3) How to stay motivated.

Think about all the time you've WASTED putting something off because you were not motivated.

All the FAKE movies with FAKE storylines you watched, caused you to delay your REAL goals.

How many more YouTube 'motivational videos' or 'motivational music' do you need? 

Just look around you.

Don't you want more for yourself?

Imagine if you had cut out all the bullshit and DID WHAT YOU SAID YOU WOULD DO. 

You would be living such a DIFFERENT LIFE right now.

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Now your probably starting to feel as if you've wasted so much time in your life. The guilt hurts, right?

You wish you could have, or should have, and would have.

But that doesn't CHANGE ANYTHING.

So instead of feeling sorry for yourself, LEARN TO FIX IT as soon as possible.

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MOTIVATION IS A FEELING

You only feel motivated when you are RESTRICTED TO DOING SOMETHING or HAVE AN IDEA TO DO SOMETHING.

This gives you a burst of motivation EARLY ON.

Let me explain.

If your gym was refurbishing and you were restricted from using that gym for 2 weeks,

then 9 times out of 10, after the first week of waiting you would be eagerly ready to go. You would feel motivated and ready.

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Similarly, when you come up with an amazing idea or a business idea, those first few moments of euphoria eagerly make you want to start to work.

You rush to tell everyone.

But then this DIES DOWN.

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Listen to yourself when you delay a task. The most common thing people say is:

"argh, I don't FEEL like (motivated) doing it". 

What does this tell you?

You're subconsciously aware that motivation is a FEELING.

Sometimes you FEEL it and sometimes you don't. 

Sometimes you'd feel motivated about doing things as it's really exciting at first, but that feeling doesn’t last, the motivation fades away and you stop taking action.

This means you simply CAN NOT RELY on motivation.

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The biggest lie ingrained in people's heads is that:

"I need to get motivated BEFORE I take action."

When in reality, ACTION LEADS TO MOTIVATION, not the other way around.

Motivation is unreliable as it is based on if you feel like doing something. 

It is severely weakened by a lack of energy and random bad moods. 

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THINK BIG, BUT START SMALL

'Motivation comes from the word 'motive', which denotes a person's needs, desires, wants, or urges.'

If you do not have any desires or wants, then you will not have the urge to do anything.

This brings me to a good point.

If you desire something or dream of reaching a goal, then you are very capable of achieving it.

In other words, IF YOU CAN SEE IT IN YOUR HEAD, THEN YOU SURE CAN HAVE IT IN YOUR HAND, or you would not have that thought in the first place.

You cannot hit a target that you cannot see. 

Identify some exciting goals for yourself. And start small.

The key to getting started is to make it as easy as possible to do so.

Setting these goals is the first step, which everyone can do,

but the next step is where everyone fails.

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SET SHORT-TERM DEADLINES.

Everyone sets goals but never achieves them. 

Why? 

Not because the goal is not achievable, but because THERE IS NOT ANY PRESSURE. 

When you're in an exam and realize that there are only 10 minutes remaining, you rush eagerly to finish it, the PRESSURE makes you more motivated than ever to complete the paper in time.

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Likewise, during New Year's resolutions, everyone sets goals for the New Year.

But only 19% achieve it, proving clearly this doesn’t work.

This doesn’t work because the PRESSURE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY happens after 12 months. 

What should you do instead?

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Set goals with deadlines. No matter how big or small the goal is SET DEADLINES. 

If you give yourself all day to clean the house, it will take all day. But if you give yourself 3 hours to complete the task, it will take you 3 hours.

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USE WILLPOWER

Don't wait for something, or someone, to come around and motivate you before you get up and take action.

Instead of motivation, increase your desire to take action WITHOUT THOUGHT. 

USE WILLPOWER TO FORCE YOURSELF TO TAKE ACTION.

Don't give yourself the time to think whether you should do it or not.

You don't need the motivation to brush your teeth, you do it REGARDLESS of how you feel.

In the same way, you built this HABIT, anything else you want to complete should be done the same way.

•  If you want to go to the gym? 

Don’t start by thinking about your workout. Instead, just put on your gym clothes. 

This small action will trigger your mind to do the next action related to what you just did which is to go to the gym.

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• If you want to do your work? 

Instead of thinking about the different things you have to do today.

Just start with the most important one. 

If it is a large task, just aim to do the beginning of the task.

Then now that the ball is rolling yourself you will find it easier to continue.

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• If you want to wake up early? 

Rather than trying to wake up at 5 am the next morning, even though you normally rise at 7 am.

Start by waking up at 6:45 am for a week. Then 6:30 am the next. 

The week after that, 6:15 am until you reach your goal to wake up at 5 am every morning.

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Notice that each of these relies first on action rather than motivation. 

Why?

Because the action itself gives you the motivation to continue taking more actions.

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NOW IMAGINE,

if you dedicated the next 30 days of this last year to do what you said you wanted to do and JUST STARTED. 

You will be glad you didn't wait.

BECAUSE whilst everyone else waits for the New Year fireworks to start, you'd be already ahead.

You can do it, YOU ARE NOT LAZY.

Lazy people are HAPPY being lazy. 

You're here trying to change, so laziness isn't who you are, it's a habit you want to break.

Don't say I'm lazy, it's not true.

STAY DISCIPLINED (we will talk more about this next time)

You take action by taking action. No thought is necessary. 

Don't convince yourself to do it, just do it.

Stop treating all the things you know you need to do as "optional." 

As soon as you allow yourself the freedom to ponder whether any of the things you need to do are truly worthwhile, you already lost.

@ionicXBT