1. Have a cause

I can’t think of a more powerful source of motivation than a cause you care about. Such cause can inspire you to give your best even in the face of difficulties. It can make you do the seemingly impossible things.

While other causes could inspire you temporarily, a cause that matters to you can inspire you indefinitely. It’s a spring of motivation that will never dry. Whenever you think that you run out of motivation,  you can always come to your cause to get a fresh dose of motivation.

1.找到一个理由

“在激励里，没什么比理由更有力了。这些理由能在困难当前时把你激发起来。它能让你去做一些看起来不可能的事。”

尽管也有其他一些动机理由能临时刺激你，与你休戚相关的那些目标能无限期地激发你。这是一口永不干涸的激励泉水。什么时候你觉得没动力了，就去找找自己的目标以获得动力的泉水。

2. Have a dream. A big dream.

Only as high as I reach can I grow, only as far as I seek can I go, only as deep as I look can I see, only as much as I dream can I be.

Karen Ravn

Your cause is a powerful source of motivation but it’s still abstract in nature. You need to make it concrete in the form of a dream. Imagine how the world will be in the future. Imagine how people will live and work.

Having a dream is important because it’s difficult to be motivated if you don’t have anything to shoot for. Just think about people who play basketball. Will they be motivated to play if there is no basket to aim at? I don’t think so. They need a goal. You need a goal. That’s what your dream is for.

But just having a dream is insufficient. Your dream must be big enough to inspire you. It must be realistic but challenging. It must stretch your ability beyond your comfort zone.

2.要有一个梦想。还要够大。

“能摸多高我就长多高，能探多远我就走多远，能看多深我就看多深，能做多少梦我就做多少梦。”

你的目标动力对于激励来说是个挺有力的来源，但还是太抽象。你得把它具体化成一个梦想。想象一下未来的世界会怎样。想象一下人们怎么生活工作。如果你无的放矢，根本没法激励自己，所以做做白日梦还是挺重要的。想想打篮球的人。如果根本没有篮筐去投，谁还有动力啊？我看就没有了。他们需要目标。你也是。不然你白日梦拿来干嘛。

但光有白日梦还不够。这个梦得足够高远，那才能激励你。它得既现实主义又不是可以一蹴而就的。它还得能迫使你离开安逸的环境去大展身手。

3. Be hungry

Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way.

Les Brown

To be truly motivated, you need to have hunger and not just desire. Having mere desire won’t take you through difficult times since you don’t want things badly enough. In many cases, hunger makes the difference between the best performers and the mediocre ones.

How can you have hunger? Your cause and your dream play a big role here. If you have a cause you care about and a big dream related to it, you should have the hunger inside of you. If you think that you are losing hunger, all you need to do is to connect again to your cause and dream. Let them inspire you and bring the hunger back.

3.要有饥渴感

“‘想要’什么那还不够。你一定要对它充满渴望。你的动力一定要足够霸道，那才能跨过总是出现在路上的那些障碍。”

要想真正得到激励，你得不仅仅是“想要”，还要是“渴望要”。仅仅是普通欲望没法帮你渡过困难，因为你又不是非要不可。很多时候，有没有饥渴感就是将军和士兵的差别。

怎样才能有饥渴感？这里就得看你的动机目标和梦想了。如果你又有关心的目标又有和之相关的白日梦，你就该有一种饥渴感才对。如果你认为自己正在丧失这种饥渴感，你所要做的就是再一次连结起目标和梦想。让它们继续激发你并给你带来饥渴。

4. Run your own race

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.

Mikhail Baryshnikov

Comparing yourself with others is an effective way to demotivate yourself. Even if you start with enthusiasm, you will soon lose your energy when you compare yourself with others.

Don’t let that happen to you. You have your own race so how other people perform is irrelevant. Comparing yourself with others is like comparing the performance of a swimmer with a runner using the same time standard. They are different so how can you compare one with the other?

The only competitor you have is yourself. The only one you need to beat is you. Have you become the best you can be?

4.别管别人

“我又不想比别人跳舞跳得好。我只想着跳得比自己好而已。”

要想灰心丧气，拿自己跟别人比可谓立竿见影。就算一开始你豪气冲天，一和别人比，你马上就缴械投降。

千万别这么做。你跑自己的，管别人呢。拿自己和别人比，就像让一个游泳的和一个跑步的用同一时间标准斗快。都不一样，天晓得你怎么比较出来？

自己才是自己的唯一敌人。这也是你唯一要战胜的对手。你做到最好了吗？

5. Take one more step

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston Churchill

When you meet obstacles along the way, there could be the tendency to quit. You may think that it’s too difficult to move on. You may think that your dream is impossible to achieve. But this is where you can see the difference between winners and losers. Though both of them face the same difficulties, there is one thing that makes the winners different: the courage to continue.

In difficult situations, just focus on taking one more step forward. Don’t think about how to complete the race. Don’t think about how many more obstacles are waiting for you. Just focus on taking the next step.

5.走下去

“成功无止境，失败还有救；重要的是要有勇气玩下去。”

当你半路遇到困难，你可能想过要溜掉。你可能觉得难于上青天。你可能觉得自己白日梦做得太离谱。但就在这里，成功者和失败者的不同点就凸显出来了。尽管他们遇到同样的麻烦，有一点使成功者与众不同：玩下去的勇气。

困境里，你应该集中精神向前迈多一步。别想着怎样才能跑完。别想着前面还有多少障碍。只想着你的下一步。

6. Let go of the past

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believe it or not, one of the best demotivators is your past. Your past can drag you down before you realize it. Your past can give you a heavy burden on your shoulders.

The good news is it’s a burden you don’t have to carry. Take it off your shoulder and leave it. You might make mistakes in the past. You might disappoint others with what you did. But it’s over. It’s already in the past and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Today is a new day and you have the chance to start again. No matter how bad your past might be, you still have a bright future ahead waiting for you. Just don’t let the burden of the past stop you.

6.让往事如烟飘走

“搞定每一天，你就能做任何能做的事。”

随你相不相信，你的过去在扰乱军心上可谓极具杀伤力。你还不知道，就给它扯了后腿。它给你背上了太重的负担。不过，好消息是这些负担你根本用不着去背。拿下来扔掉吧。过去你可能犯了错，可能因为自己的所做所为让人大失所望。但都过去了，再怎么样你都没法弥补了。

今天就是一个新的一天，你又有机会重新来过了。不管过去你多么不走运，你仍然前程似锦。别让那些过去的负担束缚了你吖。

更多信息请查看英语美文写作