How to stay motivated and always achieve your goals

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Motivation is not a character trait or talent, but an art that anyone can master. You just need to know the recipe. And only a few ingredients are required - only two.

One of the brightest comedians of our time, Steve Martin (Steve Martin) received an Oscar for not the first joke. His road to success was long:

1. At the age of 10, he got his first job at Disneyland Anaheim: selling guidebooks for visitors to the park.
2. A year later, he was taken to a store, where he realized that jokes and simple tricks could attract the attention of a customer.
3. In high school, Steve Martin performed in small clubs in Los Angeles: his performances rarely lasted more than five minutes, and there were few visitors.
4. At the age of 19, he already performed weekly for 20 minutes.
5. For another 10 years he experimented and practiced, worked as a screenwriter, and by the mid-70s he became a regular guest of The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live.
6. Then there was an exhausting tour: 60 cities in 63 days, 72 cities in 80 days and 85 cities in 90 days.
7. After years of hard work, almost 20 thousand people came to his performance in Ohio, and 45 thousand tickets were sold to the three-day show in New York!

For half a century, Steve Martin has starred in 56 films, but received an Oscar only two years ago. But what a! For Outstanding Contribution to Cinematography.

Steve Martin's Road to Success is not a comedy for the faint of heart. 10 years of training, 4 years of bringing the show to perfection and 4 years of dizzying success - this is how Steve Martin describes the beginning of his career at. His story is an inspiring example of high motivation and perseverance.

How to stay motivated

Why does one achieve goals and others not? Why doesn't desire always lead to results? What's the difference between areas of life where we succeed and areas where we fail and give up after a couple of days?

Almost everyone asks these questions. Scientists have been studying motivation for decades, and there are still many blind spots. But one conclusion looks quite logical:

The best way to stay motivated is to work on achievable tasks.

No more, no less

Take a candy wrapper, tie a string to it and start driving in front of the cat. Her pupils will immediately dilate, her ears will stand upright, she will closely monitor the toy. As soon as the wrapper is within reach, the cat will throw. But she is unlikely to hunt a bird that sits high on a branch.

We are arranged in a similar way. Playing tennis against a four-year-old is likely to get bored quickly. And against Serena Williams (Serena Williams) you are unlikely to dare to go to court: accepting challenges is pleasant and exciting only when they are within reach. Another thing is to play against an equal: the chances of losing and gaining points are almost equal. Victory is possible, but not guaranteed.

Too simple tasks are boring. Too complex is discouraging. And only those that are on the verge of success and failure are of interest.

This is the Goldilocks principle (this is the name of Masha in the Western version of the tale of the three bears) or the golden mean. In psychology, the behavior of young children is explained to them: they are involved in tasks that are not too simple and not too difficult for them.

With age, we, of course, learn to solve overwhelming problems. But motivation still remains maximum in the work that lies on the border of our abilities: not too difficult, but not too easy.

Evaluation of results

There is another important aspect. Constant motivation is guaranteed when the two ingredients are rightly mixed: hard work and a sense of happiness. And this is a sure way to a state of flow that is well known to athletes and artists. In this state, you are so focused on the task that everything else simply disappears.

To get into the flow, you need to regularly record how close you are to the goal: it is incredibly motivating. Imagine Steve Martin joking and the crowd laughing. It creates a burst of energy, courage and a desire to keep the audience amused.

In other areas, the measurement of progress looks different, but it is equally important in order to continue to act. You should receive a regular win report. That is why it is so enjoyable to learn languages in, and: they constantly give awards there.

2 steps to motivation

So, to always stay motivated:

1. Stick to the middle ground: set goals that are achievable.
2. Measure your progress and celebrate achievements as often as possible.

Quite simple, but it works!