Being resilient and staying motivated is an important part of personal development. It gives you the confidence to face any challenge head-on and it will help you to never give up, even when the challenges get tough.

The first thing to understand when building resilience and keeping yourself motivated is that being motivated and staying motivated are part of the same team but they are not the same players. There are a multitude of things that can inspire you to be motivated but staying motivated is where it can get tricky for most of us. 

However, this is not something one should worry about too much as there are definitely easy and effective ways to learn how to stay motivated. Here are a few tips and tricks that you can use to consistently keep yourself motivated and build resilience in your day-to-day life. 

Form good habits
We all have regular habits we do, like exercising or playing a sport, watching a certain TV show or walking the dog. These are small things that are routine and become habits, which is perfectly okay as it always good to have some form of routine, but it is also good to be more intentional about your daily habits. This simply means finding impactful and effective things to incorporate into the daily habits that help you to grow mentally. For example, you can listen to a short informational and motivational podcast while you get ready for school, you can take up regular meditation or mindfulness, or you can read one book a week. This will help you to keep yourself motivated as it engages you in small habits that make you a better person each and every day.

Set achievable goals
We all have goals that we set out for ourselves which is important, but it’s just as important to be specific and practical when setting out these goals. You also need to know how to achieve your goals – especially your larger long-term goals. One of the best ways to make your larger goals more achievable it to break it down into smaller, short-term goals that are easier to achieve. These small, short-term goals also contribute to building your resilience and keeping you motivated. The reason behind this is that you can see more immediate results from setting small goals, whereas long-term goals will take a lot more time to achieve. If you are not seeing the results that you want sooner, it opens up the door to you becoming demotivated and losing resilience. 

Examples of short-term goals include setting a set number of books to read or videos to watch about something you want to pursue in the future, or saving a small amount of money every week from your pocket money to grow a substantial savings account that you can access in the future.

Find a mentor
Another highly beneficial way to help build your resilience and self-motivation is to get a one-to-one mentor. Mentors help you to find ways to better yourself and they can help you to mould your character in ways you may not be able to do by yourself. Mentors also provide a useful platform to talk about and get advice on your future plans for your career and academics as well as other personal development goals you may want to explore. Mentors can also provide you with good references and recommend other people or organisations who can help you with your future aspirations. If you aren’t sure where to find a good mentor, you can always talk to your parents to help you find a mentor and GT Scholars also offers impactful mentoring programmes to help you reach your goals.

Keep a journal
It’s important to keep track of your goals, aspirations, dreams, and plans. This helps you to see the progress that you make which can motivate you to keep going. Having a journal is one way to keep track of all the things you are doing or planning. You can update it daily or do a weekly account of how far you got with achieving the plans you set out for the week. In your journal, you can also have your long-term goals set out so that you can always refer back to them to remind yourself of where you are wanting to go with your future. You can even create a timeline for your goals so that you can make sure that you are on the right path that you have set out for yourself.

Join after-school activities
Participating in after-school programmes or extracurricular activities help you to engage with other young people and build on your social skills. This can help you to develop self-motivation and resilience. These extracurricular activities also help to grow other personal skills and also expose you to different aspects of life beyond the confines of school and your existing everyday activities. There are so many different extracurricular activities to choose from, from debate teams to sports to volunteering – the options are plentiful and you are sure to find something to pique your interest. You must always remember that learning is not limited to the classroom but comes in many other forms that can really shape you as an individual and help you to realise the options available to you. 

Building resilience and staying motivated is an important part of your growth. When you think of your growth, you should think of it like a city that has many avenues, buildings, stores and a world of other engaging things to discover and learn about. So let your growth be something that you can fully engage in and explore. This will let you enjoy the journey of building resilience and self-motivation you need to achieve the best for yourself. 

GT Scholars is a not-for-profit social enterprise and registered charity. We run after-school and weekend programmes that help young people achieve their academic and career aspirations. Our programmes include tutoring, mentoring and enrichment sessions for young people aged 11-18. Contact us if you would like to know more about any of our programmes and courses.