What You Need To Do When Times Get Tough

Focus, focus, focus — the one ingredient we can all agree is needed for success. Although we know what focus is, not much has been said on how we are to use it in order to maximize our output and progress. What exactly are we supposed to focus on? Some point on the horizon?

Some goal of ours? The task at hand? The present moment? There are many things worthy of our focus in life, all having some benefits. However, no matter what you are focusing on, the focus itself should always take one form: that of a conversation with yourself.

Having dialogues in our minds is the best way to get from point A to point B in our lives. Having conversations with yourself is the best way to reason the world around you and the best way to keep you on target, keep you motivated. I believe it is the only way to succeed in anything. If we want to accomplish something then it surely will require focus — the only way to focus is to talk to ourselves and to motivate ourselves regularly. This is the area in which Gen-Y is lacking.

Generation-Y feels privileged — that’s no secret. We believe that we deserve only the best and should have all that we want. More than that, we understand that we have to work for it in order to achieve it. The problem isn’t that we are too lazy to work our elbow grease and to get sh*t done; the problem is that we don’t recognize what the problem really is. We assume that what needs working on, what needs improvement is outside ourselves in the physical world.

We believe that if we want to achieve our goals, we have to put the hours into learning the trade and mastering the skills — which is true, we do need to put in the hours and master our trade. Yet, what needs the most work is usually not our skills in the trade, but ourselves as people.

Those that are deemed to be most successful are similar in many ways. They have a certain logical train of thought. They have certain practices and lifestyles. They have certain habits. Most importantly, they have the ability to motivate themselves from the moment that they wake up to the moment they lie down to sleep.

Motivation doesn’t get the credit that it is due. We don’t often think of motivation as something that we ourselves produce, but rather something that acts upon us from the outside. In reality, we can motivate ourselves better than anything or anyone else. We are — by far — our best drill sergeants. You’d think that having such an incredible tool at our disposal that every person in the world would use it to mold their lives into their ideal. But that isn’t so.

You see…most of us don’t believe that we need motivation. We know what we want and we make excuses for why we don’t currently have it. The timing isn’t right…the right opportunity has yet to present itself, blah, blah and blah. We create excuses for ourselves to cover up the laziness underneath. It’s as if we are sitting and waiting for some sort of miracle. And when it doesn’t come — because it almost never does — we blame life.

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It just wasn’t in the cards for us… Life is so harsh… What did I do to deserve this?... That’s just it. You did nothing. You did nothing to deserve your dream life; so why is it that you are blaming everything and everyone else? The people who believe that they don’t need to motivate themselves are fools. We expect life to move us to action, but if we don’t decide to be moved or to act then we will remain in place.

You need to motivate yourself everyday, several times a day. It may be difficult at first, but if you catch yourself enough times, it will soon become part of your nature. Talk to yourself. Accompany yourself the whole day in your thoughts. Tell yourself to stop when you are going to make a poor decision, a decision that will drag you further away from your goals.

Talk to yourself and motivate yourself to do all the things that you know you need to do in order to succeed. Push yourself to try a little harder, do a little more. Keep yourself focused and on target. Don’t let yourself drift off track. Become your best friend — you’ll sometimes be surprised on how wise you really are. Most people know right from wrong, good decisions from bad.

Most people don’t choose to ignore what they know, but overlook the differences because they make their decisions on impulse without consulting themselves prior. Words hold a lot of power. They have moved people to glory and to insanity. Use words to motivate yourself to become the best person that you can be. Be your own drill sergeant and you’ll be amazed at how much progress you begin to make.

Top photo: Inception