So what keeps us motivated?

I have friends who are self motivated, and others who have no idea what they want to achieve in life. While we all go through phases where we don't have goals or we're not really thinking about anything ambitious, but then comes a time when it's necessary to shake things up a little bit and go further. Achieve something. Do something that matters to you. That's why I find it difficult to understand how someone doesn't have goals, the only thing that explains it is that they haven't yet found what they're passionate about.

How does one get motivated to do great things? To set goals and work to achieve them? Keep going even when faced with obstacles that appear impossible to overcome?

The things that motivate me might not be motivating for you or someone else. On the other hand your own motivations may have little or no influence on me. That's fine. We all have to find what works for us.

My goals motivate me because they are my own. I've always wanted to be a writer. This fact alone makes me want to keep writing, keep sending out queries and working towards a career as a freelance writer. I've made a few mistakes this year and I hope to amend them and become a successful freelance writer. This motivates me. When I see my name in print it motivates me. When someone says something positive about my writing, it motivates me. When I make some money from my writing, it motivates me. When my writing touches someone, it motivates me.
At the beginning of the month I had a goal to complete 50,000 word novel for NaNoWriMo. How have I stayed motivated? Well, the goal is important to me and I want to prove to myself that I have it in me to achieve the 50,000 mark and beyond. If I don't finish I know that I'll be kicking myself. My motivation is the desire to make a full time living from being a writer. I know that if I don't do it, no one is going to do it for me. The same goes for your own goals. No one is going to achieve them for you. But the best thing is the sweet feeling of success in the end. Nothing in the world can buy that. Unfortunately throughout the past couple of weeks I've had limited writing time and lots of wasting time. Now I'm playing catch up.

Another thing I want to do is run a marathon. How do I stay motivated to train and actually do it? Yesterday I tested myself whether I was capable of running for over an hour. I am. I managed ninety minutes and 17.5km. That's the most I've ever run. This also tells me that I am capable of running the half marathon. I've set myself a goal to run one in March. My motivation is that I've set a goal, I've made it public and now I got to do it. It's also a way to keep me in shape and allow me to eat reasonably what I want without worrying about weight gain. It's something I always wanted to do because it's within my control. Once I complete that I'll start training for the full marathon.

It's important to have goals that mean something to you personally in order to stay motivated and keep going with something. These goals also need to be achievable. Thinking that you'll write a novel in a month when you've barely finished a short story isn't going to keep you motivated, it's going to look overwhelming and impossible. Writing five hundred words a day on the other hand may be achievable. The same goes for running a marathon. To stay motivated for the long term it's vital to have short term goals. Run three times this week. Include interval training next week. Start in a 5km or 10km to practice running in large groups. These goals are less overwhelming but they bring you a step closer to the final goal. Running a marathon. Writing a novel. Or achieving whatever else you want to achieve.

So now I'm going back to my writing, I've got a goal to reach and story to finish.