The reality is, we won’t feel ‘motivated’ every minute of every day; and some people are able to maintain a level of motivation that the rest of us just can’t seem to achieve!

Whatever the reason for this, what you want to be more aware of is how to hold on to the times when you feel motivated – high energy, enjoy the moment, anticipation, relaxed, buzzing, organized, planning ahead….whatever the emotion or experience you can relate to. So how do you hold on to these positive, feel-good experiences?

I remember a time, quite a long time ago now, when I was in a job that I dreaded going to each day, mainly because of the person I was working for but also because I felt like the job was going nowhere. Now, if that situation wasn’t de-motivating for me, I don’t know what would be! A tactic I started using to help me through this time was, when I was in a meeting, I would find a blank page in my diary and start creating a list of all the things I could look forward to outside of this work environment.

You know, a key activity on that list was reminding myself that at the end of the working day, I would have a lovely drive home around the Bays and appreciate the tranquility of the area I was driving through. I often stopped during that drive, got out of the car and sat on the beach for a while.

I don’t know if my story fits here, but whenever I found myself in a situation that severely effected my motivation (and at numerous times, my self-esteem), I had to make sure I didn’t let this totally consume and control the other parts of my life that I knew I received a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from.

The beach scenario is just one example of how I kept myself together during that time. My daily ‘motivation’ list contained many other thoughts and activities and plans.

How do you keep yourself motivated? What do you do to ensure events or situations larger than you don’t dominate and take over every part of your life?