Maintaining Direction

1

Stay excited. Things always lose their novelty as soon as we get used to them. Walk by the Sistine Chapel enough times and you'll stop noticing it's there.

If you've been working at this goal for a while, you risk just getting bored. NO! That mustn't be allowed. You gotta switch it up and keep stimulating your senses.

• Experiment with new means of reaching your goals. If it's weight loss, pick up a new healthy habit. If it's making money, try a new business strategy or budgeting system. Keep yourself on your toes.
• Surround yourself with images. Constantly reminding yourself what's out there can be a good way to stay in the game. Change your desktop to a series of motivational images. Write yourself little notes in unexpected places. Remind yourself, "Oh yeah, I'm doing this -- and I'm getting there!" That's surely something to be excited about.

2

Refine your plan. You have your goal all set out and you have how you're going to achieve it...but as you go on this path to awesome stellar-ness, you've probably found that a few of the things you thought originally would get you there aren't working -- or at the very least, they're too time-consuming to warrant being worth it. It's time to analyze your results and do a little tweaking.

• Make a list of activities that you've been doing to reach your goal. Now, which ones are yielding the highest returns? Which ones have good intentions but don't really cut it? Once you've established what's best and what's not, focus the majority of your attention on these high-profit activities, tweaking them to make them even better. Instead of one daunting task, you now have several manageable ones.

3

Put yourself in the public eye. It's Monday morning and you've decided to give up coffee (Ha! Good one.). You decided this at 7:30 and by 9:00 you're at the office chugging it like it's in your job description. No one knows about your failures but you and you'll forget about that with the caffeine high. What you should have done? Tell all your coworkers.

• Announcing to the world that, "Hey! I'm doing this!" gives you automatic pressure to stick with it. Hopefully, you won't be surrounded by a cluster of enablers and they'll make it harder for you to fail, too. If your coworkers would've known you were giving up coffee, they would've hidden your mug in the boss' bathroom.
• There's always the Internet, too. You probably interact with more people more often on it than you do in real life, huh? Sad, but most of us nowadays do. So post it on your Facebook, get it in your blog, and tweet the bajeezus out of whatever it is you're trying to do. Maybe you'll inspire someone else while you're at it!

4 Get like-minded friends for support. There are very few things in this world that you truly do alone. And ten bucks says you know a couple of people that could join you on your journey -- or at least cheerlead from the sidelines. If you have people that understand your plight, you'll feel much less weight on your shoulders.

• It's important to ask for help when you need it. It's not a sign of weakness or naivete, it's a sign of being human. Having a solid support group you can lean on is not only resourceful, but it's just good sense. They'll keep you up when you feel like falling and present you with resources, ideas, and motivation that you wouldn't otherwise have. So seek out friends, an online community, a local club or organization, and get to forming a motivational network.

5 Chart your progress. Humans naturally need things to be in concrete terms. You know how many people hate abstract art? It's just hard to understand. So when you're on this path to greatness, get things as tangible as possible. Keep track of your progress so you can sit down and see how great you're doing. Now that's motivating!

• Keep a journal dedicated to this task. Record your duties every day (and whether or not they get completed) and your check-ins to see if you've reached mini-goals. Bring it along with you wherever you go!