5 Ways to Gear Up Your Inner Drive

Once you've been working on something for a while, it is normal to need a bit of a lift. External motivators, like money and recognition, can only go so far at the beginning of your journey, they'll kickstart you, but they're not going to take you to the finish line. When the world throws challenges your way, you'll need a solid inner motivation. 

Journal daily

You'll have to work to make this a routine, so it's worth it. Journaling is not only a wonderful way to chart your journey; it is also a way to dump all your insane ideas and emotions on paper so that you can reflect on the things that actually matter. In your diary, you can write down your goals, list things that you're grateful for, or log what you've done over the week. Had a bad day at work? Vent on it—your journal won't criticise.

Be engaged in your society

If it's personal or educational, a perfect way to improve your inner motivation is to be a member of a group. When your morale continues to slip, a group of like-minded individuals will have your back. A positive group will even fuel you up and get you excited about working, not just make you push around your to-do lists grudgingly. Local gatherings, mentors, and community centers are a perfect place to go when you want to focus on the personal end of your inner drive.

Educating people

There are a handful of personal advantages to having the initiative to teach people. Sometimes, before you teach it to someone, you don't realise just how well you do, which is a massive morale boost. You understand that you are good enough to be considered a credible source of knowledge in that field as you educate others, whether it's a single individual or a packed workshop. When they have a question about your favorite topic, people will come to you, that's enough encouragement to brush up on your ability and keep working towards your goals. Knowing that you've come far enough to teach someone to excel as you have is reassuring, but it's still a reminder to drive yourself a bit further to keep that pseudo-expert status.

Visualization

What's it going to look like to meet your targets? In a cool co-working place, would you be able to afford a membership? Will you be able to actually take a vacation? Look beyond the material incentives and reflect on social and personal rewards. Per week, are you going to get more family time? Will you be able to appear at the largest business conference next year? For certain individuals, it is enough to imagine achievement to inspire them to push towards their objectives. It helps to make such conceptions realistic for others.

Practise Optimism

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

About a hundred times, you've certainly seen this quote from Henry Ford, but it holds true: your mentality makes up much of your ability to achieve a target. By exercising confidence during the day, I like to keep a good outlook. I say it's something I'm concentrating on instead of saying I'm terrible at something; instead of dwelling on how much I hate a single job, I look forward to something else that excites me.

A strong inner drive will keep you moving when you feel yourself starting to lose steam.