How to stay motivated and continue chasing after your dreams and goals

Is there something you want to achieve in life? It could be that you want to be successful, you’ve started a business and you want it to take off. It could be that you are looking to lose weight or get fit. It could be anything that brings you satisfaction and adds meaning to your life. It could be something that improves your life for the better.

Having something in life to work towards feels amazing. However, it is so difficult to keep going everyday. There are push backs, lazy days, lack of focus days and so on.

How do you keep going everyday? How to stay motivated and continue chasing after your dreams and goals even when you are having a bad day?

 

15 ways to stay motivated

 

1. What is your why?

The most important factor in motivating you to keep going is to figure out WHY you want to achieve that goal.

If you want to be successful, is it because of the financial freedom you’ll achieve? If you want to lose weight, is it because of the confidence you’ll gain? Simply saying I want to be successful and make money won’t cut it. There has to be a bigger reason whether it is financial independence, living life to the full, helping others, taking care of your family. Also, just saying I want to lose weight won’t motivate you enough. Maybe you want to lose weight because you’ll feel more confident, attract someone to fall in love with or even feel more comfortable in social situations etc.

Your WHY has to be strong enough to motivate you to get out of bed and get on with it. When I think about my WHY, it creates this instant passion in my heart.

Also, if your WHY has to do with a person rather than a material thing, you’ll be more motivated to do it. If your WHY is to help those in need, you’re more likely to push yourself.

So every time you are feeling demotivated, think about WHY you are doing what you are doing – you’ll get an instant motivation boost.

 

2. Create a vision board

The reason we get demotivated and lose focus is mainly to do with having a lot on our plate and forgetting what we want in life. Yes, it’s true. You may be working on your business but get side-tracked by a relationship issue and lose focus on your business.

As humans, we have limited energy and when we split that energy between multiple things, it’s difficult to focus on anything.

A vision board is a collection of pictures of things you want in your life. Creating a vision board allows us to see a snapshot of our goals. This visual representation of our goals instantly reminds us of what we are working towards and keeps us on track.

Always keep your vision board where you can see it. Working infront of a computer? Put your vision board on the wall behind and above your computer. Everytime you take a break, you’ll see your vision and goals.

This will constantly remind you of your goals and keep you motivated.

 

3. Go over your vision first thing in the morning

As you can tell by now, the way to stay motivated is to constantly keep thinking about what you are doing and why.

As well as creating a vision board, create a vision plan as well. This outlines your goals and actions that you need to take to achieve them. The actions could be daily actions, monthly actions and yearly actions.

I look at my vision plan daily while having breakfast. I go over it to remind myself what I want to achieve and keep updating it everyday. Once, I’ve undertaken an action, I cross it out and write another action to keep taking me forward. This ensures that I’m on track to achieve my goals.

Also, being able to cross out an action and write another action to progress further will motivate you as it shows that you are moving forward.

 

4. Plan your day the night before

Planning your day the night before ensures that you avoid wasting time on the day and just get on with work.

I actually plan my entire week on Sunday evening. This saves me time during the week as I may be too tired and unfocused to develop a good work plan.

I refer to my plan the night before every day to get my mind in a ready state for the next day. Knowing what to expect saves time.

If you leave planning till the day itself, you’ll procrastinate and lose focus. You may forget what you need to do temporarily. If you’re too tired during the week, you may not be able to think about the work that needs to be put in. As a result you won’t get much done and end up feeling demotivated. If I have followed my plan, I feel super motivated and happy by the end of the week.

 

5. Read books that further your purpose

Sometimes you may feel demotivated and lose focus if you are stuck and don’t know how to proceed.

Reading books that help you achieve your goals or work better can help get you “unstuck” and keep pushing you in the direction of your goals.

You can get new ideas on how to move forward or you may realise that you need to do something differently to get better results.

The key though is to ensure you put into ACTION what you have read. Simply reading and doing nothing won’t get you anywhere.

 

6. Think about how much time is left

This is a very strange way to motivate oneself but it works for me every single time.

When I think about how much time I have left to achieve my goals, it straight away makes me think “shit, I better get on with it”. Please excuse my French 😀

I don’t think about how many years I have left to live, I think about how many productive years are left – because by the time you hit a certain age, you can’t really do much.

So, if there’s something you want to achieve, think about how much time is left and the fact that time is running out. This will definitely get you out of bed into goal mode.

 

7. Discipline your mind

Sometimes we end up wasting so many hours procrastinating just because we haven’t trained our mind to get on with it.

We enjoy comfort and that includes laziness or just not doing anything. It feels good just laying in bed for that extra half an hour instead of going for a run, doesn’t it?

Train yourself to just get on with it. Don’t waste time procrastinating, don’t waste time being lazy, the clock is ticking.

This will save on wasted time allowing you to get more done and motivating you further. If you fall prey to the procrastination trap, you’ll definitely feel even more demotivated due to the lack of progress towards your goals.

 

8. Make friends that have similar goals and keep you accountable

Having friends or colleagues that have a similar goal as you will greatly benefit you in staying motivated.

If you are trying to do everything alone, it won’t be long before you lose focus and then tell yourself, it’s ok just not to get on with it. If you have friends who want the same thing as you, you can keep pushing each other to keep going.

Secondly, you can tell them that you want to achieve xyz by next week. Knowing that you have to answer to your friends will keep you going even when you are feeling demotivated.

Working as a group brings a certain positive motivational energy that may be lacking when working on your own.

Ofcourse if you are an introvert like me, there’s no harm in working alone. As long as you can motivate yourself on your own, keep going. I work on my own but I always talk over things with some friends when I see them. This helps.

 

9. Meditate to clear your head

You may tend to become demotivated if you have a lot going on in your life.

Practise meditation daily, first thing in the morning, to tackle your problems and devise solutions.

Meditation calms the brain down and allows you to hone into what is bothering you. Once you have figured out the problem, you may also be able to find the solution.

Meditation can also allow you to get inspiration and discover new ideas to further your goal. Secondly, it can increase your mental focus and help improve motivation.

 

10. Do something fun – take a break

Overworking can also cause lack of motivation and unproductivity.

You need to ensure that you have a balance in your life. Work hard but also play hard.

Always make time for fun – do a hobby, meet up with friends, watch a movie, take a walk etc.

Giving your mind a break allows it to relax, increasing your productivity and motivating you in the process.

Doesn’t life feel well lived when you have got a lot of work done and have also had lots of fun? Always find that balance and ensure you take a break to stay motivated.

 

11. Read motivational quotes/books

Reading a motivational quote first thing in the morning can provide that instant motivational boost that you need.

It will get you in the right mindset from the start of the day ensuring you get your work done.

Also, make it a habit to read motivational books at the end of the day to keep pushing you towards your goals and not give up.

 

12. Ensure you get 7-8 hours of sleep

Sleep is underrated. People feel awesome when they think that they have transferred their sleeping hours to their working hours. They feel unstoppable. What people don’t realise is that they will actually lose focus and be less productive if they don’t get enough sleep.

Eventually, it will catch up with them and they will lose many more hours than they gained from cutting out sleep.

If you want to keep your focus and make good progress towards your goals, you need to be in your best state. This means getting enough sleep every day. When you sleep, a chemical is released that clears toxins hence leaving you feeling refreshed when you wake up.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like I get so much work done when I’ve had enough sleep. I have more energy, I feel motivated and have laser sharp focus.

 

13. Get in that exercise

Just as your body needs a break, it also needs exercise. Continuously working without exercising will put your body in a poor physical state. This means you won’t be in your best state to work towards your goals.

Your body needs a purpose, good food, exercise and play. Cutting out any of these means you’ll lose focus.

Exercise also provides us with that adrenaline boost and feel good feeling. This can increase your motivation and focus enabling you to work towards your goals.

 

14. What is the alternative?

Here is another one of those mind games.

There is something you want to work towards. There’s a reason for why you want to work towards it. So if the WHY is not working, then think about the alternative. What will happen if you don’t achieve that goal?

I am sure this will definitely get you off your feet into goal mode.

Obviously, not achieving what you want will have a worse outcome. So thinking about this worse outcome will motivate you to keep going. Works for me!

 

15. Map your success

So, I’ve told you to write down your vision, to create a vision board, to think about your WHY, etc etc.

But do you know what would have the biggest motivation? Writing down your successes. No matter how small they are, write them down.

Get a box and at the start of the year or at any point in time, put in little notes highlighting your successes daily.

Open that box everytime you are feeling demotivated and randomly pick up any notes and read them. You’ll remember how far you’ve come and that you’re doing great. You just need to keep going.

If you don’t write down these successes, you’ll forget about them.

I open my box at the end of the year as well to see how well I did that year 🙂 It feels great.

 

15 Ways to stay motivated and continue chasing after your goals and dreams

I hope the 15 ways above are useful to you and help you with your goals. You can pick and choose those that work best for you, I know they work for me so I’m confident they’ll help you too.