Using Visualization to Stay Motivated and Reach Your Goals

It seems like magic. How is it that simply imagining a thing can make it real? No, we’re not talking about a new spell from Harry Potter, we’re talking about Creative Visualization, which is more science than magic.

Visualization means that you’re guiding your thoughts onto a certain path in a certain way to ensure success. While it might seem a little mystical at first glance, there’s some pretty solid science behind it. Studies have shown that it’s our attitudes that frequently determine our success. In other words, if we think we’re going to fail, we’re indeed very likely to fail.

But does the opposite hold true? Not always, because there might be other factors that have to do with your success that is outside of your control – like a lack of knowledge when you begin or a lack of resources to see your project through to completion. But what IS proven is the importance of a positive mindset. Visualization takes that positivity to the next level and allows you to SEE your success.

How do you do it?

1. Start with the goal. If you’re not sure where you’re going, how can you expect to get there? In this step, you’re going to want to picture what you want or hope to accomplish exactly. That is the big picture goal, so don’t worry about the details just yet. Right now you’re gaining a direction.

2. Add layers. Here’s where you get into the nitty-gritty of what you want to do. Once you have your big picture goal, now you can work out the smaller components that make it up. Imagine this goal in the most minute details until you have a clear understanding of what you need to do to get where you want to go.

3. Expect the unexpected. Now imagine the obstacles you’re likely to come up against and stop you in your tracks. How do you intend to handle them? Plan for every contingency.

4. Add in practical application. In short – practice. Not just in your head, but in the physical world as well. That means rehearsing that speech in front of a mirror before giving it in front of a crowd. Take your visualization and put it to the test. And then go back and revisit your visualization and make adjustments as necessary. Repeat as many times as necessary.

5. See the Success. When visualizing perhaps the most important thing to see in your mind’s eye is your success. Take your goal to completion with all of its steps, including that happy ending where everything has gone exactly right.

By using visualization, you give yourself an important edge. That edge translates to motivation. When you’re sure of your success you can’t help but be excited about what you’re doing. What’s amazing is that using that motivation then creates a stronger visualization, creating a cycle of success that is unbeatable. Imagine that!

Staying Motivated When Surrounded by Negativity

It seems to be a universal rule that no matter how motivated you are, there will always be someone equally motivated whose sole purpose in life is that of being a buzzkill. We see this especially in the world of social media where even the most positive post will garner at least one response in the negative. How then are we supposed to stay motivated when surrounded by so much negativity?

1. Plan for a positive outcome. When you don’t have a clear direction, you can’t expect to have great results. What is your vision for the future? What do you need to do to get there? Envision the process from start to finish. Then write it down so that you have it available as a roadmap to get you where you want to go.

2. Change your expectations. Don’t let the negative messages mess with your mind. In other words, take control. If you expect things to go badly, chances are they will. Silence the negative voices and instead focus on the positive.

3. Seize the day! If things aren’t going well, rather than listen to the naysayers, carefully evaluate where you are. Is there something you can change that will improve the outcome? Put your focus there.

4. Know when to let go. Along with that same vein, realize that if there are things you can’t change. Worrying about them isn’t going to make the outcome any different. Let go of what you cannot change or help.

5. Surround yourself with positivity. Affirmations, books that motivate, people that are positive – all of these should be in your toolkit to combat negativity. If you fill your mind with positive messages, you can’t help but drown out the negativity. By doing so, you’ll find it’s much easier to stay motivated no matter what’s life throws at you.

6. Who’s on your side? When you live under a constant barrage of negativity, the people you surround yourself with become very important. Find the cheerleaders, the Pollyannas, the positive people who love to cheer for you and keep them close at hand. With the right team on your side, you can’t help but succeed.

7. Don’t forget to celebrate. Don’t wait for the big milestones to recognize your accomplishments. Small celebrations along the way will remind you in a very visual way of your successes. It becomes easier to expect success when you remind yourself that you’ve done it many times before.

Negativity can’t stand up to a strong positive influence. Keeping motivated then is simply a matter of looking at what’s around you – and changing the scenery if it’s not working for you. Remember: Positive influence breeds positive results.

How to Stay Motivated without Burning Out

We’ve all felt it, the soul-crushing exhaustion that isn’t so much physical as mental. Where you can’t do one more thing at work, even though you love your job, and even whatever reward system you have in place isn’t enough to get you moving again.

That is burnout, and it hits all of us at some time or another. How can you avoid this dreaded quicksand trying to suck you down and keep you from being productive? It’s all in staying motivated. Thankfully there are several ways to do just that.  

1. Take breaks during the day. You can’t keep going endlessly without breaking down. Every now and again, it’s good to lift your head and take a look at the world around you. So get up, grab a drink of water, move around a little. How do you know when to stop? Pause the moment you feel your energy flagging, and before you get so drawn into the doldrums that you lose your motivation to move around.

2. Get rid of your devices. There’s nothing quite so de-motivational as the digital age. The problem with being connected is that people can reach you anywhere, anytime. That means you never quite leave the office, and by extension, you’re never really not working. To solve this, limit checking your work email outside of work, and refuse to discuss business outside of normal business hours. This break is necessary for optimal health of both body and mind.

3. Take weekends off. Again, with the world so connected over the internet, it’s just too easy to keep working, even when you’re supposed to be out spending time with the family. Embrace your downtime and give your work a rest. Having the weekend off will leave you more motivated on Monday and ready to tackle another week of work.

4. Ask yourself why it matters. If you’re feeling a little burned out, it’s time to remind yourself why you do the things you do anyway. Why were you so passionate about this job/project? Recapture this feeling, and your motivation will come flooding back.

5. Just what kinds of breaks do you have? If all you do on your downtime is watch Netflix, chances are you aren’t stimulating your mind. That leads to a further boredom/malaise that’s even harder to shake. When you have the weekend off, give yourself something to do that engages you physically and mentally. Exercise, play a sport, go outside, visit a museum. Stimulate the senses. You’ll be surprised at the motivation that comes from trying something new.

6. Check your health. If the feelings of fatigue persist, a check-up might be in order. It could be that it isn’t burnout at all – but instead, you might be fighting a bug or be a little low on some essential vitamin.

7. Find a different job. If you’re constantly burned out, then it’s possibly time to find something new to do. Take some time to reassess why you do what you do, and whether you’re as passionate about it as you used to be.

Avoiding burnout is possible, but it means listening to your body and mind. Breaks are not only a good idea; they’re integral to good health. Remember, staying motivated means taking care of yourself on every level. 

Do These 5 Things to Make Sure You Stay Motivated

You’re midway through the project, and you’re losing interest. Motivation is about to go out the window, and you feel helpless to keep it. What can you do to stay motivated, so that you’re able to stay on track through the remainder of the project? Try these tips:

1. The first thing you need to do is to visualize your success. Before you go another step, you need to see yourself at the end of the project with everything accomplished to your satisfaction. Why? Because what we tell ourselves will happen – will happen exactly how we tell ourselves. So if you’re caught up in thoughts of failure, you’re already likely to crash and burn. Likewise, if you see yourself at the finish line, with the project completed, you’re much more likely actually to succeed. So keep a positive image in your head, and keep going.

2. Next, stop worrying. Yes, that’s easier said than done, but the more you worry, the more you’re going to derail not just your motivation, but any energy and enthusiasm you still had for the project. To do this, you’re going to have to look critically at what you’re doing and ask yourself if there are things you can change. If so – change them. If not, then let them go. Motivated people don’t get caught up in worry, but instead, they make it a habit of looking to the future.

3. If you intend to stay motivated, then you’re going to need to be consistent in action and in setting positive goals. Motivation flags when neglected, so to keep the energy where it’s going to do the project the most good, you’ll want to make sure that you’re constantly moving forward. That means checking your motivation levels daily and then taking action to keep those levels up. Even if you’re taking the weekend off from work, you should take at least a few minutes to indulge in thoughts about your project, where you remind yourself that you’re looking forward to jumping back in on Monday morning. That keeps motivation and interest high even when you’re not working.

4. If you’re still having trouble with motivation, check to see who’s hanging around. It could be that you have too many negative influences around you. Surround yourself with positive people, who are also highly motivated individuals. All that positive energy is bound to rub off on you!

5. Lastly, keep a positive environment where motivation can thrive. Listen to music that motivates. Use positive affirmations, read motivational books or listen to podcasts that make you want to jump right back into your project. A lot of staying motivation comes from feeding yourself with a steady diet of things that motivate.

Staying motivated doesn’t have to be an impossible task. Some attention to the details will keep you on track as you work and help you to get to the finish line. Be mindful of what you’re doing, and with a variety of positive influences, you’ll get to where you want to go.

5 Ways to Stay Motivated No Matter What

Losing motivation? It happens to the best of us. But there are tricks to staying motivated, many of which involve taking a hard look at your goals. With a little preparation and solid planning, there’s no reason why you can’t stay motivated all the way through whatever project you’ve set out for yourself.

How?

1. Start with the big picture. What is it you’re trying to accomplish? Having an idea of the eventual goal will help you to stay on track. The clearer the vision, the more likely you are to keep going, even when times get tough. Ask yourself what it is you’re trying to achieve – and then picture yourself achieving it. The visualization step is the most important one here. We tend to perform in the way we expect to. So if we expect to fail, we do. By seeing success, you’re more likely to attain success.

2. Now that you’ve gotten the big picture make sure this is YOUR goal. At first glance that statement seems ridiculous – why would you make a goal that isn’t your own?  This answer can be found most easily in asking WHY you want to accomplish what you are. If the word “should” comes up, then chances are you might want to re-evaluate what you’re doing. We often set goals because we feel like they’re something we’re supposed to do, and not because they’re something we want to do. You’re less likely to stay motivated when you’re on the path of ‘should.’

3. Next, you’ll want to break those tasks down into something manageable. Now that you have a goal and are sure it’s something you want to do, you might feel a little overwhelmed about how you’re going to accomplish that goal. By breaking it up into smaller pieces, you regain the feeling that you’re doing something possible. Like a pro tip? Celebrate the small successes then as you go. That will help keep the motivation levels high.

4. If you’re still a little overwhelmed, get organized. It might be that you don’t feel prepared to work on this project because you lack the research or supplies. Figure out what you need, and then go about making sure you have the proper tools to get the job done. It’s easier to stay motivated when you have what you need to succeed.

5. If all else fails, remember why you set the goal in the first place. It could be you only need a little reminder of your previous motivation to find the fresh motivation to keep going.

Motivation isn’t something you have to lose as you work on a project. You can keep your motivation levels high with a little forethought and planning. By keeping on track with your goals, you’ll find that motivation will likewise keep on track, guiding you all the way through the job at hand until completion.

Build a personal effective system and you will always win

It's quite surprising to learn that the vast majority of lottery winners end up as broke as when they started. I know this is a shocking statistic, but the vast majority of people who win the lottery end up in worse financial shape than before they won the lottery.

How can this be? Well, it doesn't really matter how many millions of dollars pass through your hands. If you don't know what to do with that money, you're just wasting your time.

It is no surprise that a lot of lottery winners end up getting a lot of money to fund their very worst instincts. For example, if somebody has an addiction problem, getting their hands on millions of dollars or British pounds can make the problem even worse.

In fact, in one notorious case out of the United Kingdom, a person who won several million pounds ended up blowing all that money on cocaine and prostitutes. My point here is that success is not based on the money that enters your life.

Success is all about the change in character that you go through that enables money to not only enter your life but stay in it. For this to happen, you have to adopt the right habits. You can't just hang on to your old way of thinking.

This is where a lot of people who just “lucked into” their great fortune fail. There are many people who lucked into millions of dollars during the initial.com craze of the early 2000's. A lot of those people are struggling now.

There are a lot of people who made millions of dollars when iPhone apps became very popular. A lot of them are bankrupt today. The reason is because they did not develop a personal effectiveness system as far as their money is concerned.

You have to have a system. You can't just expect for things to happen out of raw intuition or hunches. If you try to do things that way, chances are you will end up making the wrong move more often than making the right call. The odds are not in your favor.

You should focus instead on becoming the right kind of person to achieve your dreams. If you are struggling in any way, shape or form in any area of your life, please understand that it's not the fault of other people. It's definitely not the fault of any situation outside of your control.

I know it's unpleasant to hear, but this is one truth that you need to hear: It's all your fault. Take ownership. Understand that you're the only person that can make real changes in your life. You have to take this responsibility.

This is why you need to build a system that increases your personal effectiveness. It's not a series of hacks. It's not a string of hunches. It definitely has nothing to do with being lucky. You have to build a system. This means adopting the right habits, having a clear understanding of what you're doing and, most importantly, having a clear view of the consequences of your decisions.

This is all rooted in the understanding of the power of your ability to make decisions. If you're able to do that, then you're going to be able to call the shots as far as your life is concerned. As you probably already know, the results of your life are a flow from your choices.

Put in another way, change your choices and you change your life. To get a clear practical framework on how to do this, click here.

Every failure is a victory in disguise

I know this is going to be a very unpopular lesson. After all, it's very unwelcome. A lot of people think that failure is something to be avoided. In fact, a lot of people are paranoid about failure. They're so scared of it, they don't even try.

Well, what if I told you that the more you give in to your fear of failure, the more you will fail? Why? Well, the fact that you are not achieving the kind of result that you want for yourself right here, right now, is a form of failure.

You have these big dreams. You have these amazing visions that you have set out for yourself. Every single day that passes without you working towards those big dreams is a waste of day. That is a failure.

Unfortunately, if you allow yourself to remain fearful of failing, you're not going to take action. You're not going to take the necessary, bold sacrifices that you need that will take you closer and closer to victory.

Now you may be thinking, “Okay, I can decide to start today.” Good. But you're terrified of not getting the results that you're expecting. The possibility that something could go wrong freezes you in your tracks.

This really is too bad because every set back or challenge you encounter along the way to victory is a victory in disguise. You have to look at your attitude towards challenges. A lot of people think that they have failed when the things that they assume or expected did not materialize. They think that that is the end of the game.

That's not true. If things don't pan out the way you expected, this means that there are certain problems that you need to solve. These are not problems that are debilitating. These are not problems that indicate that you are dumb or there's something fundamentally wrong with you.

Instead, these are problems that just need solutions. This is an opportunity because the more you solve your problems, the smarter you get. You become more of an expert. You become more capable.

Also, when more challenges appear, you don't fold like a house of cards. Instead, you're able to take it and take it until you achieve success. That is victory.

Understand that each failure or setback is actually an opportunity. You not only learn how to fix problems and see things that you may have not seen before. You may also be able to change your personal character.

Maybe you're impatient. Maybe you're a very short term figure. Maybe you can't see the forest from the trees. Whatever it is you're struggling with, look at the challenges that you face as the solutions to the character issues that may be holding you back.

I know that this is a cold comfort for many people. Still, if you understand that you stand to gain victory by learning more about yourself and pushing yourself, you can position yourself for greater victories in the future.

This is how you can turn your fear of failure into a tremendous opportunity. Even if a failure has happened, you don't have to stay on the floor. You don't have to allow yourself to get knocked down by staying down.

Get back up, spring back up and go for it again and again. Sure you would get knocked down over and over, but guess what? The more you resolve to fix the problem once and for all, the faster you will spring up from the ground and the sooner you will be able to solve that problem.

Take this opportunity. To learn how to turn every failure into a victory, click below

Every baby step forward you take is a victory

One of the most common assumptions people make about success is that it's supposed to be big. It's supposed to be something that is bold, dramatic and substantial. They feel that big victories have to be large. In fact, so many people believe that it has to be larger than life itself.

There's a lot of drama in a spectacular victory and it really is sad when people believe this because they end up robbing themselves of the ability to achieve such victories. How come?

Well, when you actually put in the work towards a goal, it may well turn out that your outcomes are incremental. In fact, they can be so incremental that you can't even detect them. They're that small. It's not unusual for people who find themselves in this situation to think that the progress that they're making is simply not worth it.

They say that they're giving up so much and putting in so much time, effort and energy only to have such inconsequential results. The more they think about this, the more discouraged they become. Eventually, it's only a matter of time until they lose hope. They end up quitting.

Let me tell you, the only way to lose in anything in life is to quit and that's precisely the kind of situation you're setting up for yourself when you expect big victories. You should look at this from a different perspective. You should reduce your scale. You should zero in on what you're doing at that precise point in your journey towards ultimate success.

In other words, look at what you're actually achieving. If it's slightly different from where you started, chalk it up to victory. Log it as a big win.

It may not be as grand or dramatic as you had hoped, but it's still a step forward. The bottom line is simple: every baby step forward you take is still a step forward. Let's put it this way, it's better than when you started.

Sure you may only be a couple of inches away from your starting point, but you're still further ahead in the journey. Given enough time, there will be more and more distance. Again, even if you are making progress at the rate of a few inches everyday, you're still distancing yourself from your starting point.

It's only a matter of time until you see a large enough change from where you are with where you started. Don't rob yourself of the emotional urgency you need to keep pushing forward by expecting big things.

Let me tell you, the first time you swing that bat, don't expect a home run. Don't even expect a hit. Just keep swinging that bat. Perfect your form. Eventually, you will hit the ball and you will get better and better. That's how life works.

When you set up impossible conditions for yourself, you become a victim of your own expectations. You expect yourself to bolt out of that gate like a Kentucky Derby winner. Life doesn't work that way. Sometimes, victory is measured in inches. Be happy with that.

Understand that a baby step forward is something you can build on. It's something that is a summary of all the lessons you have learned. You can scale up these lessons. You can build on them. They're building blocks to greater and greater success.

If your ultimate victory involves thousands of miles, you can bet that the hard lessons that you learn in the painful first few inches of that journey will teach you a thing or two about the rest of the skill sets you need to adopt. Things will get better and better.

It's really all about achieving momentum but you have to start. Don't rob yourself of victory by assuming that you are somehow entitled to amazing results the first time around. Sometimes, you have to make several attempts for you to achieve substantial results. Be willing to pay that price. Be willing to go the whole nine yards.

To learn how to turn every baby step forward into a practical victory, click below

Achieve more by working purposefully

Have you ever found yourself at work chasing your tail? I'm not talking about literally chasing your backside. I'm talking about small stuff day in, day out, all day, everyday and your life doesn't change.

I'm telling you, even if you're the most efficient email responder in the world, your life is probably not going to change unless, of course, there's something fundamentally important about those emails, you are essentially just doing ministerial stuff on a day to day basis.

The sad reality is that a lot of these things that we find enjoyable are also the most inconsequential stuff. For example, checking your Facebook updates and notifications may be a lot of fun. But if instead of reading your textbook or doing your assignment, you waste your time on social media updates and emails, your life is probably not going to go where you want it to go.

You're probably not going to achieve much of a breakthrough in that midterm or finals exam you're studying for. The same applies to your relationships and this definitely applies to your work. Focus on what's important.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that they should focus more on what's pleasant. They are under the impression that they should devote a tremendous amount of time on things that are convenient.

Well, here's the problem. If everybody approached life that way, most people will be making minimum wage. If given a choice, most people would rather do the most pleasant and least time consuming stuff. In most cases, most people would rather do things that don't take much effort or energy.

This is human nature. I really can't blame them for thinking this way. After all, it's hard wired into the human condition that we take the path of least resistance.

Unfortunately, if you did that, you're not going to set yourself up for getting much of life's rewards. The reason why lawyers, doctors, medical professionals and top level executives make so much money is because they have to pay a high price and go through quite an ordeal to get the knowledge that they have.

This requires sacrifice, not doing things that are quick, easy and pleasurable in favor of things that are unpleasant, inconvenient and are downright annoying. But if you're able to do that day after day, week after week, month after month, eventually, you get to where you need to go and the rewards come. That's how life works.

Unfortunately, if you refuse to work with a sense of purpose, it's so easy to just continue to do stuff that really doesn't matter. Sure it's a lot of fun to check your email. It's good to know what other people are up to on your Facebook friend list. But at the end of the day, none of that stuff really matters.

What matters is whether you are putting in purposeful work to the big goals in your life and the best way to do this is to work purposefully. In other words, you zero in on the big vision you have for yourself and you allow that vision to give you the inspiration, sense of urgency and the emotional power you need to focus on what you need to do to get to where you need to go.

This can take a long time. This is why a lot of people are not up to the journey. They fold. They lose motivation. What's really happening is that they missed the forest for the trees. They focused only on what's in front of them and they lose sight of the big picture.

If you don't want this to happen to you and you want to tap the power of working with purpose, click here.

What does your work say about you?

When you meet somebody new, the first thing you probably think about is what their clothes say about them. You might even pay attention to the way they speak, what they choose to talk about and their facial expressions. You might even notice their body language.

Based on all these signals, both verbal and non-verbal, you can kind of come up with some sort of conclusion on what this person's about and what kind of person they are.

This is not unusual. This is how most people read each other. This is how most people make judgments about each other.

If you think that people don't make character judgments, you are sadly mistaken. In fact, you may be setting yourself up for a nasty let down at some point in the future. People do this all the time.

Well, here's the thing. If you think that personal judgments are restricted to the things people wear or how much money people have in the bank or the kind of cars they drive, you are not seeing the big picture. In fact, you are looking at insignificant details.

What if I told you that somebody can be dressed in rags and can still be a future millionaire? What if I told you that somebody can look like the worst kind of bum but still be life's biggest winner in a short period of time?

You might think I'm crazy or unrealistic. Well, think again. The truth is you only need to look at people's work products to see where they're going because the work you produce says volumes about who you are, and most importantly, who you think you are.

The vast majority of people continue to struggle in their professional and financial lives because they think that the results that they produce don't really matter. They think that the work that they do is just one insignificant portion of their total identity.

This is where they screw up. Let's face it, the world doesn't care about your feelings. It doesn't care about your motivation and it seriously disregards your potential. How come?

Everybody's got potential. Everybody's got emotions and feelings. What the world pays attention to are your results. These are the things that you actually do. These are the things that you actually say. These are the things that matter.

When you change your actions, you change your personal reality. Unfortunately, this is the last thing people look at when they try to define their character or try to communicate who they are to the greater world.

They try to do this through fashion. They try to do this with the way they talk. They try to do this with what they choose to talk about.

If you want to be taken seriously and if you want to become a more effective person, focus on your work product. Focus on whether you show up to work on time. Focus on whether you do whatever it takes to achieve the kind of success that you want for yourself.

Everything else is basically fluff. Everything else are basically inconsequential details. Because ultimately, the most honest indication of what you're capable of and where you're headed in life is your work product.

Change that and you change your destiny. To get a practical guide on how to do this on a day to day basis, click here.