How to Get Motivated

Motivation is the core of all action; it actually means to be moved to action. ^[1] Whether a person succeeds, fails or leads often depends upon her motivation. Understanding what motivates you can have lasting positive effects. By understanding and acting upon the things that motivate you, you will be more likely to live a healthy, happy life.

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Create a list of goals. Motivation requires a target. It's hard to get motivated when your goals are vague, undefined, and as a result, impossible to achieve. ^[2] You will be more motivated if you define your goals and break them down into smaller goals that you can take bites out of accomplishing on a regular basis. Make sure your smaller goals are still meaningful to you and be sure to break them down into things you can actually accomplish – otherwise your motivation will tank.

• For example, if you are struggling with motivation to get into law school, remember that this goal is the overall goal. However, to keep motivated, you will benefit by further breaking this large goal down into objectives (actions you can take) and tasks (specific, small things to do) to accomplish it.
• So, if your goal is to apply and get into law school, objectives could be taking the LSAT and selecting a list of schools to apply to.
• Breaking down “taking the LSAT” further could include tasks such as researching LSAT prep-books, looking up the costs of taking the LSAT, and locations to take the LSAT. An example of a task you might set to select a list of schools to apply to would be figuring out the best criteria to use to select schools (e.g., is location an important factor for you? Prestige of the school?).
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  Organize your goals. Figure out which goals are most important to you. Which goals would you be the most motivated to accomplish first? Think realistically about whether each goals is attainable based on your current time, financial, and other resources. Sometimes one goal needs to be accomplished before it makes sense to begin another goal (i.e., goals sometimes build on each other). Focusing on improving one or two areas will help prevent you from feeling overwhelmed – being overwhelmed can kill your motivation. When you feel overwhelmed, you may be tempted to abandon pursuing your goals because you think they can’t be achieved.^[3]

  • In some cases, some goals are necessary to learn before you can tackle the others. Since the LSAT is required to attend law school, you need to study for and take it before you can apply.
  • Begin with a goal that is easily attainable so you can have an early success that will keep you motivated as you go forward.
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    Make a list of actionable objectives. Once you have organized your goals by importance, choose the first two or three most important goals and create a to-do list of daily tasks or objectives that will help you to accomplish, over time, these broader goals.^[4] An example of an objective would be to study 1 chapter of an LSAT prep book.^[5]

    • Make sure that you don’t pursue too many objectives at once, or your goals will come into conflict as they compete for your time, and you may end up being less motivated and less productive. ^[6]
    • Break your objectives down into smaller tasks. A task is a small, specific thing that you can do to achieve your objective.^[7] For example, a task could be to study your LSAT book for 1 hour a day, or to study 10 pages a day of 1 chapter of your LSAT prep book.