“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullsh*t story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.”

– Jordan Belfort

How to triple your motivation

Motivation is a funny thing. If you need someone else to provide it you’ll never succeed.

There are plenty of people who buy dozens of Tony Robbins and Stephen Covey products that do nothing for them. It isn’t because the products sucked either. The buyers were simply looking for a magic solution. An item that would solve all their life problems within the first 30 minutes and without requiring them to take action.

Outside of a Dungeons & Dragons game there aren’t too many magic books.

However, if you don’t find a frequent source of motivation, you’ll quit moving forward.

You need something to help push you along and get you fired up in the morning. Inspiration can fuel your own drive and take you to places you’d never imagine.

While I like self-help books and tapes, I have a nasty habit of abandoning them.It’s something that a lot of guys accidentally do.

You pick up the book when times are tough and then toss it to the side once things start going well.

Fortunately there’s an easy solution that is inescapable.

The picture or list that you cannot avoid

I’ve always wanted to live next to the ocean. Moving to the West Coast was my number one goal of 2014. I’d get up in the morning, listen to some great YouTube speeches, and then get to work.

It worked wonders for about a month.

After that I started to forget about my motivational speeches and self-help books. Instead of focusing on my goals I got distracted by girls and partying.

One day I woke up and realized that it was three months past my deadline for moving and I was still in the same place.

That’s when I knew it was time for some action.

I found a picture of the place I wanted to live and set it as the background to my computer. Every time that I wanted to take a break from my work and goof-off online I had to see my goal.

I also wrote my goal down on a piece of paper and stuck it to the door of my room.

Any time I was leaving I had to see my goal.

Within a month I had my plane ticket and all the money that I’d need.

If you have to see what you want you aren’t going to make up excuses as to why it can’t be yours.

This month I wanted to build 30 Days To X into a larger site. It’s a goal I could easily blow off. Right now I’m sick, there’s tourist stuff I could do, and I make more money with my actual writing job than I do as a blogger.

To combat this I made my goal unavoidable.

I filled my phone with alarms telling me to do various site tasks at different points throughout the day.

I wrote out long lists of goals that I attached to all the doors.

Wherever I turn there’s something telling me that I can’t back down.

How to use this in your own life

Anything you want is worth tackling head-on. Buying a book that you throw under your bed will never help you. Ordering some motivational tapes that just collect dust is a waste of money.

Get some paper and write down your goal. Then stick it somewhere that you have to look. Your bedroom door, the kitchen, under the toilet lid. It doesn’t matter.

As long as you can’t avoid it you can’t make excuses.