How To Stay Focused and Motivated In Life

Whether you’re reading this at the beginning of the year looking to set some goals and intentions, or just finding yourself needing a little help on staying focused and motivated in life, this post is for you.

As someone who works for themselves, we HAVE to stay focused and motivated throughout the year on our own. It isn’t something that happened overnight for me. Personally, it was gradual as I started to build the my blog business slowly over time while working a day job.

I also slowly started to add more work from home days from my day job towards the last year or so allowing me to learn how to focus and stay motivated at home too.

I wanted to share some of the ways that I stay focused and motivated to accomplish big or small goals so that the year can be a BIG success for us all. Here’s how to do it.

How To Stay Focused And Motivated In Life This Year

Set Your Goals And WRITE THEM DOWN

When thinking of setting goals I always say ‘write it down’! Having things written out, hell even framed at your desk, is a great way to be constantly reminded of what your vision is. Spend a night with family, friends, whoever, to come up with goals, write them down, do a vision board, WHATEVER. But put it on PAPER!

Money Won’t Always Motivate You, So Find Something Else!

Usually, money is a GREAT motivator for well, everyone. Myself included. And yes, that’s totally normal and fine, as it’s sort of how we work. But I encourage you to find another reason that you can stay motivated.

This can be for your job, hobby, saving money whatever the goal is that you’ve set. But just find another reason WHY you’re doing it. Do you enjoy it and it makes you happy? Does it feed your creativity? Does it allow you to expand your mind?

Find goals that are NOT money motivated or at least ones that have more than just money as the motivator and you’ll likely be more successful. Money eventually won’t motivate you if work or projects drag on forever. So find that underlying joy that you can hold onto for a more long-term successful goal.

Find Likeminded People With Similar Goals

I don’t know where I’d be with My Style Vita if I didn’t have several close blogging friends. They not only keep me motivated but help to push me creatively. Someone may have a great idea that you never thought of.

You may find yourself in a rut and just need a support group to lean on. FIND YOUR PEOPLE! As soon as you’re in a rut, they’ll be there to help. And when you have big wins, they will be there too to support and celebrate with you.

PS check out my 7 tips for building a good network!

Set Smaller Goals Within Your BIG Goals

Depending on the SIZE of your goals, you may want to add in smaller more attainable goals to keep you on track. Is your goal to quit your job and find a new one? Break that down by adding in smaller goals like get your resume up to par, update your Linkedin, attend networking events and so on.

These smaller more attainable goals are easy to achieve and feel less overwhelming than just “FIND A NEW JOB!” Same goes for just about anything else! You’d be shocked how much less intimidating a big goal is once you have tiny little tasks to do instead.

For me, I wanted to work on a big digital download for readers, My Braid Guide. Just saying I was going to do it was HARD. So I broke it down. I first started by shooting the images and coming up with a general outline.

Then I got together with a friend who could help me brainstorm some ideas and help to motivate me to keep pushing forward. I then set up the newsletter forms and templates so it can be successful. All of these helped to build to the bigger picture goal of a BIG hair and braid guide for my readers to enjoy.

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Don’t Focus On What You Can’t Control

Focusing on the things you can’t control is just counterproductive. I may have made that hair guide and no one reads it. That’s fine. I can’t control that. I can only do my best and put out the work I know I’m capable of. If things fail, they fail. You simply learn from them, and then the next project or goal will likely be more successful because of it.

Genius moments, big life changes and goals aren’t always black and white. And that’s totally fine. Learn to stop saying “what if” and instead say “it’s fine if”. This will also help you stay focused on the end goal versus those little things that are simply out of your hands.

Photo by Hannah Lozano