Motivation is a Bigger Why

Do you want to know the real secret to staying motivated long term? Do you want to know how to develop the burning passion and single-mindedness that propels you towards reaching your goals? Want to know how to stay focused and accomplish more than ever?

The key to real, lasting, intrinsic motivation is a bigger “why.” The bigger your “why,” the more motivated you will be to achieve your goals.

What Do Your Goals Mean?

Look at what’s written on your list of goals. You know exactly “what” your goals are. You also know exactly “how” to reach those goals; you know what you need to do.

You don’t lack information. You lack inspiration. That inspiration is found in the answer to the question, “Why must you achieve that goal?”

The question “Why?” gives meaning to your goals. It provides meaning. Who will you become by achieving your goals? What will reaching your goals mean to you (and the people in your life)? The real source of your motivation is locked inside the answers to these questions.

We seek pleasure and avoid pain. If the “why” isn’t strong enough framed in the positive, try framing it in the negative. What will not reaching your goals cost you? What will it cost you not to become the very best version of yourself? What will failing to reach your goals cost you (and the people you love and care about?).

Resetting Your Goals

Any goal you have failed to achieve isn’t infused with enough meaning. Your aren’t deeply enough attached to the “why.” Desire is born out of the “why” and not so much out of the what or the how. The why is also what gives you purpose. You reset your goals by attaching yourself to the “why.”

Questions

Do you have a list of goals?

Why are each of these goals on your list?

Does answering the question “why” inspire you?

What do you lose by failing to reach your goals?