3 Mind Hacks To Boost Your Motivation

• Motivtion

by Chris Delaney - 

Image Credit | willis

The question I am always asked by the unmotivated is “how do others become motivated?” Motivation is created by both internal and external stimulus.

When motivated your energy levels increase, your interest in the task amplifies and your commitment to work towards your goals peaks. So, how can two people doing the same task have different motivational levels?

The reward for finishing a task is highly motivational, but this alone is not enough, as many people set goals with the reward in mind but never take action. The secret to motivation is knowing how to overcome personal procrastination to proactively take positive action.

Here are the 3 Mind Hacks To Boost Your Motivation:

Mind Hack #1: Trick the mind

The brain is a complex muscle that solves complex mathematical problems, creates innovative ideas that have put humans on the moon, invented the internet which changed the way we live and the mind gave us the intelligence to cure serious diseases saving countless lives.  But the mind can be tricked

Read this statement out loud; “I Love London In The The Summer Time”

Did you notice the double use of word “the?” Most who read this didn’t. This same psychology can be used to trick the mind into Motivation: 

• Think of a task that you need to complete but procrastination has stopped you in your tracks

• When thinking about this goal, do you imagine how hard this task is, the amount of steps you have to take, and do you second guess how you will fail?

With a focus on the problems and pain of the goal, your mind magically deletes the positives, the potential fun and your optimistic outcome:

• Picture again, the negative images that stop you from taking action

• Push this image away from your mind’s eye so you can imagine seeing it in front of you

• Turn the image into a black and white picture (if your image plays like a movie pause the movie)

• Move the black and white further and future away from you so it becomes smaller and smaller, until it becomes a dot on the horizon

• Replace this image by imagining a large, coloured film. This film is you at your best, enjoying each step towards your goal and the film ends with you seeing you achieving your goal and the positive effect it has on your life

Mind Hack – Focusing on the positives deletes procrastination

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

Mind Hack #2: Mind the steps

Over thinking the required steps to any goal creates stress. Research has shown that when you are stressed the brain actually shrinks in size. Keep the steps required to your goal simple and small as this becomes manageable and creates motivation. Over thinkers make an easy task complicated by predicting too many problems;

Goal – Get a haircut “first I need to decide which stylist I should attend. I could go to ‘Anne’s Hair’ but there is no parking nearby, which means I will need to walk, if it rains I will get wet and I haven’t got an umbrella, I could buy one but I have no cash, so I will have to drive to a cash machine. My car is running on empty so I need to fill up first, hmmm that takes me away for the stylist, but I can get cash out at the petrol station, even though the card machine at that petrol station swallowed my card last time I used it, which would mean ringing up the bank, I hate that, they keep you on the phone for an age, asking you loads of security questions that I can never remember the answer to……..”

Even reading this gives me a headache and she hasn’t even considered the other two stylists yet! Keep the steps to your goal to a minimum by stacking small task under one heading:

• Goal – Get a Haircut; Choose a stylist within walking distance of my house

• Book appointment

• Attend appointment on date

Mind Hack – Manageable tasks create motivation

Mind Hack #3: The innovative mind

When working towards a goal you can easily become stuck due to a mental block. The problem or barrier your goal requires you to overcome is de-motivating when you can’t find the solution.

Once inspired to achieve your goal you can easily fall into the trap of overthinking the barriers you come across:

• Problem that needs solving

• You ask “What’s the answer? What should I do? I should know this!”

This common action creates a mental block because your focus kills your creativity:

1. Re-ask the question from different perspectives as this will access your brains creativity
2. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and relax. In this state your subconscious will find the answer and you will have an “ah-ha” moment
3. Day dream as this allows your mind to focus on the motivation of your goal and will give you the solution, often in a metaphor form to your barrier

Mind Hack – Creativity solves the problem

http://addicted2success.com/motivation/3-mind-hacks-to-boost-your-motivation/

3 Unconventional Methods to Overcome Procrastination

Posted on July 7, 2015 by Dean Bokhari | CATEGORIES: featured, motivation, productivity tips, productivity tips, self improvement

“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt” — William Shakespeare

We’ve all got our little reasons for procrastinating.

There’s this Dutch survey that says 95% of people are chronic procrastinators. I think the other 5% are liars. EVERYONE procrastinates sometimes. Some people are just better at containing it than others.

“How do I get over my bad habit of procrastination?”

That question–or some variation of it–is one of the most common queries about the topic of productivity. And, it’ll probably stay that way for another thousand years–or until we all become super productive trans-humanist robo-peeps–whichever comes first.

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We’ve all got our little reasons for procrastinating:

• “I’ve got this make-it-or-break-it project to work on right now. BUT FIRST, I’ve got to manually create an index in my Moleskine for all my blog post ideas.”
• “My taxes are due tomorrow. BUT FIRST, I should probably clean up the kitchen; it’s a total mess in here.”
• “I’ve gotta write and publish this article. BUT FIRST, let me catch up on some ‘House of Cards’ real quick.”

And it goes on and on. Until you find yourself and consciously decide to stop the train and get off in favor of what needs to get done RIGHT NOW.

Some of us can jump off the procrastination train and get to work immediately. The vast majority, however, end up flying into a shiny but non-essential task like a moth in a bright room. Next thing they know, they’ve totally lost track of what was supposed to have gotten done that day.

Any of the above sound familiar?

If yes, then stay with me because you, my friend, are about to learn some very unconventional (and super powerful) methods for getting over procrastination. Including a particularly interesting method that involves the power of — get ready for it — “positive procrastination.”

But we’ll talk more about that in tip #2. For now, let’s dive into the first method (before you decide to procrastinate on reading this article.)

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1. Never Be Prepared

Here’s an example of a reason I always used to come up with to rationalize my procrastination problem: “I’m a perfectionist” or, “it’s gotta be perfect.”

This, of course, was just a pretty way for me to avoid admitting my fear of failure. You and I know it’s never ever the perfect time or place to do something. Want to know how I overcame this problem?

• First, I realized that the biggest thing holding me back from accomplishing the things I wanted most out of life was my obsessive attachment to perfection.
• Next, I realized that the reason I called myself a “perfectionist” was because I was afraid of what might happen if I failed at something (what would they say?)
• Finally, I came to the realization that I can never be fully prepared for anything in life. But I can always be ready.

And that became my motto: “I’m never prepared, but I’m always ready.” Never prepared. Always ready. Same goes for you.

• METHOD #1: NEVER BE PREPARED (Be ready instead.)

The next two tips and “hacks” come from the habits of unintentional efficiency experts of the past.

*QUICK NOTE: Don’t procrastinate on reading this! No, you won’t “read this later.” All of us overestimate our capabilities. We commit to dinners and events three months from now, thinking that we’ll have more free time in March than we did in January. Does that ever happen? Not for me. At least not often enough. If you convince your brain that you’ll read this later, what will happen is this: it’ll just get buried along with that other pile of shit you tell yourself you’ll do later. But this is not shit. This is your life. You’re beautiful, totally awesome and meaningful life. Do not let your dependence on future time derail you from experiencing your life to the max. If nothing else has worked for you so far, this little list of tips will… Believe that and you’ve already won half the battle.

2. The Power of Positive Procrastination

Robert Benchley, a humorist and writer for The New Yorker, once wrote an essay in which he explained how he was able to develop the self-discipline to everything below in one sitting:

• Read a scientific article about tropical fish.
• Build a bookshelf.
• Arrange books on said shelf.
• Respond to a letter from a friend that had been sitting on his desk for 20 years.

According to Benchley, all he had to do was write up a to-do list for the week and put the aforementioned tasks *below* his *top* priority, which was to write an article.

In his words, Benchley wrote:

“The secret of my incredible energy and efficiency in getting work done is a simple one … The psychological principle is this: anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment.”

Translation: procrastinators tend to avoid doing one task by doing another, and very rarely do they ever sit still.

• METHOD #2: USE THE POWER OF POSITIVE PROCRASTINATION. (Shoot for the moon, land amongst the stars.)

3. The Nothing Alternative

A novelist named Raymond Chandler pioneered “The Nothing Alternative” as a method of defense against procrastinating on his daily prose. Chandler couldn’t commit himself to cranking out 250 words every 15 minutes like writer Anthony Trollope. So he decided to literally wait around for inspiration to strike.

Personally, I find that inspiration never strikes while waiting around. Instead, I’ve found that inspiration strikes when I’ve cultivated a habit of consistency — to work, to write, to record — every single day. In the beginning, the work sucks a lot and often. But the more you do it, the better you become at it.

But this isn’t the kind of “waiting around” Raymond Chandler used to do. His method of “waiting around for inspiration” was to set aside four hours every morning and give himself an ultimatum: Write, or do nothing at all.

In his own words, Chandler said this about writers who suffer from procrastination:

“He [the writer] doesn’t have to write, and if he doesn’t feel like it, he shouldn’t try. He can look out of the window or stand on his head or writhe on the floor, but he is not to do any other positive thing, not read, write letters, glance at magazine, or write checks.”

[…]

“Write or nothing. It’s the same principle as keeping order in a school. If you make the pupils behave, they will learn something just to keep from being bored. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write.  b. you can’t do anything else. The rest comes of itself.” 

That’s The Nothing Alternative, right there, and you can use it for almost any task to make procrastination a problem of the past.

Your work might not be as simple and clearly defined as Chandler’s, but you can certainly benefit from the clarity that comes from setting aside the time to focus on your ONE most important thing.

This is your time to turn it up to high gear and focus.

To try this out for yourself, figure out your most important goal for tomorrow morning and set aside 90 minutes of totally uninterrupted time to focus on that goal. No email. No smartphone. No nonsense. No Facebook, either. Shut-down your wifi if you need to. This is your time to turn it up to high gear and focus.

• METHOD #3: USE THE NOTHING ALTERNATIVE. (Do or die.)

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Recap: 3 Unconventional Methods For Overcoming Procrastination

#1.  Never Be Prepared. 
(Be ready instead.)

#2.  Use The Power of Positive Procrastination. 
(Shoot for the moon, land amongst the stars.)

#3.  Use The Nothing Alternative. 
(Do or die.)

—http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/3-unconventional-methods-overcome-procrastination/