Hacks To Help You Stay Motivated

Seven Simple Hacks To Help You Stay Motivated In All Aspects Of Life

Staying motivated is not always easy. We’ve all experienced loss in motivation, and it can be a vicious cycle. You start working towards a new goal — whether it be about fitness or business, or just a personal goal. You’re super excited and motivated in the beginning and because this you’re working extra hard to accomplish the goal you set.
 
However, as the weeks and months go by, motivation is much harder to come by. Maybe you’re not seeing the results you wanted or things are going great but you’re just tired. If you don’t find a way to stay motivated, the worst thing can happen: you might quit.
 
Here are some hacks you can use to stay motivated for the long haul or just tips that you can use for that extra pick-me-up in motivation.
 
Make Your Endeavors Public
 
Anytime I start a new endeavor or set a goal, I make my goal public to the world. I unfortunately probably care a little too much about what people think about me and the thought of failing publicly (which I have done), motivates me like nothing else to to accomplish my goals when everybody is watching.
 
I know I am not alone. I’d say 95% (total guess!) of the population is afraid to fail publicly. That’s exactly why you should announce your goals publicly, so that you can put yourself in a position where failing publicly can happen. When you fear letting people down, you grind harder and stay motivated longer. If you never tell anybody “Hey world, I’m going to accomplish ____,” you have nobody to let down but yourself, and therefore you’re far less motivated.
 
Break Your Goals Into Small Mini-Goals
 
It’s alright to have big hairy audacious goals but you’ll have a much better chance of hitting those big goals if you break them into mini-goals. If we only focus on the large goals, we can end up being frustrated because those can take months or years to accomplish. You break your main goals into mini-goals that you can measure monthly, weekly or even daily, and this can help you stay motivated. Breaking your big goals into mini-goals is also a great way to create a plan of attack on how you plan on bringing your goals to fruition.
 
Celebrate Those Small Wins
 
As important as it is to break your large goals into mini-goals, it’s almost as important to celebrate your achievements. Staying motivated is no easy task, especially when you’ve been chasing a goal for a few months. Being able to celebrate your small wins will keep you in a positive mindset and incentivize you to continually chasing your goals. Sometimes it’s even smart to determine in advance how you will reward yourself for those small wins when you map out your big goal into smaller mini-goals.
 
Document Your Progress
 
Make sure you document your progress as you go. Find a metric to measure and a system to keep track of this metric. For example, if you’re losing weight, this can be as simple as tracking your weight once a week. For a goal that doesn’t have such as an obvious metric as losing weight, find a metric that’s correlated to your goal. Keep a journal or spreadsheet where you report these metrics and be sure to visit this document often. When you’re able to visualize your progression, it will keep you motivated to keep moving forward.
 
Find A Mentor
 
A great mentor can change your life; he or she can awaken potential in you that you didn’t even know was there. In fact, most successful people had someone show them the ropes along the way. Mentors are also great motivators.
 
I have a handful of amazing mentors and every time I am able to have lunch with them or share a conversation, I leave that conversation absolutely inspired. Also, if you have a really great mentor, they won’t let you slack. When you’re doing bad or are acting lazy, they will call you out and make sure you get back to the grind.
 
Watch + Read About Motivational People
 
I am someone is who is easily motivated by other successful people. I started my first company the day after watching the film The Social Network, the film about the creation of Facebook. Anytime I’m feeling low on motivation, I watch Steve Job’s Stanford commencement speech. These are just a few examples of some of the inspiring content there is out there. I’d suggest finding some videos or books to read on successful people. Not only do they help you stay motivated but you can learn so much from studying these people as well.
 
Find A Competitor Or Archrival
 
We are all competitive by nature, at least a little. And some more so than others. Take advantage of this part of human nature by using it to fuel your goals.
 
Understand that you’re not the only person chasing your specific goal. There will be others as well, some friend, some foe. Use them as motivation to stay progressing. It can be friendly competition, such as seeing who can lift heavier between you and your friend, or it can be more serious competition such as using your competitors in business as a form of motivation.
 
Don’t be afraid of getting competitive, but you have to be careful to not focus on your competition too much, as this can be a deterrent and can actually hurt your motivation if you’re constantly focused on their moves instead of making your own.