Motivation Archives

The 4 Most Common Obstacles to Achieving Goals

How to Believe in Your Goals and Change Your Life

Why do people fail to achieve the goals they’ve set for themselves? What are some of the most common obstacles to achieving goals? Achieving any goal requires consistently showing up for it in your actions, which requires you to exercise discipline and self-control. But your best efforts can easily be derailed by “triggers”—stimuli or situations that throw you off track. Here’s a look at some of the primary reasons why we succumb to the temptation of triggers, even when we know better.

A Birthplace of Invention: What We Learn From Our Mistakes

What famous inventions resulted from mistakes? How do errors impact your thinking? Best-selling author and theorist Steven Johnson explores where good ideas come from. One source might surprise you: errors. Johnson explains that, when we learn from our mistakes, we often find ourselves in exciting new territory. Continue reading to learn how mistakes can lead to new ideas.

Do Hard Things: Book Overview (Steve Magness)

What is the book Do Hard Things about? What are the main takeaways of the book? In Do Hard Things, Steve Magness explores why traditional ideas around toughness are not only ineffective but harmful. He explains what it really means to be resilient with strategies on how to overcome discomfort and adversity. Read below for a Do Hard Things book overview.

How to Change Your Behavior by Overcoming Triggers

Why is it so difficult to change your behavior? Why do we tend to fall back into our old patterns despite our best efforts to change for the better? We have a hard time changing our behavior. This is because we encounter “triggers” that make us revert to our old patterns. In their book Triggers, Marshall Goldsmith and Mark Reiter argue that you can reclaim control over your behavior and offer some strategies to prevent triggers from throwing you off course. Keep reading to learn how to change your behavior by identifying and taking control of your triggers.

How to Inspire Yourself: 3 Practical Tips for Internal Motivation

What do you do when your plans get disrupted? Do you tend to lose sight of your goals and your reasons for them? Like everyone, you need motivation and inspiration to set goals and achieve them. It’s great when others cheer you on and help clear your path of distractions. But, you can’t always count on others. You must develop internal motivation—finding ways to keep yourself going when the going gets tough. Read more to learn how to inspire yourself and keep moving onward and upward.

3 Goal Reflection Exercises for a Boost of Motivation

Why is it important to reflect on your goals? How can reflecting on your goals motivate you to push yourself harder? Reflecting on your progress toward your goals is a powerful practice. When you reflect on how far you’ve come, you’ll feel more motivated to persevere and keep making progress. Here are some goal reflection exercises to keep you going.

How to Find Your People: Creating a Personal Support Group

Do you surround yourself with people who support where you’re going in life? Are they willing to speak up when you get off track? If you want to achieve extraordinary things, you must find a group of people to support you. In Someday Is Today, Matthew Dicks explains that your own personal support group will help you progress toward your goals by holding you accountable and providing encouragement and feedback. Learn how to find your people and why it’s so important to do so.

How to Set Realistic Expectations and Embrace Reality

Do you often get disappointed by unexpected outcomes? How do you set realistic expectations? Having high expectations can be helpful, especially if you have big goals you want to achieve. But sometimes things don’t go as planned. That’s why it’s best to have realistic expectations to not get too excited. Here’s how to set realistic expectations to keep yourself on track, according to Steve Magness’s book Do Hard Things.

How to Maximize Productivity: 6 Ways to Make the Most of Today

Do you have big dreams but continually fail to make much progress? How many moments have you squandered just today? In Someday Is Today, Matthew Dicks explains how you can eliminate time-wasters and increase your efficiency on necessary tasks. Then he argues that you must learn how to maximize productivity and reach your full potential so you can become as successful as possible, as soon as possible. Continue reading for Dicks’s top six principles for maximizing productivity and an exercise to help you apply them.

Reaching a Higher Consciousness: The Top 2 Benefits

How can reaching a higher consciousness benefit you? What are peak states? According to the authors of Stealing Fire, Stephen Kotler and Jamie Wheal, reaching a higher consciousness leads to intrinsically fulfilling experiences, which benefit us in numerous ways. The authors argue that these peak-state experiences may be deeply transformative. Read on to learn about peak states and the benefits of reaching a higher consciousness.