dance? These things will work if you just let them. No matter what you choose, the dreaded hard thing has to be done one way or the other, so decide and get to it!

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