Determination paves the way to success because determination aligns our focus, attention and energy towards reaching our biggest, wildest dreams. The truth is, we all want something, whether that’s professionally, physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually, but in order to attain what we want, we need to put in some effort.
Determination comes from our inner strength and courage and is a mix of abilities, skills, knowledge, traits, beliefs, and talents. It is the one thing that helps us to keep going when we meet changes and challenges in life and it strengthens our self-confidence to take on a battle to the very end.
While determination is a requirement to achieve major goals in life, it needs constant energy to maintain our self-determination. So the big question is, how can we stay motivated, persevere and become more determined?
Here are our TOP 10 tips to improve your self-determination and see things through to complete your goals.
#1 Make a Commitment
To be successful, we have to keep a commitment, which is a promise to ourselves that we will keep going until we reach our goal no matter what happens. This means we have eliminated any possibilities to back out and keep working hard to achieve our goals despite failure, obstacles, challenges or harsh circumstances. You may wonder how you can make such a strong commitment and the key to committing ourselves is to be very clear about what we are committing ourselves to and creating a clear vision as well as a clear action plan.
#2 Ignore the Things You Can’t Control
Developing self-determination and mental strength is like developing muscle strength, none of us have an unlimited supply, so it is important to manage our energy wisely and don’t waste it on things that are out of our control. That doesn’t mean, we shouldn’t care, but rather that we do what we can within our power and don’t try to make changes for anyone else. Whether that’s global warming, politics or family, there is only so much we can do, we can reduce our carbon footprint, vote and lend a helping hand, but everything beyond that is out of our control.
#3 Celebrate the Success of Others
A lot of people see success as a zero-sum game and believe there is only a limited amount of success to go around, which means when someone else wins we automatically have to lose. This couldn’t be further from the truth and this kind of resentment only sucks huge amounts of mental energy out of us. When a friend, family member or co-worker does something awesome that doesn’t mean you can’t be shining in your own awesomeness. Reality is, success attracts success, so rather than resenting someone else’s success, celebrate the other person’s success and draw your successful friend even closer to let the success rub off on you. Celebrate and create awesome successes whenever you can and with that you will achieve more success yourself.
#4 Stop Criticizing, Complaining and Whining
Words are extremely powerful, especially the words we say to ourselves. The way we speak to ourselves has a huge impact on us and criticizing, complaining and whining will only make us feel worse. So instead of wasting your time on complaining, put that mental energy into finding solutions and fixing problems. Whenever something goes wrong, don’t focus on what is wrong, but instead focus on how you can make things better. And don’t just do it in conversations with yourself, but also when you interact with friends, family and colleagues.
#5 Find Your Emotional ‘Why’
Knowing the reason why we are trying to reach a certain goal is giving a big boost to our determination, because it reminds us of the emotional benefits that come from us taking action and reaching our goals. If we don’t have an emotional why, we only go through the motions and don’t put much effort in and as soon as a challenge or obstacle appears, we give up. However, if we know our ‘why’ and regularly visit our ‘why’ in our mind’s eye, we can develop the passion, motivation and determination to keep going no matter what happens.
#6 Exercise Regularly
We all know that working out is good for our body, but the benefits of regular exercise don’t stop there because physical activity is also great for our mind and emotions. Given that determination is a mindset, working out on a regular basis can dramatically increase our capacity for determination and it helps us to release stress. And if we are determined and reach our fitness goals, it is a huge encouragement to be determined and reach our goals in other areas of our life as well.
#7 Let Go of Fear
Fear kills determination. When we are determined, we perform at our highest level, however, if we let fear take over, it interferes with our determination and makes us deliver sub-standard results. To improve your self-determination you have to be brave and face your fears head-on, work through them and let them go. Remember, you are capable of so much more than you realize, believe in yourself and don’t let fear stop you from reaching your goals and dreams.
#8 Banish Self-Doubt
We can be our own worst critic, which can be a good thing in certain situations, but more often than not, our inner critic holds us back from achieving what we really want. Most of us go through situations where we listen a little too closely to the negative voice in our head and that niggling self-doubt soon enough stops us from moving forward. Don’t allow this to happen, but believe in yourself and your amazing abilities to achieve anything you set your mind to, shut down that inner critic and focus on your strengths and talents instead of your flaws.
#9 Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
On our way to success we will encounter mistakes and obstacles, things just tend to go wrong sometimes, but more often than not, they aren’t serious enough to warrant us to abandon our journey completely and give up. Still, many of us quit at the slightest sign of adversity. Instead of sweating the small stuff, develop the ability to let it go and simply wash over you. Remember that it probably won’t change the outcome of your goals and only gives you the opportunity to course correct and learn from the mistake or obstacle.
#10 Control Your Stress
Stress puts a damper on our willpower and determination, because when we are stressed out, we release negative emotions that diminish our ability to be determined and as a result, we stop working effectively when we need it the most. In order to increase our source of strength and determination, we have to find ways to manage our stress and reduce it as much as we can. Whether that’s through meditation, breath work, yoga, music or a massage, find what works best for you to control your stress levels.
Improving self-determination helps us to grow our hidden potential and achieve all around success in life. It’s as if determination is the magic key to success. In other words, being determined means that we put in all of ourselves to make our goals and dreams a reality and overcome any setbacks, failures and adversity to get what we want.
RESIST TEMPTATION AND STAY DETERMINED IN YOUR PURSUIT OF YOUR GOALS
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked