This is a part of a series on the Game of Life Motivation System.
How to Use a Wrist Counter for Endless Motivation
This is a technique adapted from a technique put forward by Psychiatrist David D. Burns in his book Feeling Good and adjusted to be suitable for any and all wishes for improved motivation and self-esteem.
Step 1
Buy a simple wrist counter, or download any app that allows you to count with a button press – a notepad will also do fine, if you can have one on hand at any given time.
Step 2
Now, whenever you do anything noticeable – related to your eventual goal or not – tap the counter once. Become fully aware of what it is you’ve just succesfully achieved, however small – verbalize it and give yourself a little cheer. A simple ‘Good job, me, for doing x’ will work wonders to instill that feeling of achievement and train your brain to feel it more often. Fist pump for an added satisfaction.
Step 3
Every 10 counts, congratulate yourself on your success. Write down a sticky-note with a compliment and paste it somewhere in your house where you’re bound to walk into it on some occassion. Give yourself a hug once in a while.
Note that these successes include _everything you didn’t need to do, but did anyway_. You brushed your teeth. You drank that glass of water. You took a five minute break from life to relax yourself on the couch. You smiled at that stranger on the street. You were full of worries all day, so reward yourself for paining through those bad feelings. Anything goes.
4) After you’ve understood just how to notice and reward everything and anything, occasionally shift your focus to things related to the goals you want to achieve. Treat them as an extension of your other activites. Reward every small step, even the act of planning out these steps.
5) Optionally, become aware of your negatives/nagging thoughts and emotions using a separate counter. Congratulate yourself on your self-awareness and -acceptance each time you log a negative sensation.
Stop them from becoming a problem by noticing them and reducing them to a simple number on a counter; visualize this process. At the start, from day to day your negativity counter will go up before it goes down a few weeks later down the line – that is normal, as you’re becoming more aware of what’s going on inside your head.
6) Tally your scores daily and notice if and when they increase/decrease, and why. Whenever possible, focus on things that make your positivity/activity counter go up, distract yourself from things that add to your negativity counter. Tallying the two also will help you to see the ratio of your positive sensations vs. your negative sensations.
What This Will Accomplish
As you keep using this method, you’ll start noticing more and more just how many things worth doing you’re already doing each day, and as the counter increases, so will your sense of self-efficacy, your self-esteem and your motivation. You will feel more worthwhile, more competent, and more able to complete even larger tasks. It’ll train you to be more positive.
In a few weeks, you’ll be a lot more satisfied with yourself and your life, and you’ll notice a decrease in both the frequency and the intensity of your negative thoughts and emotions.
Most importantly, your internal reward mechanism will become fully activated and much more effective, and you’ll start being able to generate motivation at will.
Remember, to see why and how it works, please read the theory behind the Game of Life.
That’s all there is to it! Thanks for reading, and best of luck becoming a better you!