I hope that over the last two issues you invested the time to identify the goals that would have the most significant impact on your life, determine the steps you need to take to achieve them and identify the person who can most help you with their accomplishment.  Upon completion of those steps, set the deadline for achieving your goals.

Once you have done all of that, you now need to have the motivation to pursue them. Motivation is a key component of success and I’ve noticed that Olympians in the sporting arena as well as Olympians in life are highly motivated to turn their dreams into reality.

Motivation comes from within
The extent to which you can get motivated, remain motivated and continue to make forward progress determines whether you will accomplish the goals you set for yourself.  Many people have the wrong concept about motivation. They sit there waiting for the guy or girl to come and turn them on and get them motivated.  But what if they don’t turn up?  What happens then?  These people really believe that motivation comes from someone who can give them a fiery speech to get them excited and energized.  I do agree that there are times in our lives when our batteries are a little drained and so a few words of encouragement can do wonders to give us an emotional pick me up, but the truth is real motivation comes from within.

Your motivation will flow naturally from your dreams.  A powerful goal takes on a life of its own. It lives and breathes inside of you.  Have you ever been so excited about doing something or going somewhere that you hardly slept a wink the night before?  Sure you have!  That’s because you were highly motivated by the goal of getting that thing done or getting to that place.  Powerful goals get you up in the morning and provide the motivational energy you need to achieve them.

Motivation is the reasons why
If you don’t feel highly motivated about the list you made, or about goals you had previously, it is because they weren’t big enough or you have not yet identified the reason why they are important to you.  If that is so, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why would achieving these goals be important to me?  In what way would they impact my life positively?
• Why did I choose my current career/course of study?
• How do I expect my current career/course of study to help me achieve my goals?
• What difficulties/hardships am I willing to endure in order to achieve my goals?

These are questions that only you can answer.  However, the honest answers are the source of your motivation.  This is not motivation that has been imposed on you by someone else, but rather it is your personal motivation---it is self-motivation.  In order to be successful - in order to make things happen in your life, you have to be self-motivated.  Self-motivated individuals are those who have a reason, a purpose, a cause...all of which compels them to act.  Someone once said, “Self motivation is the bridge between thinking about your goals and accomplishing them.”  That’s because motivation isn’t just a feel good sensation, but a driving force; a compelling reason that calls us to action.