The Secret to Staying Motivated Is Simpler Than You Think by Steve Rizzo

I’m about to give you some information that can change your life forever. Are you ready? Here it is: The secret to staying motivated throughout the day is to make sure you are feeling good during the process of whatever you are trying to achieve. That’s it! That’s all you need to know. You can now stop reading and go about your business, for you are now enlightened.

Related: 5 Ridiculously Easy Things You Can Do Every Day to Feel Happy

I’m joking, of course. But as simple as this might seem, it truly is the key to staying motivated and achieving the quality of success you desire. Why? Because feeling good is the fuel that drives motivation. Write that down and slap in on your refrigerator. Say it out loud: Feeling good is the fuel that drives motivation. It’s your choice and your responsibility.2

Nothing, absolutely nothing, keeps people from staying motivated and achieving their goals more than harboring negative emotions or having a bad attitude during the process. The No. 1 reason why people in business fail or have difficulty achieving their goals is because positive momentum ceases. And the reason why positive momentum ceases is because people are focusing all of their energy on what isn’t working and all of the things that need to done in order to make it work.

This type of chaotic thinking leaves people with no mental room for positive thoughts to seep through, so they devise healthier alternatives. In other words, your life or your business will not work if you keep thinking about what’s wrong or what isn’t working.1

When you are setting out to achieve goal, you have to be vigilant about what you’re thinking about and what you’re focusing on. Nothing brings out the worst in any negative situation faster than you focusing on it. On the other hand, nothing brings out the best in any positive situation faster than you focusing upon it. The point is that you have to be aware of what you’re thinking about and focusing on if you want to stay motivated and succeed. Observing the problem only perpetuates it. Trying to figure out how it got started doesn’t help. Taking action while feeling negative emotions only compounds the problem. Remember, it isn’t necessarily the details of a particular challenge that weigh us down, but our own self-induced negative energy that keeps us from thinking positive and moving forward with hope and optimism1.

It’s important to understand the way you feel in any given moment is dependent upon and evoked by what you are thinking or saying out loud in any given moment. Your thoughts create the way you feel. That’s right. Don’t give me that look. You want proof? Keep reading.

Right now I want you to try feeling angry, but do it without thinking about anything that makes you angry. It doesn’t work, right? How can you feel angry without thinking about something that elicits that emotion from you? You can’t. It’s impossible.

Now try feeling guilty without thinking about something specific that you feel guilty about. Once again, you can’t. The thought has to come first. Your emotional state is the direct result of your thoughts. And the tone of your thoughts becomes your life experience.1

So, the first step to turn around this train wreck in your mind is to be alert and aware of how you feel at any given moment. When you’re feeling uptight, stressed out or generally negative, stop and acknowledge something is not right in your world. Think of what you are doing to yourself. Understand what the repercussions will be if you continue this negative rampage you’ve created. Why is awareness so important? Because as soon as you become aware of how you are feeling, the negative sensations will temporarily cease.

In that moment of awareness, you enter into a whole new world of possibilities and opportunities, where you can choose healthier responses. In this world of possibility and opportunity, you are now free to gradually shift your focus to things and thoughts that will gradually lift you up and make you feel better. And that’s what you want, isn’t it?