Change Your Mindset

Here’s Why You Need to Make Motivation Personal

Published

4 years ago

Aug 14, 2022

Image Credit: Unsplash

You put down your self-help book and you feel ready. You are ready to conquer any Herculean task that is standing in your way to success. You are transformed, and you cannot wait to show the world what you are capable of. The next day, you wake up early in the morning. You turn off your phone’s alarm clock with such energy you know you are going to smash the day.

A week passes by, and you are still smashing it. People around you start to notice. You are a changed man! Another week passes by, you feel a bit drained, but you soldier on. In the third week, you feel kind of sick of anything motivation related — what happened here?

I asked myself the same question countless times, and I came to the realisation that mass-produced motivation can only last so long. What happened is that you got a boost in motivation from the self-help book, but you did not achieve sustainable motivation; the one that lasts forever.

The only way you can stay motivated is to personalise your motivation. Make it as personal as possible. You must look at motivation from a bottom-up, not top-down, perspective.

In this article, I am going to show you how to do just that. You are going to learn a few tips on how you can personalise motivation, building it from the inside out.

1. Diagnose your strengths

The first step to personalise your motivation is to pinpoint and capitalise on your strengths.

What is your strong suit?

There are two ways to find the answer:

Analyse the history of your achievements
Ask people who know you well

For example, when I was a university student, I got the highest grade in public speaking. People also often told me that I had a good way with words (I am saying that humbly!). What does all this mean?

It means I have charisma. I am able to inspire others with my words. So, how can I use this to personalise my motivation?

Well, if I can inspire people with my words, I can inspire myself with them, too. I talk to myself every day. Whenever I run low on motivation, I use metaphors, similes and personification created from my own imagination to shake off whatever parasite that is sucking strength out of my soul. My words never failed me.

Pinpoint your strengths and capitalise on them.

2. Tap the power of personal symbolism

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent ideas. For example, the cross is a symbol of redemption and sacrifice.

Motivation and success are the driving forces behind everything you do, and your strengths help you smash through challenges to reach your destination. So, why do you not give all this a concrete shape?

When you give what you believe in a concrete shape, it does not just become part of who you are. It becomes who you are. This gives motivation a whole new meaning.

For example, a few of my strengths are intensity, passion, physical energy, yearn for self-expression and somewhat deeply buried anger at the idea of anyone being better than me at what I do. I decided that the sun symbol perfectly represents who I am and how I overcome my moments of weakness.

I wear my sun necklace all the time. It is part of my motivation. It shows the world my motivation, and I love it when people ask me about it.

Here are a few other ways to draw on the power of motivational symbolism:

Choose a symbol that best represents your motivational philosophy
Create your own ID card. Your picture, name, symbol of your choosing and other information that matters to you should all be there.
Rings, necklaces and bracelets with the symbol of your choosing are great ways to materialise your motivation
Tattoos are also an option, but I do not recommend them. They are not easily disposable and as you progress in your motivation journey, what motivates and what does not motivate you may change drastically. You do not want to be rigid.

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk

3. Ritualise your motivation

Another way to make motivation who you are, not just part of who you are, is to ritualise it. Make motivation a habit, not just something that you do ‘’from time to time’’.

Motivate yourself every day. Wake up in the morning and remind yourself of what matters to you. What you are doing is going to pay off one day. Visualise how you will feel when you achieve your goal and the things it will bring you: money, power, sex and fame. All what is between you and these things is hard and smart work.

I have my own personally-written motivation speech read every morning. The speech reflects my deepest desires. Nobody can unlock its massive power but me. I read it aloud and I feel the words reverberate in my soul.

Make motivation a habit.

4. Adapt, not adopt

While good motivation articles may provide guidance, they do not provide answers because only you can find them. People who write about motivation do not know you as well as you know yourself. Tailor mass-produced motivation articles to your own individual needs, experiences, tastes and intelligence.

For example, if a motivation article suggests that you do the task you dread the most in the morning while you are an afternoon person, you are not going to do it in the morning. You can see how a motivation article can provide you with an idea; do what you are scared of the most when you are at your best. However, ‘’when you are at your best’’ varies from individual to individual.

Adapt what you read to your uniqueness to concoct personalised motivation.

5. Take breaks and make them count

Ignoring breaks — I have been there. You would like to think that you are strong and resilient, and you probably are, but ignoring breaks is not going to get you anywhere. Just like muscles need rest to reduce lactic acid build-up after a hard workout, so does your motivation. However, you do not want to wait until you are burnt out. This mistake cost me a lot.

Make time for your break every week or every couple of weeks at max. A full day of rest is also part of your motivation because you will be looking forward to it when you are working hard.

Make your breaks count, too. No mobile phones or anything of the sort. You have been straining your eyes all this time looking at screens and documents. You need to give all of you a break on your free day. Light exercising is okay, but it should not exceed 20 minutes. Avoid anything and anyone that may deplete your will power reserves – including difficult friends.

Take breaks and make them count. You will come back stronger.

Conclusion

Personalised motivation is the most powerful motivation. It is motivation that is deeply attached to your idiosyncratic needs, tastes, experiences and logic. Mass-produced motivation articles provide nothing more than guidance. They are a starting point, not an answer to a deeply personal question; how can I be and stay motivated?

The secret is in the ingredients, not the recipe. The most powerful ingredients grow in one and one place only; you.

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Taken for Granted

The Taken for Granted is an aspiring novelist and teacher-turned-blogger. He is currently working on his debut romance novel and shares his eccentric thoughts sometimes on his blog: https://thetakenforgranted.com. You could also follow and contact him on his blog’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/thetakenforgranted.

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Change Your Mindset

How to Stay Motivated When Nothing Feels Exciting Anymore (The Strategy Nobody Talks About)

Published

2 weeks ago

May 21, 2026

Joel Brown (Founder of Addicted2Success.com)

Let’s be honest. There are seasons where even your biggest dreams feel flat. You know you should be excited. You know you have goals. But the fire is gone and everything feels like a chore.

I’ve been there more times than I care to admit. And what I’ve learned is that the usual advice… “just find your why again” or “watch another motivational video”… actually makes it worse.

Because when motivation dies, it’s rarely because you forgot your goals. It’s because you’ve been running on emotion instead of systems. And emotions are temporary by design.

The real strategy is to stop chasing motivation and start engineering momentum.

Momentum is motivation’s quieter, more reliable cousin. It doesn’t require you to feel inspired. It only requires you to take the smallest possible action that moves you forward—and then protect that streak like your life depends on it.

Here’s the exact process I use when I feel stuck:

Shrink the game ridiculously small. When I’m in a flat season, I don’t try to crush my biggest goal. I ask: “What’s the tiniest action that still counts as progress?” One paragraph. One sales call. One workout. One healthy meal. The goal is to win the day so completely that quitting feels harder than continuing.
Track the streak, not the results. Results take time. Streaks give you dopamine today. I keep a simple calendar and mark an X every day I show up. The chain becomes more important than the outcome. James Clear talks about this in Atomic Habits, and it works because the human brain hates breaking a chain once it’s formed.
Change your environment before you try to change your mind. Motivation follows action, but action follows environment. I’ve rearranged my office, deleted distracting apps, or even gone to a new coffee shop just to break the pattern of procrastination. Sometimes your brain needs new inputs to create new outputs.
Remember that flat seasons are data, not failure. Every high performer I know has gone through periods where nothing felt exciting. Those seasons aren’t signs you’re off path—they’re signs you’re leveling up. The old goals no longer light you up because you’ve outgrown them. This is the moment to either go deeper on what you have or quietly upgrade to something bigger.

The beautiful part is that once you build momentum through tiny, consistent actions, the excitement eventually returns… stronger than before. Because now it’s based on evidence instead of hope.

You don’t need to feel motivated to start. You only need to decide that showing up is non-negotiable.

The fire comes back for people who refuse to let the flat season define them.

Change Your Mindset

The Brutal Truth About Why Most People Never Reach Their Full Potential (And the One Shift That Changes Everything)

Published

2 weeks ago

May 21, 2026

Joel Brown (Founder of Addicted2Success.com)

interior raw film shot, apartment. A man trying to reach his full potential and he has personal development books on the floor around him. A vibe of extreme minimalism and focus. They are building themselves from nothing. Gritty texture.

Image Credit: Joel Brown - Addicted2Success

You’ve felt it, haven’t you? That quiet frustration when another year slips by and your big goals still feel just out of reach. You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re simply stuck in the same invisible pattern that keeps 99% of people playing small while a tiny fraction seem to explode forward.

I’ve watched it happen for years… smart, driven people who read the books, watch the videos, even set the goals… and then quietly settle. The reason isn’t what most gurus tell you. It’s not lack of knowledge. It’s not even lack of discipline.

It’s identity.

Most people are still trying to achieve success while secretly identifying as the version of themselves that hasn’t succeeded yet. They wake up every morning as the “almost there” person. And the brain protects that identity at all costs.

The shift that changes everything is simple but brutal: You don’t become successful and then change how you see yourself. You decide who you’re going to be first—right now, before the evidence shows up—and then you act like that person until the results catch up.

Think about it. The entrepreneur who builds a seven-figure business doesn’t wait until the money hits the bank to start thinking like a CEO. She starts making decisions like one today. The writer who finally publishes the book doesn’t wait for permission or perfect conditions. He sits down and writes like someone who’s already a bestselling author.

This isn’t fake-it-till-you-make-it fluff. This is identity-based behavior change—the kind backed by real psychology and lived by every person who’s ever broken through.

Here’s how you actually do it:

Start by asking yourself one dangerous question every morning: “What would the future version of me—the one who already has what I want… do today?”

Then do that. Even if it feels uncomfortable. Especially if it feels uncomfortable.

Stop negotiating with your old self. The one who hits snooze. The one who scrolls instead of creates. The one who says “I’ll start Monday.”
That version of you is comfortable. And comfort is the silent killer of potential.

I’ve seen people transform their lives in weeks once they stopped trying to “get motivated” and started acting from a new identity. The results compound faster than you expect because every action reinforces who you now are.

The game isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming someone who naturally does what success requires.

So right now, decide.

Who are you becoming? And what’s one thing that version of you would do differently today?

Because the moment you decide—and act like it’s already true—the world starts bending in your favor.

Personal Development

How to Combat Feeling Stuck and Overwhelm in the Workplace

Feeling stuck at work isn’t just burnout, it’s a signal something deeper needs to change. Here’s how to break the cycle and take back control.

Published

2 months ago

Mar 31, 2026

Addicted2Success Editor

productivity and energy management at work

When you overstep the boundary of dangerous exhaustion, taking a break no longer works. That means your body and nervous system can no longer regenerate, even if you create the perfect temporary conditions for it. (more…)