Motivation is a fundamental factor in reaching your goals. When you start a new project, part of the joy and excitement is that great rush of energy. You have your goal that you want to achieve, you’re raring to go. And for the first days or weeks, everything’s going great.

But then you might have a set-back – your new running or gym habit might be interrupted by an injury or the seasonal flu. Or your car breaks down and you have to dip into the money you were saving for your vacation. Maybe you’re not hitting those regular weekly or monthly goals you set yourself, and you can see your dream slipping away. How can you stay motivated when everyday life threatens to throw you off-course?

Motivation works best when it’s positive. If you want to do something and it feels good, you’re much more likely to keep doing it. Getting your motivation right from the start increases your momentum and propels you toward success.

Here are some proven ways to stay...

Fear is a normal emotion. Sometimes, it can be beneficial because it makes you aware of risks, keeps you alert, and improves mental focus. However, too much fear will have the opposite effect. Don't fret as even the most successful people experience this feeling. The key is to prevent it from dictating your actions.

The Many Shades of Fear

This human emotion isn't all black and white. Fear can take many forms, from mild anxiety to downright debilitating overthinking. Under certain circumstances, it can protect you from danger and stop impulsive behaviors. But, because it's closely tied into your gut instinct, it can also help you improve your decision making.

But not all types of fear are good for you. In fact, this emotion often does more harm than good. It can keep you from reaching your full potential, fuel procrastination, and cause stress.

Let's say you want to quit your 9-to-5 job and start a creative agency or work as a freelance web designer. You might be afraid that you'll...

Think of your current life goals. How convinced are you that you’ll succeed? What’s stopping you from making that trip, losing that weight, learning that language, or running that half-marathon?

What if someone said you could accomplish your #1 goal in 100 days? That there is a formula that you can use to guarantee success? You can do it if you follow these five steps.

1. Keep your goals
   SMART Your goals need to be tight, focused, and concrete. Above all, they must be SMART.
   • Specific: work on keeping your goal as focused and defined as you can
   • Measurable: keep your goals tangible, whether it’s running 10 miles or writing 60,000 words of your novel
   • Attainable: keep your goal challenging but not impossible (check your emotional response to gauge this – do you feel excited or overwhelmed?)
   • Relevant: Set goals that speak to your heart and will move your life forward. Make them your goals, not your manager’s, or your friend’s or...

Motivation is what keeps us going to meet our goals. At the start of a project you have lots of motivation and energy, and you’re focused on success. But over time you might find you need some cheerleading, some encouragement to keep going and maintain your momentum.

Luckily, there are more resources available than ever to help you keep focused on achieving your goals. As well as books, podcasts, and apps, there are hundreds of blogs focused on helping you meet your goal, whether it’s losing weight, getting fit, building your business, or getting that promotion.

There are so many of them it can be a bit overwhelming. The internet is a huge resource, and it helps to have a degree of self-awareness and a critical eye when it comes to working out what sort of motivational help is right for you. How do you respond best – do you need something you can see – a visual reminder of your goal? Do inspirational quotes keep you going? Do you need structure or...

You already have the most powerful tool available to reach your goals: your mind. Your thoughts, imagination, attitudes, and drive are all there ready to be used to make your goals a reality.

Visualization is such an empowering technique and one we use all the time without realizing it. You visualize when you’re

• planning a vacation
• redecorating your house,
• planning family get-togethers
• working out your grocery list
• deciding what to wear or have for lunch.

All of these activities depend on having a vision or an idea of where you want to be, look, feel, or how you want your life to be.

Make this process conscious and use it as a planning tool or a motivating exercise. You can make your visualization a formal part of your goal-setting process.

How to do it

1. Find a quiet space, where you won’t be interrupted. Make sure you have writing materials and paper or a notebook.
2. Close your eyes and think of your goal. Place it right in the center of your mind.
3. Take three slow deep...

Even when you are focusing on behavior-based goals, you want to start out by creating a goal that is more of a “big picture” – the end-of-the-rainbow scenario. One creative way to do this is to visualize what it is you want or need to come up with a picture that represents to you the outcome. Practice bringing up this picture in your mind, and get all of your senses involved. What types of sensory effects does this picture create for you? The more you can involve your entire brain in the process, the more realistic the big-picture goal will be.

When you’ve solidified your end goal, turn your attention to what types of actions you’ll need to take in order to secure that goal in your future. What kinds of skills and habits will you need to form, or build, and of these, which seem inherently more difficult to you, being the unique person that you are?

One of the scientifically proven ways to increase your success in achieving your goals is by giving...

You might not realize how important it is to write down your goals. Every year most people make a whole list of resolutions and then do little or nothing to keep them. How many people do you know who wish they could lose 20 pounds, or get a promotion, go on a round-the-world trip, or change careers? How many people do you know who stay stuck in their comfortable rut because they don’t have a plan to get out?

Achieving your goals is not down to innate talent or luck or being a better person. It comes down to planning and hard work. And the key to success is writing it all down.

A ten-year Harvard study on goal-setting showed that writing down your goals is critical. The study asked students if they had set clear, written goals and specific plans for their futures.

• 84% of those students had no goals at all
• 13% had goals but hadn’t written them down
• 3% of the student group had written goals.

The study interviewed the students again after ten years. The 13 percent of the...

If you’re like most people, you need a clear, organized space to optimize your productivity. You need to be able to see what needs to be done and to give a project update without shuffling through piles of papers. To do this, you need to organize your space as efficiently as possible. Time for an office makeover! Here are five steps to re-organizing your office to put you back in control.

1. Purge, purge, purge
   Take a good hard look at your desk, filing cabinets, credenza, and drawers. Chances are you will find duplicate and out-of-date documents. You need to get rid of all the unnecessary stuff taking up your working space. If you haven’t looked at it or used it in the last six months, get rid of it. Or if you or your organization might need it again later, archive it.
2. Rearrange your furniture
   Have a look at your current office layout and see if it’s working for you. Is it set up so you can easily deal with:
   • Incoming files and papers
   • Working documents...

When we think of goal setting, we usually think of goals that envision a specific outcome. Some examples include:

• Lose 20 pounds.
• Increase income by 10%.
• Buy a larger house/newer vehicle.
• Run a marathon.
• Save money for college

Of course, these are just a few of the more common goals that people set for themselves. But what if we based our goals on changing behaviors instead of obtaining a specific outcome? Could we modify or completely change behaviors that would lead us to the desired outcome quicker, healthier, and with less stress? Some experts certainly think so.

Many times, when we set goals, we focus on the negative, i.e. what we don’t want rather than what we do want. Behavior-based goals focus more on the behaviors we want to strengthen rather than the negative actions we want to remove. In strengthening the positive behaviors, we change the way we act and react in many situations – not just situations surrounding a goal that is outcome-based. The ripple effect...

Every once in awhile, we all need to take the time to reevaluate our lives through self-reflection. Maybe you aren’t as happy as you used to be or feel like you are stuck somehow.

When was the last time you sat down and reflected on things—your relationships, your career path, and your happiness and well-being?

If we wish to live exceptional lives, we’ve got to get clear on who we want to be, what we want in different areas of our lives, and how we want to live our lives overall.

If you’re not getting clear on what you most want, your life experience will be a hodgepodge of random people and experiences- some good, some not so good, some just kind of “blah.”

But that’s not why you’re here, is it? You’re not here to live a so-so, humdrum kind of life. You aren’t here in this body, at this time, on this planet to merely go through the motions of life and to be at the mercy of the people and situations around you. Taking time...