How to Increase The Stamina of Your Motivation — Not Intensity!

Motivation is more powerful for prolonged periods rather than short bursts.

“To give you a number, between (age) 16–20, people are professional (in football).

67% of them are not anymore in football at the age of 21.

The stamina in the motivation is more important than the intensity of the motivation. Because you have to deal with frustrations, with disappointment, with not being selected, and still keep going.

And, those who keep going make it!”

That’s a short speech from ex-football coach (and one of the best) Arsene Wenger about our motivation.

Many of us struggle with keeping our motivation levels high for long periods. In the beginning, it’s great — we’re so enthusiastic and ready to go. But, after a few weeks or months, that motivation drifts away.

Before we know it, we’ve stopped at whatever it is we’re trying to achieve. As Arsene says, intensity is nothing. You need to learn how to increase the endurance of your motivation to get you to your goals. Here are a few ways to help.

Have The Mindset of ‘One Day At a Time.’

Motivation subsides easily because we look too far ahead:

• You might have a goal of earning six figures from your online business.
• Your first couple of months working on this is great. You’re seeing some income and obtaining clients to help you with your goal.
• But quickly, you become upset because in 4 months you’re not making anything close to that magic six figures. So, you start to lose motivation and think you can’t do it.

In short, you’re expecting too much too soon.

You’re having a short intense burst of motivation, but there’s no stamina in your motivation tank.

Instead, to keep your motivation tank full, take one day at a time. Ask yourself:

What do I need to do today to take me a step closer?

This approach stops you from looking too far ahead and becoming upset with what you think is a lack of progress. It’ll actually show you that you’re achieving great things daily. It’ll keep your motivation levels high because it’ll help you realise that each day you’re doing something that’s taking you a step closer to your end goal.

So, preserve your motivation by taking one day at a time.

Mindfully Look At How Far You’ve Come

Sadly, we judge our success based on how far we are from our end goal. This ties in with the point above. For example:

• If your goal is to lose 20lbs, and you’ve lost 5lbs so far, you’ll look at it as “I’ve only lost 5lbs. I’m still 15lbs away — that’s far!”

Sometimes this isn’t our fault because our brain focuses more on negative information rather than positive information.

Again, this leads us to have an intense burst of motivation which results in a massive drain in our motivation endurance. Instead, consciously work to flip the way you view your progress. For example:

• If you’ve lost 5lbs out of your 20lbs, see it as you’re 5lbs closer to your target.

You can also implement this trick by listing all the things you have accomplished so far in achieving your end goal.

It’s a way of telling yourself that you’re not far away from your end goal.

There’s no need to lose your motivation because you think you’re far away from your goal. You’re actually a step closer because you’ve come a long way already. It’s vital to focus on the journey rather than the outcome.

So, to prolong your motivation, view your progress as to how far you've come, not how far away you are — it’ll keep your motivation levels elevated.

Set Small Challenges Along The Way

In line with us thinking our end goal is too far away and our motivation tank draining very quickly, another way to overcome this is by setting yourself small challenges along the way.

It’s like you have little checkpoints in your targets. For example:

• I’ve always had the goal to become a clinical psychologist and I’m now onto my training to become one.
• But, along the way, back when I decided to do this at 16, I had small challenges and tasks I set to keep driving myself.
• I said I want to get onto a good psychology course for university. I then said I want to get a first-class honours degree which is the highest you can get. I then said I want to work alongside a clinical psychologist. I also said I want to start training before the age of 25. I’m now 24 and managed to achieve all these things, with the end goal of becoming a clinical psychologist.

What gave me stamina in my motivation was these small challenges in between. I kept thinking, “Ok, onto the next one now.” It gave me a reason to keep pushing and for my motivation to stay there.

However, I’ll caveat this with if you don’t get to those checkpoints it can drain your motivation too. For me, it took me a bit longer than I thought to get a job where I’m supervised by a clinical psychologist — this was extremely tough.

When this happens, you need to use the other tricks above to help. It’s helpful then to start telling yourself you’ve come a long way and list why you have.

So, to improve the stamina of your motivation, think about different challenges you can set yourself, along your journey to keep you going.

Final Comments

Most of us become excited and motivated about a new goal or target we have, yet it quickly subsides.

The easy answer is because it’s an intense burst in motivation, rather than a slow-release that will keep you going. The truth is, most of our goals and targets aren’t sprints. The things we set aren’t easy to achieve in less than a month.

So, improving your stamina in your motivation is a way forward to help you achieve your goals. A few ways to do this are:

Keep thinking “one day at a time.”

Mindfully look at how far you’ve come.

Set small challenges along the way.

“The stamina in the motivation is more important than the intensity of the motivation.” — Arsene Wenger

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