How To Get Motivated

How do I get motivated to start:

a) Budgeting money

b) Saving money

c) Learning to manage my money

I wish these questions were asked more. Yes, creating a budget is an important stepping-stone to pay off your debt for good.

However, just because you create it does not mean you will follow it. What is holding you back is the proper motivation.

In this post, you will finally learn what causes your lack of motivation, how to get motivated, and how long you can expect it to take to develop a new habit.

Bonus: I will share with you a trick I use to get new habits to stick quicker. It will help you stick to the new habit before your newly found motivation dissipates.

Welcome to part 2 of the Bad Habit Series!

What Causes a Lack of Motivation?

First, there seems to be a non-exhaustive list of what causes a lack of motivation in us as human beings. The reasons I list here are what I see or experience the most.

Especially since the COVID 19 quarantine started in March 2020. Some of you are working from home all of the time while others were laid off or furloughed.

Second, home is no longer just, where the heart is. It has become a place you don’t get a break from and your dopamine hormone could be preying on how you feel about it.

The Dopamine Hormone

According to a Forbes article written by Dr. Sydney Ceruto, nature is already creating a motivation roadblock called the Dopamine Hormone.

Some of you may have heard of this referred to as the “love hormone.”

Example: When your favorite show posts a new season on Netflix, your brain will release the dopamine in response to your excitement.

When the hormone amplifies the emotion, your brain leads you to completing the task.

But the dopamine hormone also responds to stress or anger.

Example: You have just worked a 40-hour workweek and your boss is demanding you put in an extra 3 hours of work on a Friday night.

Your boss essentially wants you to meet a deadline he/she promised. A common response to this could be stress, anger, or both.

When your brain releases dopamine in response, it will prevent you from either completing the task or completing it in a timely manner.

Sound familiar; there is a way to spin the stress response on its head to create a positive response.

Knowing how to get motivated is not just about finally learning to manage your finances. This knowledge will help you in any aspect of your life.

You may not realize it but motivation is the key to everything we do in our daily life. There are hundreds of ways to get motivated if you google.

But the list I created here is what I have seen work.

Part 1: Try to complete the new habit first thing in the morning.

This will make sure you always get to it.

Part 2: Constantly visualize the positive outcome you will get if you stick to the new habit.

Part 3: Create a more exciting reward system for completing the new habit.

It’ll encourage your brain to make the new habit automatic.

Part 4: Search YouTube, podcast channels, or Ted Talks to find a motivational speaker to listen to once per week.

They can be teaching anything you are interested in. Listening to someone else speak passionately about what they teach will rub off on you.

I enjoy Carrie Green’s channel on YouTube.

Part 5: When completing a task you don’t enjoy create an enjoyable atmosphere to work in.

I like to find Ambience Channels on YouTube to surround myself in a warm coffee shop, an ancient library, or a cozy reading spot.

Some have rain or jazz music playing in the background, perfect for concentrating!

Part 6: Write down a schedule to give you the feeling of purpose.

Always know when your breaks are and when your tasks will end. Set an alarm, you can get lost in the task this way!

Part 7: Try keeping the same time slot in your day for achieving the new habit. At least until it is automatic.

If you put it off for too long it will lead to procrastination.

Example: I always calculate my budget and pay bills the Saturday morning after I get paid. This prevents me from overspending.

Now my bills are always paid on time.

How Long Does It Take To Form a New Habit?

A study by the University College London shows it takes 66 days to fully form a new habit and make it automatic. Some individuals changed their habits in 21-28 days depending on how difficult the new habit was to form.

Do not let these numbers discourage you! I only mention this study to inform you not every new habit you try to develop will be easily formed.

Here is some even better news! The study disproved that missing a day interrupted the habit-forming process.

Missing a day just means it isn’t a habit yet. Make the decision to start. It is the most crucial piece. Most people don’t even make it this far!

Do not let your negative internal voice discourage you after missing one day. I expect this to happen to you.

Even someone who has a habit of working out 5 days per week successfully for 4 yrs straight will miss a day every now and then.

The trick is to get back to the new habit the next day. Consistency isn’t what matters the most here. It is returning to what you start that does.

Success comes to those who do not give up.

What is the 21/90 Rule? – My Bonus Trick

The 21/90 Rule was created by a Dr. Maxwell Maltz for a self-help book he released in the 1960’s, Psycho-Cybernetics.

Step 1: Add your new habit to your daily routine for 21 days.

Step 2: Repeat step 1 for a total of 90 days.

The idea is by the end of the 90 days your new habit will now be automatic for you.

(Remember the more difficult a new habit is to form the longer it could take to develop.)

Try only focusing on adding your new habit to your daily life for the next 21 days. Quit focusing on the big picture. Do it in bite-sized pieces to see if that is more encouraging.

Once those 21 days are up, focus on completing the new habit for another 21 days. Keep these bite-sized cycles going for 90 days.

Then reflect on the comfort you have with the habit. If you feel it is not completely developed, complete the 21/90 rule again.

A little secret of mine, I only think about what I want to accomplish today. And I forget about tomorrow until tomorrow gets here.

This line of thinking helps me accomplish 4 times more than I used to in a day.

Your Take Action Guide

Now it’s time for the fun part, taking action!

First, I want you to start journaling by following the steps below. I don’t care if you use a pen and paper or an app on your phone.

You need to be able to see what your current habits look like right now. And yes, this includes keeping track of what you do on the weekends.

Remember bite-sized chunks. Work up to the 21/90 rule.

Here is your list of to-do’s in order of completion:

Step 1:

On the first page of your journal, I want you to define one big financial habit change you would like to achieve.

Step 2:

List out small financial habit changes you can make to achieve your big financial habit.

Step 3:

Circle the small habit you want to start working toward first.

Only focus on this one small habit to prevent overwhelming yourself. Move on to the next small habit when you are comfortable with this one.

Step 4:

While you live through your next 7 days write down activities you complete during your free time. Document how many minutes or hours you spend completing each activity.

Example of an entry: Monday night – I watched my favorite show on Netflix for 4 hours.

(Keep in mind, on days you work, it will be easier to keep track of your time because you know what time you get home from your commute.)

Step 5:

On day 7 look back at the entries, you have made. I do expect there to be missing entries and that is ok. You will get better at this.

Step 6:

Based on your entries choose an activity to replace with your new financial habit. Preferably, block off 1 hour of time maximum to prevent burnout.

I like to make time for the new habit first thing in the morning to make sure nothing interferes with it in the beginning.

Step 7:

Try the 21/90 rule with the new habit. See if focusing on only completing your new financial habit for 21 days helps keep you from procrastinating.

The goal here is to know what outcome you want without trying to make a huge change right out of the gate.

Because the big goals always take time because there are smaller habits to develop first in order to support the larger ones. Take it one day at a time.

Ignore the missed days as if they didn’t happen. No matter what, always try again the next day.

The ones who never make a change are the ones who give up after one failed day. No one takes better care of you than you do.

Don’t give up and keep fighting for the better life you deserve.

How To Get Motivated

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