There are periods in one’s life when one just feels low, uninspired and stagnant. These could be due to many reasons, like frustration at home or at work, a physical or emotional pain, or general pessimism about the future. A person has a natural tendency to dwell on these feelings, which, if remains unchecked, can lead one to become unproductive and lose many opportunities in life. It is during these periods that one needs to practice self motivation.

Many definitions of self motivation exist, depending on the views of human behavioral experts. However, self motivation encompasses a large scope of human behavior and its patterns, and the fact that motivation can be both a subjective (emotionally influenced) and clinical (mentally influenced) issue makes it even more open for many interpretations.

In a simple sense, self motivation is the process of conditioning one’s emotions and mental powers to do a or accomplish a certain thing, with an end-all to accomplish a life goal. Self motivation may constitute small acts that are components of a grander or more meaningful life goal, like motivating one’s self to sleep at 8pm every night, no matter what, to be able to wake up early, be in the office early, be up for a promotion, and land a managerial position by year-end.

Psychology experts are divided between the idea of self motivation as a form of mind power over things that one does not have a natural inclination or interest, and those that believe that interest precedes motivation, meaning there should already be some form of an interest before self motivation can take place. This last premise was derived from some studies which suggest that no matter how systematic a motivational approach is, a person cannot be led to do something unless there is an innate or even unconscious interest to do it. No matter which of the two premises is the accurate one, both established the relationship between interest and self motivation.

Likewise, most experts agree that self motivation is characterized by the presence of free will, and the absence of influence of another person, in accomplishing something. This establishes that self motivation is an act that can be pulled off only by one’s self by conditioning one’s state of mind and utilizing emotions as inspirations in eventually getting motivated to accomplish a goal.