Let's Get Motivated

Patients constitute themselves the greatest obstacle to their health. It is the task of doctors to try new communication techniques to stimulate their patients to carry out meaningful and lasting habits for the benefit of their health.

Steps to motivate the patient to change lifestyle habits

In practice, medical attempts to achieve changes in the health habits of their patients through advice and teaching do not yield the desired results. And since doctors are those who have the specific knowledge of diseases, how to diagnose them, how to apply treatments to fight against them, they are called to create new forms of communication that stimulate and encourage patients to change the course of health, inviting them to prevent rather than wait for illness to occur as a result of their poor health habits.

It is not about talking but about collaborating

When communication is established with the patient by asking direct and open questions while listening interested in the patient’s well-being, a good relationship is achieved that allows a better understanding of the reality that the patient lives. This allows a motivating effect that helps the doctor understand the difficulties that the patient faces in his daily life and assertively motivates him to modify his behaviors and habits about his health.

 Create realistic goals

Patients become discouraged when a goal seems unattainable. Therefore, setting small and easy-to-reach goals is the key, since by having evidence that they are progressing, they are motivated to continue. In addition, with time, the complexity in establishing objectives can be increased, ensuring that these are relevant and of great importance for both the patient and the doctor, without losing sight of the fact that the objectives are easy to achieve.

 Be constant in the positive attitude

Avoid making judgments or falling into confrontations with your patient, the perspective of his progress will become the best tool to motivate him to continue. In addition, maintaining a positive attitude can convey confidence. When the patient becomes discouraged, it is necessary to remind him of the goals achieved to motivate him again. Training as a means of motivation Training is essential when motivating a patient to implement changes in their lifestyle. It is necessary to recognize that knowledge provides the power to face and assume that changes are necessary for health to prevail. Having sufficient knowledge, prevention will become the primary element to maintain optimal health.

In conclusion,

Patients embrace the changes in a lasting way, not when their doctors tell them what to do, but when they make the decision themselves that it is time to implement something different. However, doctors can push them to make decisions and help stick to the changes and make them permanent.

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Motivation can be defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains behavior aimed at achieving an objective or meet a need.

It is the force that makes us act and allows us to keep going even in difficult situations. Going for a glass of water when you’re thirsty, studying all night to pass your much-desired driving test, or training hard to be the best in a championship, are all possible thanks to this one.

However, just as the challenges and projects that we propose are very varied, the types of motivation from which our forces are born to achieve our objectives are also varied. That is precisely what I am going to talk about in this article: the types of motivation.

A theory that analyzes human needs: “Maslow’s Pyramid”

Psychology’s interest in motivation

Many psychologists have been interested in the study of motivation, as it is a basic principle in the behavior of human beings: no one moves without motivation, without a reason for it. Being motivated means carrying out daily tasks without being a heavy burden and it keeps us alive. But not only that, motivation is related to other psychological variables, such as stress level, self-esteem, concentration, etc., and, as many studies have indicated, it affects the health and well-being of all of us.

For this reason, many theories speak of human motivation, including the aforementioned Maslow’s Pyramid, McClelland’s three factors, or Herzberg’s dual-factor theory. When studying motivation, different approaches have been developed that apply to different areas: work, sport, learning, etc. This has caused several authors to classify motivation under different names.

Types of motivation

The degree of motivation of each individual is not directly proportional to the value of what causes it, but it is the importance that the person who receives it gives that determines the strength or level of motivation.

Next, we will explain the different types of motivation, as well as the different sources of motivation that drive us to perform certain acts.

Extrinsic motivation vs intrinsic motivation

This way of classifying the types of motivation is one of the most used, and is based on the location of what motivates: is it incentives belonging to the context, or self-administered incentives?

1. Extrinsic motivation

Extrinsic motivation refers to the motivational stimuli from outside of the individual and the outside of the activity. Therefore, the motivating factors are external rewards such as money or recognition from others. Extrinsic motivation is not based on the satisfaction of carrying out the chain of actions that makes up what we are doing, but on a reward that is only indirectly related to it, as if it were a by-product.

For example, an individual may work hard to earn more money or he may study very hard because of the social recognition that a good job provides him once he has finished his studies. A person with extrinsic motivation for a task that must be delivered will work hard at it despite having little interest since the anticipation of the external reinforcer will motivate him to finish it on time.

2. Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation refers to the motivation from inside the individual rather than any external reward. It is associated with the desire for self-realization and personal growth and is related to the pleasure that the person feels when carrying out an activity, which allows a person to be in a ” State of Flow ” when doing it.

For example, an individual who attends his soccer team training simply for the pleasure of playing his favorite sport.

Intrinsic motivation is the type of motivation most linked to good productivity, since where it occurs the individual does not limit himself to meeting the minimum necessary to obtain the reward, but he is personally involved in what he does and decides to put into it much of your endeavor.

Positive motivation vs negative motivation

This distinction is based on the emotional charge associated with motivation.

3. Positive motivation

Positive motivation refers to the process by which an individual initiates or maintains adhered behavior by obtaining a positive, either external or internal (for the sake of activity) reward.

4. Negative motivation

Negative motivation refers to the process by which a person starts or remains attached to behavior to avoid both externally unpleasant consequence (punishment, humiliation, etc.) or internal (avoid the feeling of frustration or failure).

Other ways to classify varieties of motivation

The literature specialized in sport psychology has also provided information on other types of motivation related to the world of physical activity and sport.

Basic motivation vs everyday motivation

This classification of types of motivation is established paying particular attention to the frequency and intensity of what leads to action.

5. Basic motivation

Basic motivation refers to the stable base of motivation that determines the level of commitment of an athlete to its activity. It refers to an athlete’s interest in sports results, their personal performance, and/or the positive consequences of both.

6. Daily motivation

Daily motivation refers to the interest of an athlete in daily activity and the immediate gratification it produces.

Ego-centered motivational guidance vs task-centered motivational guidance

About how motivation interacts more or less with self-esteem and self-concept, we can distinguish between these two concepts. Both orientations are orthogonal and not opposite. Thus, there may be athletes with both high orientations. Both low orientations, with a high ego-centered but low task orientation, and with a high task orientation but a low ego-centered orientation.

7. Ego-centered motivational guidance

This type of motivation refers to the fact that the motivation of athletes depends on challenges and results compared to other athletes.

8. Task-focused motivational guidance

Motivation depends on personal challenges and results, and subjective impressions of mastery and progress. That is to say, what motivates us to surpass ourselves, to improve personal brands.

You may also like to read: How to motivate yourself to study, in 12 keys

Motivation is the emphasis we put on performing certain tasks or activities. High and lasting motivation is vital to help us achieve everything we set out to do, especially when studying.

However, sometimes this is not so easy to maintain; So next, we will see several tricks with which to increase your motivation to study, either during exam periods or for moments of learning quickly on your own.

The importance of motivation in the study

Like most activities or actions that people carry out, motivation is the engine that makes these activities carry out satisfactorily. This motivation can be both intrinsic when we do something for the mere pleasure of doing it, or extrinsic, when what motivates us is the achievement of an external reward.

Likewise, motivation can also be affected by our mood. Sometimes the different situations we go through in our day-to-day condition our mood and therefore this also affects our motivation to perform certain tasks, including study habits.

For example, one day we may wake up very motivated to study, we intend to spend the day in the library and we feel full of energy. However, during breakfast, they give us bad news. The safest thing is that our mood declines, therefore motivation drops and we lose the desire to go to study.

Also, study habits, like many other activities, it is necessary to start from a starting point, planning and a methodology with which we will guide our work. Finally, and obviously, we need an objective, a goal for which we have decided to start studying.

Usually, our motivation strategies for study are conditioned by our perception of the subject or subject or the tasks that we have to perform to study. For example, surely we will not perceive the same study for a subject with a lot of theoretical material than for another that is more practical.

12 tips to motivate you when studying

Next, we will see a series of tips so that starting a study session is something very attractive and bearable. By following these small steps, little by little they will become habits and your academic performance will improve remarkably.

1. Plan the study session

It is essential to start by planning your study session. Choose what subject or subjects you are going to study and try to set a time limit to do it. A good idea is to make a list of the tasks to be carried out during the session and order them according to their priority. As you progress in tasks, you will feel more motivated and fulfilled.

2. Set small goals

The establishment of small goals or objectives in those moments in which the study or work material is of great volume ** will help us feel fulfilled and therefore keep our motivation high

3. Do the hardest first

The first moment of study is when we have more energy. This energy will be consumed little by little as the hours go by, therefore it is much more efficient to carry out those activities or study those subjects that are more difficult for us at the moment.

Otherwise, if we leave it for the end, likely, we will not have enough strength and we perceive this task as much more complicated than it is.

4. Avoid distractions

Mobile phone, social networks, internet, television, etc. All of these are distracting agents, diverting us from our task and causing our minds to wander, making it much more difficult to refocus on our task.

All these distractions only make us waste a lot of time, be less effective, and therefore favor us to develop a feeling of incompetence and demotivation.

5. Rest from time to time

It is highly recommended to take some time off before fatigue takes over. If we leave our task when we can no longer do it, it will be very difficult for us to resume it and, surely, we will do so unmotivated.

The ideal is to take small breaks of 10-15 minutes when we notice the slightest symptom of fatigue. In this way, we will be much clearer and with more energy to go back to sitting down to work.

6. Reward yourself

Once the work or study session is over, reward yourself with small rewards. If you think that you have done well or that the work has been productive, allow yourself some reward that motivates you.

To be able to do it effectively you can follow the following steps:

Set a goal and set the reward beforehand. So you will be motivated to get it.

For the reward to be effective, it must be proportionate to the effort or difficulty of the task.

If you think you have not performed enough, do not reward yourself, otherwise, it will have no effect when you do.

Self-affirmations are also small rewards that we can give ourselves while we are working.

7. Find the ideal study context

Each person performs better in a specific context and schedule. Therefore, it is necessary to know what is our ideal time and environment to study.

For example, we can study with music if it is appropriate, study in a place where there are more people like a library, or on the contrary be totally alone and in silence.

In the same way, during the first hours of the morning, we may find ourselves more clear to work well or, on the contrary, the afternoon is our ideal time to concentrate better.

8. Use the libraries

Even though, as mentioned above, each person has an ideal place of study. Libraries provide us with a quiet space without the distractions that we may have at home.

Besides, if you are accompanied you can set joint goals and rest together with another person, which always makes long study sessions more bearable.

9. Adapt your workspace

Make sure that everything works correctly and that you have everything you need to study or perform the tasks that you have pending. Otherwise, you will waste a lot of time looking for things and you can get very frustrating when you see that you cannot get the work done.

Also, an orderly and clean workspace will not make us feel more comfortable and at ease.

10. Think about long-term goals

Reflect on what has led you to carry out these studies or activities, as well as what you can achieve once you finish them. All of this will boost your motivation and help you find a reason to continue.

A good option is to leave it reflected somewhere, a paper or a blackboard that will serve as motivation and can help you remember what you are doing this effort for.

11. Don’t procrastinate

Procrastination is the “art” of leaving what we do not want to do for another time, replacing it with something lighter and that we want more. Although this sounds good, the reality is that you will always end up putting it off, so the best thing is to propose to do and do it when we still have energy.

12. Assume a certain level of stress

Experiencing a minimum level of stress is not harmful, on the contrary, it helps us to stay active and attentive to what we are doing.

However, we cannot let it seize us. Although a little stress is good for our performance, a lot can make us saturated and the anxiety that accompanies it can prevent us from concentrating and doing our work well.

Motivation is an important tool for success.

The degree to which you can remain motivated and making progress determines the realization of your goals in life. The advantage of being motivated is not reflected merely in achieving goals. The benefits of motivation are numerous, and they can change your life.

But surely you ask yourself, what are the benefits of motivation? When you fully understand what the rewards of motivation are, you will make it a habit for life.

Motivation is important because:

• It pushes you to action
• If you are motivated for a particular reason, to achieve something, you will be pushed to act, to perform certain actions to achieve one or more objectives.
• It keeps you constantly focused on the task you are doing
• Directs behavior in a particular direction
• Regulate or control behavior for achieving goals
• The motivation also makes it ” goal-oriented “
• So you always want to put yourself out there to reach a goal.
• This focus on completing a task is due to motivation.
• If you are super motivated you will always have the desire to achieve something.
• If you have low motivation, don’t.

Motivation helps you stay organized

Motivation makes you self-critical of your progress. Allowing you to understand if you are on the right path if you are making progress or not.

1. Creativity and Energy

Motivated people think more clearly. Devote more intellectual resources to your current project and the result is more creativity. When we are motivated we need less sleep, not because we are constantly secreting adrenaline but because we have a genuine and energizing emotion.

2 . Flexibility

Motivation makes us discover that flexibility is a skill that can be developed and does not depend on circumstances. When circumstances change, we are more open to giving in to handle the situation rather than remaining rigid.

3. Health

People with positive feelings about their life and their potential have reasons to be and stay healthy. They have experienced the difference in health and energy when going through moments of demotivation, and they prefer to be motivated.

4. Magnetism, Momentum, and Multiplication

A motivated life is interesting and motivated people have a certain magnetism. People are naturally drawn to winners, who generate energy out of habit and by nature.

Motivation is self-perpetuating. It is gaining speed as it passes through offices, homes, and communities. Living motivated is easier because it becomes a habit.

Motivation is contagious: it spreads and multiplies. People around a motivated person “stick” with that motivation.

5. Productivity and Optimism

Motivated people do more, are more active, and take on tasks with enthusiasm. You move quickly and deliberately and always want to have the attitude of feeling like you can do things.

A motivated individual discovers that optimism opens more doors than negativity. Learn to find the potential in all things. Change does not get them out of the way. He sees all the good sides.