No matter how disciplined you are, it isn’t easy to find the motivation you need to do much more than crawl out of bed. And even then, you might find yourself constantly running late because you keep mashing on the snooze button. Some people have financial goals, use material things, or even have social rankings that they hang onto in effect to keep themselves motivated. Perhaps you may set a personal goal of becoming more healthy, which requires you to work out regularly and actually not cheat on your diet. While being more healthy may be what you say is motivating you, really it’s a set of six-pack abs that you desire.

In actuality, faith is probably the one thing that can keep people more motivated than any other tangible goal. And by faith, it isn’t necessary for you to pray to the Virgin Mary. It can actually be a total lack of religious faith that motivates you, that is, if you instead have a high level of faith in yourself.

When Motivation Levels Rise and Fall

At the start of any new project or self-induced goal, your motivation levels are likely to be off the charts. After all, taking on a new endeavor requires you to start fresh, perhaps going shopping or making announcements to all of your family and friends. When you’re highly motivated, you have to work really, really hard to find reasons to drag yourself away from your work. This might include you going without sleep or declining social calls, just so that you can spend a few more hours hard at work on whatever is presently inspiring you. On the other hand, when you feel your motivation levels starting to drop, you can either try to scramble to boost your reserves, or you can slowly or surely let your goals start to fall by the wayside.

Establishing Your Reasons to Stay Motivated

Human beings are easily stimulated when they can see, feel or otherwise experience the benefits of their hard work. This is why many so many medical students end up dropping out of school before they even begin their residency programs. The rewards may be great, but if they aren’t able to tangibly experience them, their minds pretty much revolt. This is the same manner in which faith works. Highly religious persons attending mosques, churches, or temples on a regular basis receive the social and spiritual benefits of maintaining their faith. Even those that are not overly religious tend to learn important lessons of faith and believe in themselves by attending programs by the ministry for youth at Yale Divinity School or similar institutions. Furthermore, by associating with other people who follow similar religions, their faith can be constantly reaffirmed.

Faith, Actually

A lot of literature on maintaining faith and how it can help improve motivation levels centers around religious dogmas. The fact of the matter is that atheism, which is on the rise, is a great example of how transformative personal faith can be. Atheists don’t believe in a higher power, and they also don’t believe that they will be rewarded in the afterlife for any good deeds done while alive. At the same time, they firmly and truly believe in something that is highly tangible – themselves. By putting the power of motivation in their own hands, they are able to reasonably and rationally recognize and understand why their motivation levels increase or decrease.

Whatever your personal faith, you can find reasons to stay motivated. You can also find convenient excuses to put off projects or allow yourself to slack if you personally believe that your reasons are justified. If you can find and accept your faith in whatever medium it manifests, motivation will be something that just comes naturally.