 If you want to get motivated, you must change the way you look at motivation, and more importantly, you must WANT to become better at motivation, because self-motivation is possibly the most important skill any player or person can master. If you can always be motivated, you'll constantly move forward. You may fail along the way, but with this ability, you'll simply get back up, try again, and keep moving forward until you get what you want. Nothing will be able to faze you. However, without this ability, you will never reach your full potential or achieve your goals, because when things aren't going your way, when everything and everyone seems to be against you, or when you're tempted to be lazy, you'll give in and you will give up. So understand, motivation, being motivated, staying motivated is your responsibility, and it's under your control. If you're looking outside of yourself for someone or something to motivate you, you're already looking in the wrong place. True motivation can only be produced by you. First, realize motivation is not a state. It's not a quality someone possesses. You've probably heard someone say he is very motivated, or she has lots of motivation. Don't be confused. Motivation is not a characteristic they possess. It's an action they take. It's a skill they are good at. Just like shooting or dribbling, it's something they practice, and it's something they use and do when the opportunity arises. So first, do not look at motivation as something you have. Motivation is not something you have. Motivation is something you do. It's a skill. It's a practice. It's an action. It's a thought. Simply put, motivation is making yourself do something. It's the practice of making yourself want to do something. Now, how do you make yourself want to do something? Or more specifically, how do you practice self-motivation? People are motivated by two things. Pain and pleasure. They are either pushed away from pain, or they are pulled towards pleasure. For example, a pain or push motivation may be the fear of humiliating yourself in front of your friends. The possibility of losing your starting position if you don't play well. The pain of disappointing your coach, teammates, and parents, missing chances, making mistakes, giving away possession, or being the reason your team lost the game. These pains can be used as motivation to push you to want to do something. Think about those pains. Experience the emotion of those pains. How would it feel to get benched? How would it feel to constantly make mistakes to let your team down? If you're comfortable experiencing these situations and feeling those emotions, then feel free to be lazy. Lay on the couch with a bag of chips and lie to yourself saying, I'll train tomorrow. If you're tired of lying and cheating yourself, the time is now. If you are really serious about improving your ability to motivate yourself, you need something to pull you. A pleasure or pull motivation may be something like the satisfaction of making your high school team. The joy of scoring the winning goal against your biggest rival, winning a tournament, becoming the MVP, getting scouted, making your opponents jealous, earning that starting spot, getting more playing time, and becoming your team's go-to player. Think about those achievements. Feel those emotions. Experience them. Don't just say them. Actually feel them. How does it feel? How do those emotions feel? Are they something you want? It's waiting for you. All you have to do is put in the work. This is the skill of self-motivation. It's your responsibility to think these thoughts. When you truly think and feel these pains and pleasures, you will feel the desire and willingness to train hard, to be consistent, and to stay hungry. Just as motivation is a thought, it's a skill, it's something you do, so is laziness. You are not lazy. You just do lazy. You are not lazy. You've just been practicing lazy way too much. Instead of thinking of the joys of victory and how good it will feel to play your best and show everyone how good you are, you think about how nice it would be to feel lazy, to be lazy, to sit there, to waste time, to do nothing, to go nowhere, to get fat, get slow, weak, out of shape. Well, maybe when you think of lazy like that, maybe lazy isn't something you want to do, is it? Lazy is a thought. Motivated is a thought. Stop looking at laziness or motivation as something you have or do not have, and start looking at laziness or motivation as something you do. It is your choice. You can either do lazy or you can do motivation. So remember, whenever you need to do the act of self-motivation, think about the experiences, feel the emotions, control your thoughts, and ask yourself what is pushing you and what is pulling you to become the best you can possibly be.