We all have a better life that we dream of, and we all have things that we want to accomplish and achieve. As a result, we create new and exciting ideas that motivate us and push to take action.

However, in order to live those dreams, it is not enough to just become motivated. We need to know how to stay motivated.

We all climb the mountain of success, during which it may seem as if nothing can go wrong, as if we finally made it. But unfortunately, life is like a rollercoaster, full ups and downs, full of surprises. No matter what you do, if it’s challenging enough, there will be moments of difficulty and despair. We are then faced with the problem of how to stay motivated when things are not going the way we planned them to.

Always have it written

The first rule of how to stay motivated is to always have your goals written down.

Everything you want to accomplish in life first comes in the form of a goal that you create for yourself. As a rule of thumb, you must always have your goals written down on a piece of paper. If it’s not written down, it doesn’t exist.

Writing things down has a magical effect on us. It is absolutely the first step towards making your new goal a part of your future reality.

When you do the writing, make sure you start every sentence with an “I”. “I am slim. I own a … I work at … I am earning … per month”. The present tense is what amplifies the goal-setting.

Recommended read: 5 Powerful Goal Setting Tools to Spark Your Achievements

If you aren’t big on writing, get a motivational journal as a guide to simplify things. Although goal-setting is as natural as breathing for me, I still use motivational journals up to this day to make the process more enjoyable.

Please don’t leave goal-setting out. This is crucial for success. Because whenever you will feel like you have hit a plateau, which you will sooner or later, you can always come back to your goals and remind yourself why you decided to work on these things in the first place. Your mind will return to the state of when you first came up with this goal, full of enthusiasm and excitement.

Keep feeding the brain with motivation

I will be completely honest with you, I sometimes feel like I am fed up with work to the point where I begin to hate the whole concept of self-development and progress. You know what I do when this happens? I once again look at my goals, remind myself why I do the things that I do, and I simply let it pass. I then read a book from someone like Brian Tracy to make sure I get my dose of daily inspiration.

Recommended read: 50 Best Self-Help Books That Will Change Your Life Forever

Motivation is not something you can get from food as a nutrient, but it is something you can feed your brain with by reading books, watching lectures and motivational talks. And that is the reason why it is important to keep feeding your brain from the outside.

Reading about how people had serious challenges in life and were able to overcome them is always a great source of inspiration.

Remeber, it’s not difficult to be motivated at first, but it’s staying motivated that will separate you from the rest. So use the help of those that have already gone through it. There’s nothing wrong with getting help from others, even it’s in the form of reading books.

Have breaks

Another very important part of how to stay motivated is to have breaks.

We are all human, and you need to always remind yourself of that. You are not a robot that can work 24/7 non-stop. Never assume that you can.

Continuous work with no or little breaks will destroy even the strongest of motivations. This is the mistake I did in the beginning, and it led to nothing good, which is why I had to relearn how to relax.

If you do decide to work 6 days in a row on something, make sure you have a day off at the end of the week.

Also, one other way how to stay motivated is to stay aware of small successes. Whenever you accomplish something, don’t forget to celebrate it. These celebrations will reinforce the idea that you are moving forward and that doing work is actually fun and rewarding. On the contrary, if you don’t do this, then you will associate hard work with nothing other than pain and misery.

Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle

One other reason why we may quickly lose motivation is because of the amount of different tasks that we need to do on a daily basis.

To fix this, there is a so-called Eisenhower’s urgent/important principle. This principle states that all tasks can be divided into four categories.

1. Important and urgent

2. Important, but not urgent

3. Urgent, but not important

4. Not important and not urgent

Whenever you have a lot of work to do, ask yourself, which task belongs to which category.

1. If it’s important and urgent, do it first.

2. If it’s important, but not urgent, do it next. These are the types of tasks that may not have an effect on you today, but they will have an effect on you in the future. And if you leave them for later, they will inevitably become urgent. An example is a project that you have to do for work or school. If you wait until the deadline, it becomes urgent.

3. Urgent, but not important tasks can be done later, or not done at all. Many of these tasks are simple enough that they can even be delegated to someone else. An example of this category is a sudden phone call or a dinner invitation to a friend’s house. Here, you can also practice saying “no” to people.

4. Not important and not urgent are tasks that you don’t have to worry about at all. If you don’t have the time, don’t do them.

Remind yourself that life is just a game

The last but not least tip on how to stay motivated is to remind yourself that life is just a game.

Whenever you are trying to accomplish goals, find success and become fulfilled, you always have a choice how to make that happen. Some people prefer to make it difficult and stress along each step of the process. They make their goals a life and death situation.

Others prefer to do it in a more relaxed manner, in which they understand that if they fail to succeed, they will simply try again and pick a different approach.

Although the second option seems to be more laid back, please don’t think that it requires any less work. No, both options are equally powerful and require an equal amount of work, but the second option just has less stress involved.

The best part about making changes in life is that you get to choose how you do it. You, in fact, don’t need to stress if you don’t want to.

For example, when I recently had a big issue with my Amazon business, I experienced a lot of stress to the point where I didn’t feel like I wanted to continue with it any longer. Eventually, I got it solved, but I also promised myself that I will not allow myself to stress so much over similar things ever again. It simply isn’t worth losing sleep over.

Since the issue, I have come across other problems in that field, but I just smile at them. I take it as another obstacle that I need to work around. And when I do work around it, it becomes just another memory and a lesson that I learned from. It becomes the past.

You have to remind yourself that most things in life can be overcome and dealt with. And if they can’t, so be it, because life is just a game and we are its actors.

Hopefully, you also now know how to stay motivated when things don’t go so well. And if you have anything to add or ask, just do it in the comment section below. I appreciate reader interactions.

Thank you for stopping by and good luck!

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