One of the simplest and most powerful things you can do to feel more motivated is to take time to celebrate your successes — even very small ones.
It’s a basic law of human psychology that behaviors followed by a reward are more likely to happen in the future:
- If you successfully run your first 5K and have a handful of close friends at the finish line to cheer you on and congratulate you, your motivation to run future races in the future goes way up.
- If you’re willing to be vulnerable with your spouse about something that’s bothering you and they let you know they’re proud of you for bringing it up, you’re going to feel more confident talking about difficult things in the future.
The lesson here is obvious:
Get in the habit of celebrating your own successes and you’ll create a steady stream of motivation for future goals.
Thankfully, you don’t have to buy yourself expensive things or throw a giant party in order to celebrate your successes and build motivation.
It’s a funny quirk of human psychology that the size of the reward doesn’t matter nearly as much as the timing. More specifically: A small reward delivered immediately beats a big reward delayed.
For example:
- Tell yourself that you are proud of yourself after getting an A on that recent test.
- After nailing a presentation at work, close your office door, put on your favorite song, and throw yourself a little dance party.
- After going for that early morning run, splurge on a fancy cup of coffee and muffin.
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