How to stay motivated today – focus on your WHY

There is often a very fine line between success and failure and it is usually called ”motivation”. A wobbly in your motivation can lead to you not taking the actions you need to do to be successful, procrastination and becoming distracted by other things.

Motivation is much more than just setting goals. Goal setting is often the easiest part, but maintaining your motivation by staying focused on the goals and finding ways to work towards your goal every day can be more difficult.

Motivation kick-starts you, but it is also the vital element that sustains you on the way to reaching your goals so understanding what motivates you is an important element in your ongoing success. There are 2 main motivations that affect most people. These are pain and pleasure – known commonly as the stick or the carrot. People are generally worried by the fear of losing something or they get out of bed each day in order to enjoy the pleasure they will gain from their goal.

In order to succeed in anything, you need to make sure that your focus and motivation is aligned with your true desires, otherwise everything will not only feel like ‘work’, but hard work at that. The best way to achieve that is to focus on the things to want to achieve, rather than the things you don’t want to lose. The law of attraction, simply put states that whatever you focus on, you get more of, so if you are focusing on the lack of something or worried about what you might lose, then this is what you will get more of.

If you focus on the things you want to GAIN, you will be activating this law to your advantage, and your motivation will be stronger if you can focus on the benefits and why you want them. That way, you will invoke many other positive forces into action in your life rather than negative ones.

Here are my 3 top tips for keeping your motivation so that it leads you to success:

1. SET SOME GOALS – SMART GOALS

Writing down goals has been shown to increase the likelihood that you will achieve them. But goals can be a bit ‘wishy-washy’ if you are not specific of realistic in your goal setting. By using the SMART criteria to set your goals, you will stand a greater chance of not only achieving it, but moving forward at every turn. Remember to always write your goals in the first person using “I will” as this is a powerful affirmation in its own right.

• SMART is an acronym that stands for a goal that is:
• SPECIFIC– i.e., detailed and clear about what it is you want to achieve (e.g. “I will lose 15 pounds in weight” rather than “I should lose some weight” = waffle!)
• MEASURABLE – if you want to know whether you have achieved your goal, you need to have something you can measure your success against. This could be the number of visitors to your site, the number of sales, or clicks for example. The most important thing however is that it is something you can easily measure. Becoming a more loving person is an admirable goal but it wouldn’t fit the SMART criteria as there would be no measurable component.
• ACHIEVABLE – your goal must be something which you can achieve. – there would be no point in me setting a goal to become the US president for example, because I’m British and it would take a constitutional change on the part of the US for me to even be in the running. Having said that, I believe that there are not many things you cannot achieve, with the right mindset.
• REALISTIC – your goal need to be something that is realistic in the given time frame – there is no point in thinking you can run a 2 minute mile when the nearest time in the last decade has been just under 4 minutes. Everything is achieved in increments so your goals should reflect this ‘one step at a time’ approach’.
• TIMED – always set yourself a deadline that is realistic but challenging so that you have the best possible chance of achieving your goal.

2. KNOW YOUR ‘WHY?” – WRITE DOWN ALL THE REASONS YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL

Knowing WHY you want something and what you will gain if you achieve it is 90% of the battle to stay motivated on your quest. And most of the time, the reason you really want something is not so you have the thing itself, but more because of the way you think you will FEEL if you have it. Many people say they would like more money for example and set themselves goals to achieve a more financially-free lifestyle. But it is not the actual money that they want, but the feelings that go with it such as feeling secure, calmer, in control and having more freedom. Being locked away in a castle turret with all the money in the world would please no one!

Now here’s a funny thing about reconising  that it is the feeling we really want rather than the thing itself – we all have the power to change our feelings anytime so we are all closer to our goals than we really think. If you sit down, close your eyes and IMAGINE having achieved your goal, with all its beneficial emotions and feelings, you will stay motivated because you will know that you are already quite far along the path to manifesting your goal as a tangible reality.

So when you understand what you will feel, it is the catalyst to keeping you motivated. For that reason, reading through your reasons ‘why’ is probably the most important thing for you to do every day as you work on your project. The wonderful people-motivator, Anthony Robbins, advocated a time management and goal-oriented planning system that include reading through the reasons why you wanted to achieve your goals every day.

Take time to review and renew

So why not do it now – take time and ponder on why you want to achieve your goal, what you will get and especially how this will make you feel. Close your eyes and imagine you have achieved your goal. Then make a list of all the things you will gain and benefit from once you have achieved it. Perhaps you will be more able to help your family, or you will gain more you time. Perhaps you will have more money but think harder on this one and really question yourself about what having more time with your family or more money will actually mean to you. Does it allow you to feel more accomplished as a parent or spouse? Will you revel in the feeling of pride if you believe yourself to have earned it the hard way? Or will you simply enjoy the feeling of being the best?

When you know WHY, try to focus on these feelings for a few moments every day. Really allow yourself to experience the exhilarated way you are going to feel when you achieve your goal. For example, what will you:

• see,
• smell,
• hear,
• taste
• touch?.

Where will you be and with whom?

What will they say to you and what will you say to them?

Who will congratulate you?

How much self-esteem will you gain from achieving your goal?

What amazing confidence are you going to get from doing this one thing?

3. FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT – TRICK YOURSELF INTO BELIEVING YOU HAVE ACHIEVED YOUR GOALS

This technique will help you create the feelings you are looking for from step 2. “Fake it till you make it” means much more than writing yourself a letter! It is there to help you to focus on what you need.

There are many things you can do at Wealthy Affiliate, but researching something practical is a good start. You could:

• make a vision or wish board depicting the house you’d like, the car you desire and the boat you have your eye on.
• write an imaginary newspaper article about yourself and your achievement
• Create an imaginary cheque showing the exact amount of money you’d like
• And book a test drive in the car dream car so you know how it feels to actually drive it

The list is endless!

So if you focus on those inner feelings every day, and take some time getting into the relevant mood, you will have experienced success and the rest of the material aspects will follow.

Here’s to your own wealthy affiliate success!

Do leave a comment or click the LIKE button if this helped you at all. I wish you all a very motivated day.

Gail

If you want to know more about the law of attraction and money, click here or why not explore the reason why failing can often be a good thing.