“Screw your excuses.” Does reading that make your blood boil a bit? Good. It’s healthy to have our buttons pushed every now and then. It can help us snap out of all the automatic responses we re-enact on a daily basis: the routines, habits, and impulses that keep us trapped in the same patterns. The [...]

It takes more force to get an object moving than it does to keep it moving. Our lives are the same way. The most difficult part of making a change is to first get started. Once we do that, the momentum begins to build naturally, and it becomes a matter of time and patience. I [...]

There is a big difference between “working hard” and “staying busy.” Working hard is when you spend your time and energy doing things that help move you toward your goals. Staying busy, on the other hand, is when you waste your time and energy on an activity that isn’t effective toward reaching any goals. However, [...]

Focus on positive memories Focusing on positive memories can be a great way of staying motivated and committed toward our long-term goals and values. In a 2011 issue of Psychological Science, researchers discovered that loyal baseball fans are more likely to remember details of events when their team won, rather than when their team lost. [...]

Lately I’ve been asking myself questions about the relationship between happiness and motivation. For example, if I’m truly happy, then why is it that I feel motivated to change certain things about my life? Why do I strive to work out and become more fit, or find a girlfriend, or improve my financial situation? Is [...]