In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

mahatma gandhi

If you do not yet have a goal or goals, it is time that you have them. When you have goals, keep your goals crisp and clear.

Having said that, achieving goals is no joke. You need to be in constant touch with your progress. One thing that helps is discipline. But discipline alone will not help you achieve your goals. You need motivation. And you have to continuously do it.

Here are some of my own and some crowdsourced way to keep your motivation level high:

#1. Keep Track of the Progress

When I realized that I needed to have specific financial goals, I sat with my wife to create a household budget. We wrote it on an A4 size paper. When we had drawn the outline, we were very clear on where we wanted to reach and how we would reach there.

I followed the T. Harv Eker’s budgeting methodology.

And month on month, we tracked our performance on our investments, income, expenses. This has helped give us more clarity.

To track our daily expenses, I have a mobile app called FinArt which tracks my daily expenses.

I track my daily habits through a habit tracker from Atomic Habit.

When you track your progress, you know very well where you are at. If you are not where you should be, you have a chance to course correct.

#2. Post the Picture of Your Goals by Your Desk or Somewhere Visible

When your goals are clearly visible to you at your sight, it is much easy to remain motivated. My habit tracker is always by my side at my desk. Whether I am working or watching something on my PC, I have a regular reminder on what are my daily goals. I write my daily goals on a writing pad that sits on my desk. I know before I go to sleep, I have to complete those.

One of my friends has her goals on the refrigerator stuck with a magnet. Another friend has a picture of his dream house and dream car stuck up on the wall.

Keep reminding yourself of your goals.

#3. Get an Accountability Partner

I am part of a mastermind group on personal development by Ben Hardy. We all have our goals, personal as well as professional. One of the key reasons many are able to achieve success on their goals in this program is that they have an accountability partner.

An accountability partner is someone with who you will share your goals that you need to be tracked. It is a self help mechanism where you both will be accountable to each on the progress.

One simple method taught is to send an SMS at the start of the day and one SMS at the end of the day with goals for the that day and the progress. This keeps you motivated and really go for your goals.

#4. Get a Coach / Mentor

When I joined Toastmasters, I was required to select a Mentor or Coach. This is very important; because, someone who has already been there in your position will likely be able to guide you better.

While this is a free service for me, there are other coaching classes you can take to get professional help.

I coach and mentor bloggers and small business owners with regard to their goals and aspirations. This keeps me motivated as well.

#5. Develop Positive Habits

It was very challenging for me to get out of the rut of bad habits like binge-watching Netflix, night outs, and so on. One thing that helped me was reading books.

Another positive habit that took a long time for me to get hold of was Physical Exercise. Oh…I dreaded doing jumping jacks, push-ups, planks…..

But then I read about Habit Loop in Atomic Habits.

Since it was very hard for me to start exercising, I set the Time of the day as a Cue. And reward was a good bath followed by a YouTube video from my favorite channel.

#6. Have a Different Perspective

It is literally hard to keep motivated on certain goals like physical fitness. But then, you can not deny how important this is.

I see it from a different perspective. I try to look in the future. My Future Self.

• How would I feel in a year’s time looking at my body?
• How would I feel in a year’s time looking at all the books I have read, courses I have taken?
• How would my family feel about my physical fitness or mental agility?

See from a different perspective!

#7. Have Mini Goals

You may have a goal to reach a net worth of 1 million $. It is highly unlikely that you will achieve this out of the blue.

A better way to do this is to break this large goal into smaller chunks. You can say, from real estate I will earn around 250K$, from my online business 100K$. You know this right.

Same for, let’s say losing weight. Lose 1 KG by end of September, 3 KGs in October and so on.

Achieving these small chunks of your goal will keep you motivated to keep going for it.

#8. Make Inspiration Your Best Friend

One of the great motivators for me are achievers who have done what my goals are. So I find inspiration in them. This inspiration can come from YouTube videos, Instagram posts, Books that you read, and so on. For example, I find inspiration in Tony Robbins. I follow him on social media channels. Keeps me motivated to achieve what he has done. Same thing with Robin Sharma. I would like to write like how he does. I find inspiration in his books and literature.

Inspiration is the best friend of motivation. Keep them together.

#9. Reward Yourself

On point number #5 above, I spoke wrote about developing positive habits. It all ends up in reward. This is the sweetest thing about following your goals. Don’t put off your desires. Have small sized rewards regularly. Don’t suppress if you have a desire to eat a chocolate or have a soft drink.

Reward yourself.

Another reward I give myself is to browse FB for 5 minutes when I have completed a daily habit. Keeps me motivated.

#10. Find Your Why!

There is an ultimate reason why you do what you do!

Do you know your WHY?

If you know your why, you will be self-motivated to achieve whatever goals you have in your life. For example, if you ‘why’ is to be time-independent, your goals will reflect the steps towards achieving this ‘why’

Find your ‘why’ and rest will fall in place.

(Recommended reading: Start With Why and Find Your Why)

#11. Write Your Goals Daily

I have a routine every morning. After I have refreshed myself, I do my daily exercise. When that is done, I sit to write my journal. One of the key aspects of writing my journal is to write my goals on a daily basis.

This does 2 things:

• Keeps me aware (remind) of my goals
• Helps me track the goals on a daily basis

Writing journal motivates me to take steps towards my goals daily.

#12: Make Your Goals known to your close associates

My close friends know my goals. I have made it know to them. Although this was not easy, I thought this was appropriate.

This keeps me fully aware that there are people who know what my goals are. This keeps me motivated to achieve my goals. Do this and you will see great results.

#13. Be an Optimist

Our brains have evolved to think negatively of every situation. This has helped us survive in the early stages of mankind when many things were unpredictable.

However, this quality is still with us to this day when it may not be necessary. We always tend to think negatively than positively. If you do not think positively about your life, no one else will do that. Keeping motivated at your goals takes utmost positivity. So be one and spread that around.

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Life is a result of your choices. Have goals, Keep working at them. Achieving goals takes little more than discipline. Motivating yourself takes some effort. If achieving goals was easier, then it would be boring. Keep working at whatever you do.

How motivated are you? And what’s your source of inspiration?

Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen.

Conan O’Brien

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