Self-motivation is the ability to do what needs to be done, without influence from other people or situations. People with self-motivation can find a reason and strength to complete a task, even when challenging, without giving up or needing another to encourage them.
Daniel Goleman, the author of several seminal books on Emotional Intelligence, identified four elements that make up motivation:
- Personal drive to achieve, the desire to improve or to meet certain standards;
- Commitment to personal or organisational goals;
- Initiative, which he defined as ‘readiness to act on opportunities’; and
- Optimism, the ability to keep going and pursue goals in the face of setbacks.
People who are more organized have good time management skills and have more self-esteem and confidence. You can be self- motivated if you keep a positive attitude. create a personal goal and target what you want to achieve at a particular time and work towards it. Find things or positive people that give you that initial spark to get going. Read inspirational and motivational books that you can learn from.
Here are some tricks that could help position your mind in the right direction:
- Write your goals down on sticky notes.
- Paste them in appropriate places where you can easily see them.
- Review them when you can.
- Write down the progress you have made so far.
- Always refer back to your sticky notes whenever you feel you have lost the zeal to achieve your goals.
- Always think of how happy you will be when you have achieved your goals.
