In my opinion, the magic recipe has these ingredients:
# More appreciation of our current life: When we appreciate what we have, then it's easier to feel happy; and when we feel happy it's easier to stay motivated to walk more steps in the journey. To feel happy, we shouldn't wait for big things to happen, as life gives us everyday little presents to enjoy. Let's appreciate the little things as much as the big ones, like children do!. In this way, we will savour each step of the path.
Besides, we tend to focus on what we don't have or on what we want to change. Wanting to improve our life is great, but if we base our motivation in this improvement, the most probable thing that is going to happen is to end up with a feeling of frustration. We want to get everything now, in a hurry, and as we cannot get it now, we then become sad and demotivated, thinking that we will never get it. A bit of patience and more appreciation of our current life, should be a good foundation for more motivation and better success in life.
# Listen to ourselves: Sometimes we focus on things that in reality are not interesting for us, but maybe we are expected to achieve them. Our society expects from us a lot, our family, friends... These expectations can generate pressure in ourselves and lead us in a direction that it's not the one we really want to take.
We should listen to ourselves more often, for instance doing meditation, and learn what we really want and what our expectations from life are. Once we know WHAT we really want and WHY we want it, motivation should be always our partner in the journey.
# More confidence: Our own confidence is also something to work on, because if we don't believe that we can achieve certain things, then all motivation is lost and we don't even try the first step to reach them. We can achieve lots of things but the first step is to believe in ourselves, to feel that we CAN really achieve all those things and that we DESERVE to get them. We are usually our main limitation.
In summary, I think that to improve the motivation for life we have to get to know ourselves better, appreciate what we have and understand deeply what we want to achieve and why. :-)
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Comments: 12
good article ... enjoyed reading it. thank you!
cl
A series of accidents."--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, "The Sirens of Titan"
Yup, the key to a happy life just stopping all of the behaviors that are making your life unhappy. Could it be any simpler? I'm going to get right on that one.
Gladius, there are so many paths along our life that it's easy to take a wrong one and end up when we don't like to be. Life is not an easy journey. We have to learn lots of things sometimes by trial and error, and in the process we encounter hard times to overcome. When things come well, it's easy to feel happy and motivated, so it's in the bad times when we need a magic recipe to keep our motivation high. And in my opinion, this magic recipe is found in our inner self. Nobody else has the answers, just ourselves.
We are usually too in a hurry and don't stop to think and reflect on our journey. When we feel trapped, I think that we should reflect carefully on several things:
- On our current life: Why my life is not as I would like it to be? When dit it start to go in the wrong way? Which positive things do I have in my life, that can help me go ahead? Do I love myself enough to realise that I deserve to be happy?
- On the life we want to have: How would I like my life to be? What do I need? Why? Is it what I really like or what others expect me to like? Do I still want that nowadays, taking in account the person who I am at the moment? Do I really need that to feel happier?
- On the way to reach what we like: How can I reach the life I want to have? Does it only depend of myself or do I need any help? Is there a single way to go there, or several ones? Which one is the easiest?
Once we reflect on all these issues and know what we really want and why, then we should take action, keeping in mind that we are the drivers of our life, nobody else can do it for us.
Gracias!
Janet, sure that volunteer work is one of the best activities to keep our energy high. Helping others is so beautiful and enriching!
Thank you for your comment, Carol :-)
I really aprecciate your articles. Keep doing that!
yours sincerely, José
Uma boa semana, estás convidada a entrar no meu grupo (balticseasports)
Como sou professor de Educação física pode-se debater e comentar e trocar experiências sobre desporto.
Another place is "I/We am/are so blessed." I believe that bad things happen to all people - yet you might not know it due to the fine appreciation, listening skills and confidence that some people seem to exude.
I agree with the comments about volunteer work - nothing lifts you up like helping someone else.