How to Maintain Motivation

Do you feel like that guy, Sisyphus, who was forever pushing a rock up a hill? Sticking to your resolutions can feel like that. Here are the tools you need to stay motivated, get over the hump and succeed in your goals

Believe

The most important principle in motivation involves an unwavering conviction that you will succeed. In the plainest terms, success can be broken down into an equation: Confidence + Persistence = Success.

If you have difficulty believing you will succeed, use your imagination to see your life with the goal in mind already achieved. How will you feel? Picture how you will look, where you will be working. Mentally surround yourself with your goals already achieved.

Create Checkpoints

Setting goal checkpoints is like putting an address in your GPS navigator, making it possible to get where you are going. You need to know what you want before you can get it, so it is important to be specific about what it is you wish to achieve and how you will know when you are on the right track. Create small checkpoint goals so you can mark your progress as it unfolds, just like the blip on your GPS.

Make it routine

Once again, Confidence + Persistence = Success. Scheduling time for achieving your goals is where the persistence comes in. Set aside the time you need to work on your goals everyday and stick to the plan. This may mean giving up some pastimes you enjoy, like late night television. If you are giving up leisure time to do what you love, it will not feel like a sacrifice.

Benefit from others

There is endless information on the web from people who have been on the same path you are now taking. Reach out to people with similar goals and read everything you can get your hands on. You will benefit from the mistakes others have made and avoid making those errors yourself. The success of others can also inspire you to your own greatness.

Meditation

This one might sound a little off the wall to some, but mediation is an important part in the success of any endeavor. There are several streams of thought in your mind at any one time. Unless you take time to sit quietly and clear your mind, it will be easy to miss good ideas that are rolling around in your head. Mediation helps you separate yourself from the forest of your thoughts and take a good look at all the trees, not just the ones that are right in front of you.

Journaling

If you do not keep a journal of your progress, you may have to repeat some of the same steps, wasting time better spent on reaching your goals. Several software programs are available that can help you keep a journal, like Microsoft Outlook's Journal feature. Make sure the software you choose allows you to search entries for the information you are seeking.

Tools for success

Use these tools as the lever and fulcrum you use to pry the rock of your goals further up the hill. They will help you reach the top of the hill, where you can finally take a breather and enjoy the view. Towards that end, heave and ho!