21 Strategies on How to Get and Stay Motivated

Have you ever woke up motivated and charged to take on the world, however, by the end of the day you wanted to pull your hair out? We all at one point or another have woken up motivated. The million dollar question is, “How do you stay motivated?” I present to you 21 proven strategies from myself and 19 of my friends that I strongly feel can help you to get and stay motivated. Strategy #1: The Literary Strategy. Reading is really important to me. It’s therapeutic. I know once I open the pages I will learn something and be able to teach and discuss ideas with others. I have four kids and I challenge them to read and encourage them to write, too.
~ Derrick Hayes
Strategy #2: The Find Happiness Strategy. Find a way to be Happy. A few years back I had several significant setbacks, divorce, prostate cancer, forced to leave a career of 25 years as a stock broker, on the verge of losing my home, significant financial concerns, depleted retirement savings, etc. I am however, still swinging for the bleachers in the 9th inning.
~ J. P. "Gus" Godsey
Strategy #3: The Positive People Strategy. Surrounding yourself with positive people changes our perspective. After you examined who you spend time with, consider what effect you have on others. Are you the person that leaves others uplifted or not? Do you leave others feeling better or worse?
~ Kathy A. Eubanks
Strategy #4: The Keep Dreaming Strategy. Not only is sleep good for you, but your dreams are too! As you drift towards sleep, ask for dreams to give you renewed energy, sense of purpose, confidence or fresh ideas. Even if you don’t remember what you dream, you can feel brand new in the morning. This is called "dream programming" and I’ve been teaching it to clients and students for two decades. It’s simple, safe, free and really works.
~ Gillian Holloway, Ph.D.
Strategy #5: The Get Fit Strategy. Find ways to motivate yourself in fitness. Begin by making a conscious choice that you are going to do it. Then, set yourself a small goal. It has to be something attainable and sensible. It could be I am going to walk three times this week for 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes.
~ Denise Drake
Strategy #6: The Create a Vision Strategy. If we desire to accomplish our goals, we need to see them. Our mind holds an image of where we are in our current circumstances. And because of the nature of the mind, it keeps giving us what we know. When we want to change, our subconscious must be given a vision of the life we want.
~ Cheryl Y. Price, Ph.D.
Strategy #7: The Ask How Strategy. Answer the question, "How am I going to get this?" Write out as many steps and necessary resources as possible and organize in smaller chunks to be approached one by one.
~ Michele Rosenthal
Strategy #8: The Eat Right Strategy. When you eat the right healthy foods you will see and feel motivation comes naturally.
~ Liana Werner-Gray
Strategy #9: The Public Post Strategy. Post goals on a public platform (i.e. facebook, a blog, your desk at work); having people know your intentions really helps you stick with it so you won’t let your "audience" or yourself down.
~ Rachel Luna
Strategy #10: The Set It Up Strategy. Set things up so it is inevitable that you will eventually succeed. For example, if on a diet, remove all food from the house that is not on the diet. If starting an exercise program, work with a coach. If starting to meditate, join a meditation group.
~ Geri Schneider Winters
Strategy #11: The Plan Strategy. Don’t try to accomplish anything important by "flying by the seat of your pants!" This might sound cool or sexy, but you will NOT stay motivated if you don’t have a PLAN! Drive down the street and glance to your left and to your right. What do you see? You know that every building you are looking at started with a blueprint.
~ Leanne Cannon
Strategy #12: The Make A Game Strategy. I’m seventy-five and still alive. I make a game of figuring out how to get the most out of each day.
~ Darlene Dennis Bauer
Strategy #13: The Chart Your Progress Strategy. The key to staying motivated is to chart your progress, and celebrate your small successes. Enjoy the journey as much as reaching the goal.
~ Genie Kelley Cranberry
Strategy #14: The Feel Successful Strategy. My one simple strategy for success is to make it easy to feel successful every single day. The way you do this is when starting out on a big goal make the steps small and easy to achieve. When I was training for my Ironman Triathlon, I didn’t start out by running half marathons. This would have stretched my ability too much and resulted in injury.
~ Warwick John
Strategy #15: The Why Strategy. Write out all the reasons WHY you want to make change. Read over the list first thing in the morning & last thing at night. Identify your "BUTS", also known as obstacles (such as "I want to workout BUT I have no time") and develop a plan on how to overcome them When your "why" is bigger than your "but," you WILL stay on the right track.
~ Elizabeth Lombardo
Strategy #16: The Personal Reward Strategy. One strategy I can offer is to create a personal reward for successful completion of each step in your personal development plan. For example, if you are working on controlling your temper, tie in a small reward (a treat, a movie rental, watching your favorite TV show, getting a manicure, taking a bubble bath, etc.) for each time you almost lose control – but instead are able to calm yourself and maintain your composure.
~ Lydia Whitney
Strategy #17: The Contain Unpleasant Tasks Strategy. Always contain unpleasant tasks. Nothing destroys motivation like feeling that the day ahead is filled with drudgery. Instead of allowing the annoying, irritating, or infuriating tasks to fill the time available, block out chunk of time to work on them. At the end of that time, celebrate your accomplishments and move on.
~ Stephen Balzac
Strategy #18: The Try Something New Strategy. The way to stay motivated is to try something new every single day in order to reach your goals. By taking a risk daily, no matter how small, you build your risk-taking muscles. Risk-taking, be it calling someone you need to speak to, or visiting a meeting you never went to, helps you learn how to overcome fear which is the main stumbling block to success.
~ Dan Sherman
Strategy #19: The Mean What You Say Strategy. The only way to stay personally motivated – especially if you don’t get external feedback is to really give true meaning to what you’re trying to say.
~ Derrick Poremba-Brumer
Strategy #20: The Mastermind Strategy. Being part of a strong mastermind group has been key for me. I never want to disappoint my group and show up on biweekly call and say that I didn’t do what I said I was going to.
~ Carol Margolis
Strategy #21: The Uncomfortable Strategy. When we step out of our comfort zone, even in small ways, our heart pounds. It means we are excited, nervous, alive and that we actually care about being different and doing something different. It means we are no longer committed to what we have or what we used to be. It means we are committed to moving forward and stepping onto a higher level of motivation that is fresh, rewarding and new.
~ Ann Tardy About the Author: Derrick Hayes is the author of 1 WORD Is All It Takes, creator of Derricknyms, Developer of the app Motivation To Your Mobile, Nominator of Today’s Honoree, and blogs at the Encouragement Speaker. Click on the following link to learn more about: Derrick Hayes