This blog is purely related to my personal experience and way of thinking about how to keep yourself motivated every day.
In theory, you might have read lot of articles, videos on motivation, but when time comes to apply in practical we always struggle a bit. As it is said, “Practical is always different than theory whether its related to study to life”

I try to keep myself positive and motivated but there are certain times, when my motivation goes down and I feel low. I found there are certain factors which affect motivation.

1. GOALS

People who know me, know about my way of living . My goals keep me up and alive. I have goals ranging from fitness, to my 9-5 work schedules and my family. Of course I don’t achieve success in all, but at least I manage for few.
Now tell me what all things can demotivate you? Your boss who doesn’t seem to appreciate you? Your children who don’t give a fuck about you? A broken relationship?

I personally follow this trick to get my things straight. I prefer to write down my goals on a paper to just check on what I want. Mind you its not that easy. At first, you can go blank! You will fall short of words, and slowly a second thought from nowhere, asking you to quit this seemingly idiotic task you are doing. But you need to somehow shut it up and write anyway. This will help you in controlling your indefinite and insignificant thoughts for once and gradually give you a clear idea about things you give shit about.

Now I wrote down a goal. And it said “I want to be fit!”. Sounds clear enough? Yeah. That’s all you are done! Throw away the paper. I wish it would be that simple. The “HOW” and ”WHAT” of this statement is much important than just defining your goal.

So “How I want to be fit ?”. Fair enough question. Isn’t it? It can always be a case with your goal that, they usually are superficial. Now this goal, I want to be fit is actually a very high level goal for me. There have to be some proof points which validate your fitness. I follow the SMART principal to achieve my goals. Let’s take the same example to illustrate the SMART parameter mechanism.

GOAL: I Want to be FIT.

As soon as you define your goal, you need to find answers for these five questions?

(S)pecific : Start with specifying a specific goal. How fit you want to be? Do you want to be an IronMan, or an Avenger or someone else. Just Kidding! I would say something like this could be a specific pre requisite measure to validate your goal. So set a specific goal.
Eg, I want to reduce my weight by 3 kg.
This makes your goal very specific.
(M)easurable : Now that you are specific, find a way to measure it. How will you check the results?
Answer: I weighed myself every day and tracked it to know whether I am moving in right direction or not.
(A)chievable : Is your goal practically achievable? This, I would say is a major difference between a goal and a dream. Dreams never need to measurable. That’s way I believe in dreams more than goals. Bad joke! So, if your goal is achievable what would you do to achieve it. So, its basically asking “WHAT” would you do to reduce your weight by 3kg?
Answer: I will hit the gym 5 times a week including running 20km per week and also follow diet, like having more salads and less carbs. I know its getting tougher but nothing worth having ever came easy!
(R)ealistic : Is your goal realistic to achieve?
Answer: Yes, it looks realistic as 3 kg with my plan is possible
(T)ime bound: In what time you want to achieve your goal?
Answer: In one month.

As soon as you have your 5 answers, now look at the goal you made at first. This gives you very clear insight about your goal. A fixed measurable, realistic goal rather a process that can make you FIT. Process! Focus on that.

2. Building Routines:

Everyone wants their day to be spent in a certain way. e.g. Waking up early, having a good breakfast, reading newspapers or spending quality time with family. One thing I learned from all the time I spent or rather I invested is, adapting to a morning routine and knowing how important that is.

Without taking my morning routine seriously, I almost always felt lost. I felt as though something was not happening as it should.  That’s when the idea of timesheet tracker struck me.

I will try to illustrate Timesheet tracker concept with an example:
Let’s say, I want to wake up at 7 AM, exercise 30 mins, and have my green tea. These are the tasks I would want to do every day.

I prepared a timesheet for this:

Timesheet Tracker for Green tea:
01.04 – Yes
02.04 – No
03.04 – Yes

Timesheet Tracker for Waking up early at 7:
01.04 – Yes
02.04 – Yes
03.04 – Yes

Timesheet Tracker for 30 mins exercise:
01.04 – Yes
02.04 – Yes
03.04 – Yes

With this data,  you have a clear picture of what you did in the past.
There are only two possibilities either you will mark it as a YES or a NO.
If its yes, you are in the right direction to build your routine and if answer is no, consistently for many days in a row, then understand that this is not your priority and you can think of changing your goal.

I have tried this with my many friends, this really works. Let me know if you want me to help track your activities too. I can similarly create a sheet for your data.

3. Creating your “WHY“

You might be thinking I am a great author, but I am certainly not. I have a great editor.
Now, this is knowing about your WHY?

I will illustrate this example with my own experience.
Even though I am not a great writer, how can I still be an author?

I asked myself WHY I WANT TO BECOME a great Author?
Answer is: Because I have lots of positive thoughts which I want to share by reaching out to as many as I can.
But to achieve this, it is not necessary to become a GREAT author, but more important is to at least become an author or a writer or at least start writing.
I started writing with not so great words, or great grammar but I made sure to put all my thoughts in my write-up. After that, you can always find an editor who can help you in correcting your mistake and beautify your writing.

As I found an answer to my WHY – I don’t want to become great author, my aim is to spread my thoughts.

When your purpose in life sits in line with your vision, YOU WILL EAT, BREATH and SLEEP SUCCESS.

I read a nice quote, “At first they will ask why you are doing it and then they will ask how you did it”

I hope you find this piece insightful and meaningful and that you can leverage it to your benefit.