Find Out What Motivates You To Take Action Consistently

This article is part of the series on How To Make The Next Year The Best Year.

When you know what your dream is all about and what your concrete goals are, the next step is to find out what motivates you to take action consistently and finally reach your goals.

Your motivation is what keeps you going when the sun isn’t shining, when times get hard, when roadblocks appear. Your motivation is what drives you through all obstacles that may appear on the journey. When you are really motivated and driven to reach a goal, not reaching it is simply not an option.

But what must a goal be like in order for you to be so motivated that you will reach it no matter what? In my experience, there are two major factors that affect your motivation:

1. It must be in alignment with your dreams, with what you really want deep in your heart.
2. You must enjoy the process of implementing the steps that will eventually lead to reaching your goal.

I assume that your goals are in alignment with your dreams. If they are not, then go back to the first article in this series, Dare to Dream.

How do you know if your goals are in alignment with your dreams? Here’s a general rule of thumb: If you have to ask this question, they are probably not!

Enjoy the process

But what about the second point, to enjoy the path itself? This suggest that when there are different ways to reach a certain goal, that you decide for the plan that you will most enjoy, even if at the first it looks like that it takes more time or effort to implement it.

Don’t get me wrong: Efficiency is important, but not at the cost of enjoyment, in my humble opinion. Because a short way full of procrastination will take more time than a longer way that you enjoy walking on so much that you actually look forward to the next time you can continue the journey.

What helps you to enjoy the process?

While most of your motivators will be personal, I think that there is one general thing that will apply to almost everybody: Working in an environment that you like. Applying the necessary changes to make your workplace more enjoyable is probably a whole project in itself, but one that you have to implement only once, and that will boost your motivation every single day from then on.

Write a list of your motivators

So what makes your work on your goals, or the goals itself, more enjoyable for you? It is best that you make a written list that you can refer to whenever you are in planning mode, or find yourself procrastinating on a goal.

Here are some points from my personal list to give you a hint on what to aim for and to inspire you to write your own. Remember that this is from my personal list that will probably not work for you as-is.

• Automate like crazy: If it is something I have to do recurrently, I search for ways to automate the process. And even if it is a one-time task, I enjoy it more to build a system that does the work for me than doing it myself.
• Try and do the impossible: Impossibilities will get done instantly, wonders might take a little longer… Thinking really big is what inspires me to try and give my best.
• Change the world: If what I do has a positive influence on the world in terms of helping people to live their dream, it helps skyrocketing my motivation.

If you have additional ideas on how to make the path enjoyable, or want to share your own list of motivating factors, please use the comment form or send me a private message using my contact form.

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