Bookmark This Page

Delicious Google Bookmarks Stumbleupon Digg BlinkList Ma.gnolia Reddit Yahoo My Web

An Overview of Self Help Motivation

If you are looking to improve your lot in life but can’t see yourself going to a therapist, clergyman, or a support group, what other options do you have? You can go the self help motivation route.

Luckily, there are many books and audio and video tapes available to assist you in your quest for a better love life, more organizational abilities, or financial abundance. An abundance of self help motivation information can also be found online for those who would like to find their information in an electronic format.

The Secret to Self Help Motivation

The secret to self help motivation is as follows: the person needs to see that the end result is something that will benefit him or her. This could be better health (from eating better, more exercise, or quitting smoking) or financial rewards (having a safety net due to savvy saving, being able to take a much-needed vacation, or improved cash flow due to paying down debt). Whatever the advantage of making changes, it has to be worth it to the individual.

The next part of successful self help motivation is the idea that the individual will lose something of value if they don’t follow through with their plans. This item of value doesn’t have to be monetary. It could be the idea of losing face because of not being able to follow through. It’s a good psychological tool to tell another person when you are trying to make a positive change. If someone else knows that you are trying to make changes in your life, you are much more likely to follow through. It’s as simple as that. This is an excellent example of self help motivation.

The third part of successfully using self help motivation is to make sure that the changes you are making are ones that you find enjoyable. Everyone knows that smoking is bad for us. Everyone also knows or knows of at least one person who has been diagnosed with lung cancer who continues to smoke. It’s not that they don’t know any better; they are continuing to focus on the fact that they enjoy or get something out of the act of smoking. Otherwise, there would be no reason to continue.

The person using self help motivation techniques to lose weight needs to focus on what he or she will be getting from making these lifestyle changes, not focusing on the fact that he or she can no longer eat certain foods. In the case of changing eating habits, it is very important to focus on the gains from achieving a healthier body weight (longer life, more energy, and increased self-esteem) than giving up all the fun foods one is used to consuming.

In fact, those who are able to lose weight and keep the weight off successfully have the ability to envision the changes they are making as permanent ones. If you have the mind-set that this is temporary, it is more likely that the person will reach his or her goal and then re-adopt the eating habits that led to the weight gain in the first place. Having said that, sometimes that piece of chocolate cake is well worth it. It’s important to eat will most of the time and then having a treat isn’t a big catastrophe.

If the goal is to improve the household finances, a way to proceed is to first draw up a plan for allocating financial resources, a.k.a. a budget. By focusing on the ultimate goal (a comfortable retirement, a vacation, less worry), it will become a lot easier to make good decisions going forward.

Hopefully, these ideas about self help motivation will be of assistance.