We’ve all been there. You set yourself a goal, start working towards it, and then.. Suddenly, you lose your drive, and you feel like you can’t do it. The task seems to be hundreds of miles away from you, and you lose the focus and motivation needed to get there.
Why does this happen?
Wouldn’t it be great to have Motivation that lasts all the time, and not just at the beginning? Well, it’s very possible, but it depends on a few things.
Motivation comes and goes for some people, but there are people who seem to have that drive all the time, every day they are focused and ready to do what they need to do. You know the sort of person, every day they are doing things, getting things done.They know what they need to do, and how to do it.
What’s so different about them? Well, the truth is, only one thing. They want to achieve their goals. They really want to achieve their goals, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes. Do you know what you want in life? Read The Guide To Finding Your Life Purpose if you don’t.
Do you want to be able to have that drive? It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, or trying to do, you will need to be driven in order to achieve it. You need to have a clear goal and a clear plan for how you’re going to get there. So let’s begin.
How to actually stay motivated
It starts with the way you feel about your target or goal. Is it something you really want, or just something you feel like doing for a laugh. This is what separates the winners from the losers, it’s whether you really want it, and how much you want it.
1. Become Emotional About Your Goal
To really drive yourself, make your emotions open up and react with the goal. Do you ‘well up’ when you imagine yourself doing it?
Do you literally cry with happiness and does your adrenaline surge when you imagine yourself achieving your goal? It needs to be like that. Make the goal so vivid and feel so real when you imagine it, that you’re willing to do anything to get there. You’ll move the world if you have to, but nothing will stop you from getting there.
By becoming emotional about your goal you give yourself fuel to get there. In so many films, the protagonist has a moment of realization where they reflect on things in their mind, and see what they need to do. It usually goes into slow motion and they pick themselves up and at that point, nothing is able to stop them.
Do that. See, in your mind, you getting to where you want to get. Picture every aspect, and feel the emotions you would have.
See the goal clearly, and tell yourself what you need to do. That drive you experience when you want something with all of your being, is impossible to stop. You will find a way around every obstacle, falling down only makes you get back up feeling stronger.
2. Keep Putting Yourself Back Into That Emotional State.
This is where you can really get results.
You feed that emotion. Constantly, whenever you feel low, or feel that you can’t keep your motivation, get yourself back into that state. Get emotional again, and really picture your goal.
The harsh truth is, if you can’t continually do that, that is to say you can’t regularly get emotional about your goal, and create that drive, then you probably didn’t want it enough in the first place.
It was a short term goal, and you didn’t really want to get serious about it, because to achieve goals, they need to be things you actually want to do, otherwise when things get hard, and they will, you won’t have the drive needed to get there. You’ll burn out after a few weeks, months, and you will start reading articles like this, about keeping your motivation. You’ll wonder why you can’t stay focused, or feel energetic about it.
If you want it enough, the motivation is easy to maintain. You remind yourself of the goal, and why you wanted it so much in the first place, and the drive comes surging back up.
But if you never really wanted it that much, if it was just something you wanted to do as a little hobby, then the motivation won’t be easy to keep.
3.Keep a Clear Picture or Video Of Your Goal Somewhere You Can See It Daily
Assuming you did want your goal..
What I mean is, assuming you actually want your goal and it wasn’t just ‘a flash in the pan’, a sudden random ‘want’, then this is another way to keep your motivation. Find or create a picture or image, or even a list, which inspires you to get to where you want to be.
If your goal is to become a famous racing car driver, then take a picture of yourself sitting in a racing car, or find a picture of an already famous driver, and put it somewhere you can see it every day. The best way to do this, and the way which invokes the most emotion, is to create a ‘power video’.
A video with motivational music, maybe your favorite ‘pump up’ song, and clips of people doing the things you want to be doing.
For example, if you want to be a famous or professional skydiver, then create a video of people skydiving, collect all the really awesome airplane exits and wing suit dives etc. Mix them together to a clip that makes you fired up and emotional, and then watch it every day.
To conclude, and this is a harsh truth for some, but..
Motivation is the drive to do something you really want to do
If you don’t really want to do it, and are just doing it because you fancy it, or maybe because you’re being forced, then the drive is going to be very difficult to keep up. Say you’re being forced to do something by your parents, or your boss, and you really don’t want to do it, you may be able to push yourself in the short term, but long term, where it really matters, you won’t.
There needs to be that desire inside of you to achieve the goal, because most goals in life are going to be hard, and there are going to be times when you really do feel like giving up, but if you don’t genuinely want it, you’ll just give up.
So before you start saying ‘why does my motivation never last’ and how to keep it, ‘Do I really want this?’ If your answer is anything other than Hell Yes!, then motivating yourself won’t be easy. There are things you can do to make Motivation come to you more easily, for more, have a look at this! Motivation Tools.