How to Stay Motivated

Yesterday I sent my newsletter to 25,000 people. The subject of this newsletter was how I inherited my work ethic from my Mom. I told the story about two readers of this blog who asked me what they needed to do to stay motivated, and I wrote about some of the questions I asked them to help them find their motivation.

A number of readers emailed me back after reading the newsletter asking me for the list of questions that I asked. A few were brave enough to suggest that they actually needed those questions.

Here is a list of questions that may help you find motivation.

• Who is counting on you? Start with the small circle, your spouse, your children, your immediate family. Work your way outwards into the larger circles that include all the communities that count on you in some way, large or small. If you have children, what kind of example do you want to be for them?
• What duties and obligations do you owe the people you love and the people you care about? You do have a duty to these people. You are obligated to take a certain set of actions on behalf of these people. How are you going to fulfill these obligations?
• Who do you want to be? How do you live your real purpose? Maybe you are here as the result of some cosmic accident and none of this means anything to you, worm food. But maybe while you are here, you have an opportunity to become what you want to become. Who do you want to be? What are you here to do? What do you want your contribution to be?
• Are you proud of the decisions you are making about what to do with your exceedingly limited time? The clock is mercilessly ticking away. Your time is limited. Are your actions aligned with this reality? As an outsider, would I be able to tell what is important to you by the way you use your time?
• What do you want your future regrets to be? Do you want to regret how you spent your time? Do you want to regret neglecting the most important relationships in your life? Do want to regret not trying harder, not living your real purpose? The actions you take now—and the actions you don’t take now—determine your future regrets. You are literally making this choice every day.

Anthony Robbins can’t motivate you. I can’t motivate you. Only that little voice in your head can give you the motivation, and only the urgency created by spending time with questions like these can spark the fire in your belly.

If you spend time here, if you focus here, if you connect to the answers to questions like these, you can cure yourself of a lack of motivation very quickly. If you want to stay motivated, you need to look no further than what’s inside your heart right now.