Stop Drifting

By: D.A. Slinkard

One question that I hear oftentimes is how does a person get motivated? It is a great question, and the answer may be disappointing. Are you ready? How does a person get motivated? It depends. I told you the answer would be disappointing, but the reality is we are all motivated differently. Some people are motivated by money, others are motivated by praise, while others are motivated by other various things. Before you can figure out how to get motivated in your own life, you need to understand what motivates you.

Personally, I am motivated both financially and by praise. It is the best of both worlds, I guess you could say. Do not get me wrong though, I am motivated by achieving success. I want to be successful at anything and everything I try. Does it always happen? Not at all, but I do set my hopes and goals on achieving this success. I know what it is that I want to achieve, and this helps me maintain my focus. The biggest area people fail at in their life is they do not know what it is they want to achieve with their life.

I can tell you many times I have felt myself personally spiraling out of control because I was out of sync. I had not written down my goals in a while, did not know what I was aiming for in life, and I was not in control whatsoever. If we were to take a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, from Athens, Alabama, we would map out our trip along the way. We know we would want to go to I-65 then to I-24 then to I-57 then to I-64. Of course, though, this is just one way of getting to St. Louis from here, but many options exist, and life is no different. Every one of us can get to the same ending point but by different routes.

Have you ever just driven around, turning down one road and then turning onto another road, and you stumble on an area you did not know you could get to by the way you went? I cannot tell you how many times I have done this while driving, and I cannot tell you how many times I have done this in my personal life when it comes to just everyday living. It is like driving to work, yet you cannot remember anything about the way you got there. You were settled into your routine and your body went into cruise control.

This is exactly what we need to try to prevent from happening. If we get into a mundane routine with our life, before we know it we will have wasted away our life. People die every day at different ages — young, old, middle-aged — the obituaries are filled with people of all ages. We never know when we will draw our last breath, but if you want to get the most out of your life, you need to start living your life with a purpose.

Stop drifting about from day to day; get your game plan together for what you are going to do. Learn how to attack each day. I personally cycle through various ways to stay on top of my day-to-day by writing down exactly what I want to achieve. It is amazing to me on the days I get away from the written-down lists, how easy it is for me to waste the day and not accomplish nearly as much as I would have liked to. Whether you use an app on your phone or use the good old-fashioned paper and pen, it makes no difference, except you just need to make sure you are being purposeful.

I have found that the easiest way to stay motivated is to break down what I want to achieve into smaller steps. With this method, I can see quick successes, which is good for my thought process. When you can achieve small successes, it is like the snowball effect. When building a snowball, you start out small but as you keep working it, the snowball grows bigger and bigger. The momentum of small victories is no different. The more victories you get, the larger your motivational snowball will be, and the greater your success will be. This sounds easy although challenging, but when you map out where you want to be, it allows you to bypass obstacles in order to achieve success.
By: D. A. Slinkard