How to motivate yourself

[…] Whenever I meet a successful CEO, I ask them how they did it. Mediocre CEOs point to their brilliant strategic moves or their intuitive business sense or a variety of other self-congratulatory explanations. The great CEOs tend to be remarkably consistent in their answers.

They all say: “I didn’t quit.”

by Ben

[…] The biggest reason founders stop working on their startups is that they get demoralized. Some people seem to have unlimited self-generated morale. These almost always succeed. – Paul Graham

via Erik

[…] Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. – William Feather

Marelisa has put together an awesome list on how to stay motivated:

1. Create a bulletin board and hang it up where you can see it often.
   
2. Think about the reasons why you want to achieve a particular goal.
   
3. Create a list of all the regrets you’ll experience if you don’t follow through on your goal.
4. Make a list of movies, videos and music that motivate you and start collecting them.
5. Start collecting motivational quotes that inspire and motivate you.
   
6. Find a phrase that makes you feel motivated, which you can repeat to yourself over and over again whenever you feel your motivation waning.
   Not dead, can’t quit.
7. Do it with a buddy.
   
8. Stay away from naysayers.
   […] When they say they YOU cannot DO it. It only means THEY who cannot DO it themselves. You CAN.
9. Give yourself constant rewards.
   
10. Keep track of your progress.
    
    See: Progress is motivation by Pete
    
11. Accept that overcoming obstacles is part of the process to reaching your goals.
    […] Our biggest obstacle may be our selves. (by Terrence)
    
12. Remind yourself of everything that you have accomplished so far.
13. Come up with your own list of ways to stay motivated.
14. Take steps to increase your self-confidence.
    
    See also: Develop self-confidence by public speaking via Dale
15. Create checklists.
16. Start early.
17. Take a piece of paper and draw a thermometer on it to measure success.
    
18. Too many goals at once will wreck havoc on your motivation
19. Whenever you have a few moments between meetings, or when you’re stuck in traffic, take out the card and look at your goal.
20. Allow yourself to take breaks and do stuff that’s not productive, but that you enjoy doing.

[…] Most things aren’t impossible, most people just give up too soon.

Intrinsic motivation is when I am motivated by internal factors, as opposed to the external drivers of extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation drives me to do things just for the fun of it, or because I believe it is a good or right thing to do.

There is a paradox of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is far stronger a motivator than extrinsic motivation, yet external motivation can easily act to displace intrinsic motivation. – changingminds.com

See also:

• Motivation is Important
• Motivation And Information Gap
• Creative bursts
• Need fresh inspiration? Take a trip down the memory lane by Debbie
• Success Quotes by Daniel
• Think positive, Live Positive by Tammy
• How to be more confident by Daniel
• What is a CEO? by Amir´
• 20 Ways to motivate yourself by Craig
• 12 Confidence boosters by Daniel
• 7 ways to inspire yourself by Donald
• Pieces of inspiration by Trent
• Top 100 ways to motivate yourself by Slava
• Keep at it until you get lucky by Donald
• Moving motivators by Jurgen
• Quitting early will ruin your life by Craig
• 7 ways to boost your mood right now by Ali
• Ways to build self confidence by Osman
• Strategies for never giving up by Joel