How to stay motivated

When embarking on a new journey, it's really to be motivated.

You may have hit a breaking point in your life and you decide that it's finally time to lose some weight. You may decide that you're tired of living paycheck to paycheck and you really want to acquire the skills to improve your income.

We as human beings often rely on motivation to come and drive us in the right direction. Furthermore, the scenes on movies and social media have distorted our reality and we are left to think that if we only just stay motivated, we can make a change in our lives.

The reality is that motivation is like an emotion. It's temporary. It may stay for a really long time, but it always leaves. How are we to sustain motivation if it's fleeting?

The first thing that we can do is to recognize that it is a fleeting emotion. Before you embark on a journey, realize that sooner or later you will not feel like it. You may be in denial of this fact. You may tell yourself, "Not this time. Things are different. This time I REALLY want it."

Don't kid yourself, you are a human. You will lose motivation.

So what's the answer? How are people able to achieve their goals when motivation runs out?

The answer is Discipline.

My definition of discipline is: Doing it even though you don't feel like it.

“I don’t like getting up that early,” Phelps has said. “Getting into the cold pool just isn’t fun. It sucks.”

For those who don't know, Michael Phelps is an Olympic swimmer that has won the most medals in history. He hates waking up early to go swimming.

So why does he do it?

Discipline. He knows that his actions will lead to greater success and fulfillment. He puts his feelings aside and gets up early so that he can put in the work to achieve Olympic glory.

This brings us to the next topic, Sacrifice.

Anything worthwhile for you to accomplish requires sacrifice. Think about the last time you achieved something and gotten some serious fulfillment. Now think about how much you had to sacrifice to achieve that. You can see that there is a direct correlation between sacrifice and fulfillment. The more challenging a goal, the more you have to sacrifice to achieve it.

Sacrificing fun today for the sake of a better tomorrow. Saying "no" to a night out drinking alcohol. Putting in extra overtime at work for extra cash.

I know what you might be thinking: Great this all sounds good. I know what I need to do but I don't know how.

Find the solution here.