Stay Motivated

Listen to Motivational Music

You’ve probably heard the saying “music is the key to the soul” a hundred times already. How true is this statement?

According to Psychology Today journalist, Christopher Bergland, music is “inherently linked” to a person’s mood. In his article The Neuroscience of Music, Mindset, and Motivation, Bergland references various scientific research that proves that music can not only inspire people, but also perception.

Luckily, music comes in so many styles, topics and sounds that usually every person has at least one song that they like. Music is something that nearly every person can relate to and enjoy, and therefore, a great tool for motivation.

Possible steps for using music as a motivational tool:

Know your current mood and adapt accordingly
Find and gather songs that give you the certain feelings you want to achieve and/or that you feel you are currently lacking
Create playlists for quick access: categorize certain songs based on specific feelings and motives
When you are listening to a song, follow the lyrics. Lyrics for practically every song can be found with a quick google search. Seeing the lyrics can help the words really sink in. Also, sometimes we misinterpret the singer’s words/lyrics.
Watch the official music video. This can help understand the song more. Also, it helps you connect to the singer and the characters of the song. This can help amplify emotion because you are connecting words with visuals like facial expressions. Also, being able to see a face can make a connection between you and the character, and thus makes the song more relatable and impacting. (i.e. if this person could overcome this, or if this person is capable of doing this, then I can as well). It is as if the characters of the song become your cheerleaders.

While Berland highlights the concept that motivation songs are perceived differently by each individual (what’s motivational to you may not be to another), there are basic lists you can find on the internet that fit a good amount of people.

Some of these lists can be found at these websites:

If you want to look up a list based off of what you find motivational, take the title of a song you think is motivational, and type into Google: motivational songs like ___[song title and perhaps the singer/band]___.

Picture taken and drawn by: Meagan Baron

Follow Certain Social Media Pages

MindsWork.com highlights that when people participate with social media tools like the like, share, and comment button, they are experiencing not only social interaction, but recognition. This recognition is important for human motivation. According to MindsWork.com, Tilt Magazine discusses in their piece The Real Motivation Behind Social Networking that “recognition can be traced right back to infant/mother interaction and is one of the most important psychodynamic functions in the development of selfhood.”

That being said, social media can be a great source for you to fuel your self-motivation. It allows you to express yourself and build support systems amongst others.

All you have to do is:

Join sites that support your interests
Find pages and friends that single out your certain morals and types of motivational/supportive speaking (certain voices, tones, topics etc.)
Interact with others and/or the material.

Also take note that there are many different forms of interaction on social media. You can choose to be right in the center, and engage openly, or you can choose to be more on the side lines looking in. Find and do whatever is most comfortable for you. Do whatever you need to do to feed your motivation!

An example of a motivational social media page is shown here in the photo. Violence Survivors: Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault & etc. is a public page for all those directly and indirectly affected by violence. This page exists as a support system and a means for related news stories and information/research for coping with trauma. All in all, this page is a motivational outlet for those affected by various types of violence.

Picture taken and page created by: Meagan Baron

Staying Motivated

By: Meagan Baron

Define Your Strengths and Weaknesses

Being aware of what makes you tick is a great motivational tool. Knowing the strengths that fuel you and the speed bump weaknesses that try to block your path, can give you the types of perspectives that are needed to be motivated and remain motivated.

For instance, MyrkoThum.com talks about how defining your strengths and weaknesses strengthens your clarity and passion in their article, What are your Personal Strengths and Weaknesses?

Let’s take a deeper look into that statement…

Knowing your strengths allows you to continue using them to your advantage. For instance, it allows you to:

Continue doing what makes you happy and what gives you rewards/advances you.
Know what strengths work best in certain situations and with certain individuals/personalities.
Trust yourself and your judgement. The more that you highlight your capabilities, the more it reminds yourself that what you do has merit and that you can trust yourself to produce some great stuff.

Knowing your weaknesses allows you to start using them to your advantage. For instance, it will allow you to:

Be able to recognize what others recognize. Self-critiquing can help you not be less biased. We tend to look at ourselves in an extreme way: either way better or way worse than others see us. There is nothing wrong with having high self-esteem, and there is nothing wrong with amplifying it. The trick is to be able to see what you need to work on and not let self-esteem turn into egotism. It is important to know that no one is perfect; and that is ok.
Show others that it is fine to have weaknesses, and can result in others starting to notice and work on their own.
Show others that you are not perfect, but that you are determined to do your best.

Picture taken and drawn by: Meagan Baron