Self - Motivation - 5 Strategies For Surviving the "Pit" of Life

Does it seem as if life has presented you with situations where you have been knocked down and knocked around? Are you facing a barrage of obstacles, challenges, issues, and problems? Do you feel as if you've been knocked into a "pit"?

I define the "pit" as a state of being in which you feel helpless, hopeless and unable to succeed. Your energy is low, your actions are stagnant, and your faith is weak. Overall, you lack the ability to motivate yourself to take action.

I have found that once you fall in the "pit", it is sometimes hard to come out. You struggle and can't get a grip. You slip, you slide, you fall flat on your face. Worse yet, you feel as if you can't see, and there seems to be no one around to help.

What I have come to realize, however, is that self-motivation is one of the most crucial resources to surviving the challenges of life. Self-motivation is when you can see beyond your current situation in order to move yourself into action.

Even though we all have self-motivation as a tool to increase our chances of avoiding life's pitfalls, I have observed that there are those of us that find it extremely hard to remain motivated in living life daily. And worse yet, I've realized that there are some who completely rely upon other people to motivate them.

No matter what life has tricked you into believing about yourself, understand that you must motivate yourself! When you are knocked down by the challenges of life, know that you are your greatest resource to getting back up again!

Here are five (5) strategies that I developed which will help you to remain motivated to climb out your "pit":

"Put on your Rhinestone Combat Boots": Put your foot down, take a stand and declare, "Enough is enough!" Feel good about yourself as you wear the knowledge, experiences, wisdom, and faith that will help you to fight battles, climb over challenges, and kick butt".

"Focus on the Light": You must realize that your success depends on you believing in yourself and pushing beyond what you see. You must learn to focus on what lies ahead (i.e. job promotion, SBA loan, keys to your new home) and not dwell on what has passed (i.e. layoff, bankruptcy, divorce).

"Grasp Again": Learn that when you slip in grasping for something that you want, that break gives you a chance to take a breath, regain your strength, and renew your focus, allowing you to see the best way to grasp again. As my favorite singer, Aaliyah, once sang, "if at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off and try again, you can dust it off and try again, try again." Meaning, keep grasping until you get a firm hold and can overcome your obstacles.

"Have a Flashback Party": Get together with a group of your closest friends. Allow those who know you well to shed light on the areas where you are great. You will gain strength as the memories reveal your achievements, successes, and moments of fearlessness. The "flashback party" will add to your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem and give you the energy to fight the darkness.

"Sing a Tune": "Singing a tune" of positive words will uplift, encourage and motivate you to put forth your best effort to overcome the challenges of your life. Quotes, words of praise, affirmations, and scriptures are examples of positive "tunes" that you must play in your mind over and over again as you experience your darkest moments.

Success in life does require you to receive guidance, direction and assistance from others. Yet, the vital key to remaining out of and moving beyond the "pit" requires that you serve as the motivating force of your own life. When you "Put on your Rhinestone Combat Boots", "Focus on the Light", "Grasp Again", "Have a Flashback Party", and "Sing a Tune", your actions will develop you into a capable individual who is wise and strong enough to overcome the challenges life throws your way.

The Journey of Self Discovery and Self Development

Taking personal responsibility for the direction of our lives is what self development is about. To be able to do a self assessment of our lives and the reasons why we are not happy takes honesty and lots of soul searching. Depending on where you are in your life, and what you are looking to achieve, (happiness, inner peace, success or better relationships), the process can take five minutes or five hours or maybe somewhere in between.

Self development is about taking the necessary action to create the life you want. It is not something that can be achieved without practice, persistence and lots of work. Life is about developing and changing to meet the different circumstances that are presented on a daily basis. Learning from the lessons that have created pain and then being able to recognise when the same situation or circumstance arises again is valuable to our own development of becoming and a better person.

Often when there are things that have happened in our lives that have created memories that keep flashing back, it is easy to forget the reasons why we have embarked on a journey of self discovery. Those memories can trigger unpleasant thoughts that make it difficult to put a plan into place to change and develop our lives the way we want them to be.

It may appear as being hard work having to develop a new way of thinking and being. The rewards of having the persistence to keep persevering at the challenge of creating a new life is well worth the effort. The process involves a number of elements. Planning, developing and then creating are just three. The commitment for the rest of our lives to always be ready to embrace change is a major focus of self development.

The benefits appear in all aspects of our lives. Our relationships with other people improve. The environment that we work can become a better place to be because of the shift in our own attitudes. Perhaps the most important and significant improvement will be how we feel about ourselves. The progress in the level of our self esteem and self confidence will shine through when we don't allow other people to put us down or treat us badly.

This is all part of the journey of self discovery when we embark on self development - start thinking about where you are at in your life and you have started on the journey!

Self Esteem Activities to Improve Your Self Confidence and Daily Motivation

Success and satisfaction is subjective in context and measured differently by everyone. Therefore, accomplishment successes may be personal in nature but they embed better self regard and self image in the achiever. Personal motivation plays a major, if not the most important role in determining your success. There are many activities you can take on to help you boost your self esteem.

A positive self esteem is the very first step to achieving all that you desire. You are able to go further, travel farther and work harder because you strongly believe that you are just a step away from achieving that goal of yours. The ultimate purpose of self esteem activities are to bring out the best in you and leave you feeling better about yourself. You will soon attribute your successes to self esteem activities, which includes self improvement and motivation-induced learning. This will help you in your daily motivation and staying on track with your self improvement plans.

Note that everyone is granted 24 hours a day. How you use your time says much about yourself. You could spend time on worthwhile causes or waste it away on superficial activities. To better illustrate this, consider someone who spends a day on a charity cause and another who spends it on channel surfing on television. Being involved in charitable causes brings tremendous satisfaction. You will discover that you have so much to offer and are able to contribute to the betterment of lives in others. This in return, boosts your self esteem.

As Helene Malmsio from the Free Daily Motivation website says, "To ensure that you will live the life of a winner, make sure you get the motivational self improvement training and support to design and achieve the life of your dreams!"

You must also learn to organize and prioritize. Being aware of what is demanded of you and the ability to take charge of your schedule produces a liberating sensation. It reduces time wasted and enables you to give your best to an activity at any given time. You may want to read personal development self help books to help you develop a better idea of prioritizing. Such motivational self improvement books will also inspire and challenge you to make a change in your life.

You can also join various personal enrichment classes offered by clubs, organizations and individuals. They are often based on personal interests such as cooking, grooming and exercise. These classes help to enhance your daily motivational self improvement and cultivate a passion for things beyond your daily routine.

These self esteem activities are just some of the many ways to build a better you. You should appreciate yourself before anything else because you are essentially a capable individual meant to achieve so much more beyond your current potential.

Personal Development Through Positive Self Motivation

Positive self motivation is the inner drive that puts optimism into action for winning in life. Winners are driven by desire! A winner will have the desire to improve upon their own personal development. There never was a consistent winner in any walk of life, who didn't have that burning desire to win internalized. Winners know that the basic behavioral axium in life is the fact that you and I do become what we think about most. You and I are motivated everyday and moved by our currently dominant thoughts. In other words we move only in the direction of that what we dwell on.

Everyone in life is self motivated, a little bit or a lot, positively or negatively, even a decision to do nothing is a decision based on motivation. Motivation is a force which moves us to action, and it springs from inside the individual. Motivation is defined as a strong tendency toward or away from an object or situation, and it can be learned and developed, it doesn't have to be inborn.

Anyone wishing to improve upon their personal development has to, in one way or another ignite their own motivation. For too long it has been wrongly assumed that motivation is extraneous, that it can be pumped in from the outside through pep talks, or contests or rallies. Such activities do provide concepts in education, encouragement, and inspiration for individuals to turn on their creative powers, but only if they want to and only if internalized.

That's the secret, lasting change is effected only when the need for change is both understood and internalized. Until the reward or incentive has been interrupted and internalized it has no motivational power at all. So the real winners in life are the people who have developed, as a result of an overall attitude of positive self expectancy, or optimism, a strong positive self motivation. This is key to improving upon your own personal development.

In other words they developed this ability to move in the direction of goals that they set, or roles they want to play, and they will tolerate little or no distraction from moving towards those goals. In the face of all discouragement, mistakes, and setbacks, this inner drive keeps them moving upward towards self fulfillment. Motivation is a very emotional state, and the great physical and mental motivators in life, such as survival, hunger, thirst, revenge, and love are all charged with emotion. The two key emotions which dominate all human motivation with opposite but nearly equal results are fear and desire.

Fear is the most powerful negative motivator of all, fear is the great compeler and the great inhibitor, fear restricts, tightens and panics, forces and ultimately scuttles plans and defeats goals. Fear can destroy a persons personal development and inhibit any attempt to improve it. Desire, conversely is like a strong positive magnet, it attracts, reaches, opens, and directs, and encourages, and achieves goals.

Fear and desire are poles apart and they lead to alternate destiny's in life, fear always looks to the past, and desire looks to the future. Fear vividly replays haunting experiences of failure, pain, disappointment, and unpleasantness and is a dogged reminder that the same experiences are likely to repeat themselves. Desire on the other hand, triggers memory of pleasure and success, it excites the need to replay these and to create new winning experiences. The consuming prison words of the fearsome person are likely to be, I have to, I can't, I see risk, and I wish. But desire says I want to, I can, I see opportunity, and I will. Desire is that emotional state between where you are and where you want to be. To have successful personal development, we have to learn to deal with fear as well as with desire.

In life winners know that all of their actions will be controlled by their currently dominant thoughts and that you cannot dwell on the reverse of an idea. That's why you can't lose weight if you keep thinking about how fat you are, you can't stop smoking if you see yourself as a smoker and that's why you can't get rich if you are worried about your bills. Winners see risk as opportunity, they see the rewards of success in advance, and they don't see the penalties of failure. They see personal development as a positive step towards a better life. Individuals dominated by fear, they can't act with choice or positive intent, they go through life reacting in defensive. People who are dominated by stress are unable to change the world they live in, the world they live in alters them.

It's a strange and sobering, fact that the thing we fear most, we ourselves bring to pass. Burning desire is the perfect mental anecdote, for fear, and despair. Desire sparks activity which burns up excessive adrenaline in the system. It keeps the mind busy and the hope of achievement alive. High achievers in life have strong personal development skills and they hold a high degree of motivation. The enduring power that moves them to action comes from inside themselves. Success in life is not reserved for the few, success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence.

We need to really learn and remember how to really develop this winning action quality of positive self motivation. It's important for you to remember that everybody is self motivated, either a little bit or a lot, positively or negatively and that motivation is not optional, even the decision to do nothing is a motivation. Each of us is motivated by our fears or our desires. Fear is unavoidable because it can get you out of danger, and save your life, it can save a child's life, but as a habit or a way of life, fear has an extremely destructive side effect.

Fear is a red light that can stop dangerous behavior, but desire is the green light that lets you go forward toward your goals. So your most valuable exercise in developing positive self motivation is to try to replace fear motivation with desire motivation. Fortunately, because fear and desire are two sides of the same coin, this is not as difficult as it appears to be. Fear of poverty can be replaced with desire for affluence.

Fear of sickness can be replaced with desire for good health, fear of failure can be replaced with desire for success. All these actions must be present to attain improved personal development. A lack of effort is the same as giving in, when there is no true attempt to seek improvement, there can be no improvement at all to relish over. Don't let the fear of failure halt you in your journey for greater personal development, hold onto the desire for complete success and true life fulfillment. Winners realize that they are motivated by their currently dominant thought, so your concentration should be on the reward of the success that you seek, rather then the possible penalty of failure. Make desire your currently dominant thought and it will propel you with the motivating energy for success in every area of your daily life.

Behind every winner is the burning desire, of optimism and enthusiasm toward the reward of success and not the penalty of failure, toward the solution in place of the problems and toward the answer in place of the question. Behind every winner is the burning desire, the absolute need, and the never ending drive for complete improved personal development.

To Follow are Some Action Reminders Towards Positive Self Motivation!

First off, replace the word can't with can in the daily vocabulary, can applies to about 95% of the challenges you encounter.

Next, replace the word "try" with "will," in your daily vocabulary, this is a form of semantics and simply establishes your new attitude of dwelling on things you will do rather then on things you plan to try with that built in excuse in advance for possible failure. Focus all your attention and energy on the achievement of the objective your involved in right now, forget about the consequences of failure. Keep your drive for personal development at the for front of your mind.

Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success. Remember you usually get what you think of most. Next, make a list of your five most important wants or desires, and right next to each, put down what the payoff or benefit is when you achieve it. Look at this list before you go to bed each night and upon waking each morning. Always give solution oriented feedback when people tell you their problems. When the problems are your own, focus on the immediate thought..."Whats the answer?" Seek out and talk to a person, this week, that is currently doing what it is you want to do most, and be certain that it is someone who is doing it well. This applies to anything, earning, or selling, skiing, or acting, speaking, managing, or even being a good spouse or parent.

Find an expert, get the facts, make a project of learning everything you can about other winners in the field. Take a course in it, get personal lessons and generate excitement by mentally seeing yourself enjoying the success. Finally, make it a habit for everyone of your goals, to repeat again, and again, "I want to, I can, I want to, I can." The power these steps will have on the improvement of your personal development, is unmeasurable. You will feel empowered, strengthened, and successful, nothing can stop you, your achievements will pile one upon another, you will know what true personal development feels like in action.

The Powerful Personal Development Tool

Anything that has the ability to motivate you to take action is a powerful personal development tool. Motivational Life Quotes and sayings are one such a powerful tool that inspire and motivate us to take instantaneous action. They have got enormous power to motivate us to attain big success. They strong our mental will and give us a kick in the rear to move us towards right direction.

Personal development and self improvement teachers have been using them to help develop their students to their full potential. They use them to motivate and inspire their students and themselves. They capitalize on this as one of their keys to achieve their goals. They know that how powerful motivational life quotes are in terms of motivating others to take action.

Personal Development gurus use them because they know the fact that there is no other motivational tool which is as effective as life quotes. They know that they can easily motivate their students and themselves to achieve anything in life using quotes about life.

In order to get success, the first thing you need to do is to get yourself in the success frame of mind. You need to believe in yourself. Most of the people are not getting success because they simply think that they don't deserve success. So they don't even bother to try.

That's very dangerous thinking. This negative thinking is stopping hundred of thousand of enormous talented individuals to get success. They have fixed mindset that great things are not possible for them. If you also think so, then let me tell you my friend that you deserve to get success. You are an important person. You just need to change your fixed mindset to progressive mindset. You need to make workable personal development plan. Use Inspirational Life Quotes and sayings as a personal development tool and make a decision to develop yourself to your full potential.

Remember, it depends on you how you use inspirational quotes about life. They can be very powerful personal development tool or just a few words. Now it is up to you how you use them. You can view them as a just of words, read them and forget them or you can use them as tool to propel yourself and develop your abilities.

You are the CEO of your life. It is up to you to live your whole life with negative beliefs or visualize your outcome and take action towards success.

Bring Positive Changes In Life Through Self Motivation

To face the various challenges that life throws on you daily, you need self-motivation. It helps you maintain a healthy look towards life and disciplines you to achieve greater heights. Everyone needs to be self-motivated to boost one's enthusiasm and have energy to do work relentlessly. When motivation meets self-confidence, it can work wonders for you and you can achieve what you only dream of.

You might think, is there a foolproof way to create motivation for the inner self? The answer is not that simple. There no exact method or way to do so, but it has to come from within. You might find it interesting that for some people, self-motivation is generated through a strong belief in the almighty. For some, this comes through the determination to make things fall in place in tough times.

When life is going through a bad phase, nothing is turning out as planned, you need to get motivated to carry through the bad times. If you have a solid support in terms of friends or family, your tough times might pass without much discomfort. However, mostly it happens that you are actually alone in fighting the rough weather in your life. With your self motivation and determination, you can brave the tough times alone and come out with flying colors.

Strategies For Getting Motivated On Your Own

Let's discuss some strategies with the help of which you may get motivation:

• Set realistic and possible goals. You cannot correct all wrong things in your life in a go, so do not set far-fetching goals, as they will de-motivate you when you are not able to achieve them. A small step at a time is a far better way to reach the destination, rather than taking a leap and falling flat on the face.

• Learn from your mistakes, but never dwell on them. Past failures and unsuccessful ventures only destroy your self motivation; instead keep your eye on the brighter future ahead.

• Next step is to find your objective. What exactly are you going to do in the next week, month or year? Set objectives that are within your reach to achieve.

• After that comes the commitment stage: which is said to be a road block in the process of getting motivated. You might be afraid of committing to a job, relationship or new venture. Overcome that fear, with your confidence and hard work, you can do well at the committed work.

• Identify your strengths and weaknesses; this will definitely set you in the right direction. Take advantage of your strengths and try to overcome your weakness by right training and support.

You may find self help sites on the internet or books on this topic, which are prepared to help you get self motivated. These are of great help if you have the determination. Nevertheless, you must remember that it's your own attitude and mindset that set you sailing on the right path of self-motivation.

BUILD YOUR PERSONAL POWER

Do you have personal power? If you do, you probably know it. You almost certainly have high levels of self-confidence, high self-esteem and you are almost certainly comfortable with who you are. In this sense, your personal power is real power, because it defines you at your best and is beyond the judgement of others.
In this article I am going to teach you some strategies that will help you develop awesome self-confidence, boost your self-esteem, improve your perception of your self-image and add a real sense of personal power that could change your life forever.
Self-confidence is the confidence that allows you to move beyond your comfort zone - from where you are now to where you want to be. There are a couple of points about this: first you have to recognise that you are stuck in your comfort zone - if you are not sure, take some time to review your current situation and then ask yourself if you are satisfied with where you are now. Next, ask yourself where you want to be; if it is not where you are then you know that some changes are required and that means taking action.
Ok, if the thought of moving outside your comfort zone has you running for the hills, know this: self-confidence is not about being fearless - it is more about not being stuck and having sufficient motivation to take action. The author, Susan Jeffers, in her ground-breaking book, advocates that you 'feel the fear and do it anyway' and I kind-of subscribe to that mantra. This does not mean that you have to take a leap of faith headlong into the unknown - the journey can be broken down into manageable action steps.
How does this work? well, let's take the analogy of two trains running side-by-side on parallel tracks - it doesn't matter how far they travel, they will always end up in the same destination, unless some changes are made -remember, if you keep doing the same thing you will always get the same results. Now, take the same two trains, but this time imagine that a slight deviation from the parallel has been made in the laying of one set of tracks: on this journey the passengers will not at first notice the barely imperceptible change in direction, but without question the train on the newly laid tracks will eventually end up in totally different destination than the other train. This is a useful analogy for your life: by taking a slight deviation in your course - taking small and easy action steps - your life will ultimately take a completely different direction. As your life changes course, you will start to reap the benefits of success, your confidence will grow and change will become easier. Remember the old saying 'the walk of a thousand miles starts with the first step' - take your first step today!
Ok, let's take a look at self-esteem: this reflects your evaluation of your own self-worth and is based on a number of elements, including beliefs, emotions, competence and life experiences. Self-esteem has been described by psychologists as an enduring personality trait, but I consider that a more resourceful description would be that self-esteem is about personal perception - perception about your self-image. The great thing about perceptions is that they do not represent a reality - just your current perception of reality. With that powerful knowledge it doesn't take a huge mental-leap to recognise that you can change your perceptions - if you really want to!
So, how do you change your mind-set and boost your self-esteem? If you've already started work on your self-confidence then you're already on the right road. Self-esteem, of course, is much more than having confidence - there is plenty of evidence in the glossy celebrity magazines to support this - but there are some things that you can start doing right now to boost your self-esteem in fast time. I have listed some strategies below that should start you on the road to success.
Start by making a list of all the things that you already like about yourself - you will be surprised at the amount of good qualities that you already have. Review this list on a regular basis and celebrate your essential uniqueness and personal qualities.
It is really useful to seek the views of others: ask trusted friends or relatives what they like about you. Contrast their views with your own - you will be really surprised how how their perceptions may contradict your own negative assessment of yourself. Factor the new positive affirmations into your celebratory mantra.
Deal with negative self-talk: when you here that little voice inside your head spouting negative propaganda, stop the voice immediately: revert to reviewing and celebrating your good points and this will enable you to elicit a more resourceful and enabling state.
Put your beliefs into perspective - what you believe about yourself may not be true: most beliefs have been acquired over time by osmosis; based on what other people have said about you, some life experiences and constant reinforcement by your own mental activity. Start believing some more empowering thoughts about yourself today and act as if they are true: doing this will give you an immediate lift.
If you follow these simple life strategies you will soon be on the way to supercharging your self-confidence, boosting your self-esteem and your personal power will soar.
Live an empowered life!
Marik is a professional life, performance and personal development coach living and working in Essex. Marik has been involved in the field of personal development for the past 15 years and is keen to work with individuals who are committed to making positive change in their personal lives or careers.

LIFE IN ENCAPSULATION

So interesting to know that life is beautiful, so interesting to know that life is funfilled.However, it is not all about what you somewhere, somehow. So the quality of what you become is not a state and is not an endowment. If you need an ounce of initiative, it is there at your doorstep all you need to do is to make yourself available and embrace the amazing light GOD is going to shine to your path.
Bishop David Oyedepo once said that one day of divine revelation is worth one thousand years of education. You cannot sleep and be caught up in a trance, waking up and be excited that you have got wisdom, no! Wisdom is the principal thing, an amazing machine that we all must set in motion. But if you need an ounce of it you need to exercise your mind towards that direction and it will absolutely be yours.
Straight from my heart as one who has discerned the rigor of true wisdom (God’s wisdom), I want you to know that what is coming is coming, it is who you are and how prepared you are that makes the difference. So I have come to announce to you that “idea” is a critical factor “initiative” which projects you to the topmost point you so desire.
Conclusively, join me as I bring to you the LIBERATION OF TOPMOST INITIATIVES.
Coutesy:FEMI EMMANUEL ALABI
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