Day 12: Staying Motivated...

It's a tough thing to do. No matter what your goal, exercising, eating right, finishing a project, reading a book, etc., it's tough to keep your mind settled and focused long enough to maintain the level of progress that you feel is necessary to say you are a success.

Some will say the trick is to set small goals each day and concentrate on meeting that one goal—that way you aren't overwhelmed by the enormity of it all.

The problem with that is, some of us are so intertwined in the day-to-day task of just being ourselves (as parents, as caretakers, as employees, etc.) that we fall short of even the small goals we endeavor to set. When that happens, we feel even more discouraged, making it easier to give up and abandon the idea of success altogether.

In my humble opinion, the trick isn't in setting a small goal that you can meet, but in remembering that if you don't meet your goal for that day, tomorrow presents a new opportunity for doing so.

Don't beat yourself up over what you haven't done, take pride in what you do manage to accomplish and give it another go tomorrow.

Does this work in all situations, of course not, but the idea is to keep your mind settled on remaining positive and recognizing your progress (no matter how big or small it turns out to be)—the rest will fall into place as your life makes room for it.