How to motivate yourself not to lose interest in projects?

You've probably heard it before but one solution is to do something you're passionate about. That keeps me going no matter what's happening.

I'm working on liberating people from something I've dealt with personally and it's a real blast. On my desktop I have written: "We're in the business of changing people's lives." (Heard it somewhere.)

Money/material/success as a motivator has never worked for me.

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Something else you can use to your advantage is to consider what would happen if you don't accomplish your goal(s). Are you willing to settle for less than you deserve?
Or is it time to get passionate about something and accomplish what's important to you?

Good luck in your endeavours, TheOverall.

Take frequent breaks TheOverall.

Lack of focus means concentration is waning. This signals it's time to pull back for 10 minutes or longer, relax and refocus.

RB

Hope this helps a bit (don't want to doublepost): http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post2660726

Sit down and analyze what went wrong with your initial level of enthusiasm. Reconnect to your initial source of enthusiasm or drive.

That is, sit yourself down and ask yourself, "What made me start this project?"

I think that is the most important thing to deal with for the beginners. I also thought a lot about this question, no matter that I have started to try something in Internet marketing just recently.

For me I understood that I need more than just one project, I cannot all the time think and do just around one topic, theme or niche you can call it as you want. So, I have decided that after I will see at least some results from that what I am doing right now, I will search for the next niche that I could be passioned about. I know that it is not good to take too many of projects at the beginning, but something have to be changed that I would not get bored about that what I am doing.

And, of course, as already was mentioned it is very important, that you like that what you are doing, in other case I think it will be very hard to get good results and keep on it for a long time!

With beliefs... like I was already a success.... I totally convince myself that it will be successful and then I get the energy and enthusiasm for work.

Always look at the big picture (see my sig) what I mean is...

why are you doing what you're doing now and the more reasons why = the more power and drive you'll have to finish

When I do that I forget most of my plans which I set for the main project, then, mostly, give up

Try to surround yourself in the things that you enjoy, this way it is more easier to motivate yourself, if you arent so fortunate in being able to be doing the things you enjoy at this time, then your motivation is very simple, you focus to do the things you dont enjoy so much so you then can move forward to a place where you then become ABLE to do the things that you enjoy.

For me that's a recipe for disaster. I never end up getting any single project done. I have more than enough to do on my main business. I have marketing steps that need to be done, I have accounting and book keeping to do, I have promotional materials that need to be made, I have clients I need to stay in touch with, I have jobs to finish, I have to archive files, I need to check emails. There are about a dozen things I can be doing. So when I get distracted on one particular part of my biz, I go and work on another part that seems more interesting at the time. Every step is still moving me forward. No clients? Learn about SEO. Hit the wall on SEO, design a new biz card. Finished that? Create a new video template. Constantly doing something that needs to be done. It's like fixing up a home, there is always something you can do on it.

I found Jason Fladlien's solution works for me.
Keep the project focused and bite size.
Finish in one sitting.

Sometimes lack of focus/concentration is ADD/ADHD that has gone undiagnosed.

I do also get lost somewhere in my job and wanted to quit. But all I do is get a rest go somewhere far from where you are and have a break.

I've bought a ring which always reminds me of a cartoon, where the main character kept on going despite always being the underdog

Look, in order to motivate yourself you need to sit down and think about the reasons why you are doing what you're doing in the first place. Personally, I wish to succeed and acquire wealth because I will be able to provide myself and my family with things that will make our life easier. With each word that I type, every product or website that I create, that is in the back of my mind.

I decided to pick projects about subjects that I'm interested in; therefore, they're something I'd be involved in almost every day anyway, some way or another. But I also try to keep the project simple and something that I can have ready to go quickly, because if it's going to take too long or be complicated, I just tend to never get it started in the first place.

I have the same problem as you buddy,I'll be working on the computer and my mind wanders and I end watching videos on Youtube or listening to music.I now work about 6 hours a day and to prevent me from getting too bored I work 3 hours then have a proper break maybe up to 2 hours,then I finish off the other 3 hours.

Meditating every day keeps my head a lot more focused.

This is a very important question for everyone who is working towards attaining life goals, Everything around us can turn out to be a distraction for us against attaining our goals only when we allow it. For me personally i motivate myself by visualising and focusing on the benefits it will give me to get the project done; this keeps my interest hot through out the project.

Hey TheOverall,

Here's a few things you could think about:

Focus
When wishing to get motivated about an activity it can be interesting to notice the difference between how you feel about the beginning, middle or end of the task.

For example, let's take the idea of "going to the gym"... you could think about the effort it takes to get to the gym (the beginning), or the activity of being at the gym (the middle) or the physical sensations having been to the gym (the end). Each focus offers a different experience, which one is the most motivating for you? ...find it for that specific activity and stick to that focus.

(as a quick aside, a lot of folk who procrastinate don't get around to thinking about the "end" and the associated benefits)


Accidental anchor
In NLP there's this thing called 'anchoring', where a stimulus of some kind can be associated with an emotion. A great example is that moment when a song comes on the radio and instantly you remember a time and place and the associated emotions. In other words the song triggered the feelings. Anchors can be deliberately created or can be natural or even accidentally created.

Your comment (quoted below) reminded me of a common experience I find when working with business owners and execs where a negative anchor is accidentally created...

For example, let's imagine a businessperson has a crap day and decides to alleviate some of the bad feelings by engaging in a certain activity, let's call that activity "X". Another day the same thing happens, he feels crap and again he calls upon that same activity "X"... and he does it again ...and again.

All the while an association is being created between that crap feeling and activity "X", in a way it's like X = crap feeling.

Later, (and this time not because he wants to alleviate any crap feelings) he decides to do "X" ...but strangely now can't get motivated to do "X" ...it just doesn't feel as good as it used to. In fact, he doesn't want to do "X" at all.

...because X = crap feeling.

So if you now think about what you describe in the quote above... :rolleyes:


Flow (part 1)
I mentioned this briefly in another thread the other day. We each have a "groove", a flow to our day. This groove is personal to us... sometimes we feel good, sometimes we feel tired. The key is to know and work with your groove. If you naturally feel good at say 10am to 12noon, work then... if on a regular basis you have a downer around 4pm, don't work at that time or do something that does not require you to be motivated.


Flow (part 2)
Within your groove you will also have mini-cycles (technical term: ultradian rhythm) which are all about a period of time in which you can maintain a good working state. Typically this breaks down to within every hour you work for 45mins and have a break for 15mins (like I said this is typical, but this can be different for different people, in the main 45/15 is a good rule of thumb).

The result of working like this is the 45mins becomes a very effective 45 mins with a lot of work being done.

...Most folk don't do this and burn through the 'break' time ...and effectiveness suffers.


Hope that helps!

Enjoy!

Michael

Losing focus is something we all suffer from. It's human nature right?? I often find the best way to keep interested in something that isnt particularly interesting is plan out what you are going to do before hand and to break up what you are doing with taks that you find abit more enjoyable!

I'm new on here BTW. So hi everyone.

JB

Try to surround yourself with good music, and think of ALL THE MONEY!!!!

When we start a project we are seeing only the good parts,but when you start to work your mind starts to focus only in the "hard work" that you will need to do.

You just need to refocus,dont look in the "hard work" look to your goals.

This is what worked for me,i got a lot of problems to not lose focus,but when i started to just remember my goals and what i can achieve the problem was solved.

I've had the most success staying the course by inviting others to join me in a co-authored project/product and build a community around that. The community provides ongoing feedback and takes the guess work out what product to create.

After doing profitable co-authored products including; ebooks, theatre, fund raisers, interview series, a documentary film and workshops ==> the "7 Step System to Launch Big Mission Projects" emerged.

And these steps tie in with getting people to pay for the creation of the products before they are created. Also these steps are great in inspiring star talent, contributions and endorsements. *This also generates instant credibility to the media and your audience even if the product isn't even created yet!

Create a co-authored project to launch your expertise/ career

1. Be inspired by someone else’s big up upcoming media or worldly event
2. Research your topic’s audience
3. Choose a group product you want to create with others
4. Commit to the group product creation and product launch dates around that big event
   
5. Promote your event (a workshop or performance you're filming or the book release party date)
   
6. Create a community and product around the event that you can monetize monthly
7. Offer product creation and promotion tools to your community to keep the profits rolling

I'm thinking about doing a tele-class and group coaching about this.

This is how I motivate myself not to lose interest in projects.

TheOverall,

Yeah same feeling here. I keep rumbling in between the projects. and that's the main
reason I am still a straggler in the IM.

But from last month I have done my proper mindset and I am focusing and promoting one method and I am getting quite success in it.

So I wish you all the best.
Hope you will soon get the success for what you are looking for.
Regards

here is a quote from another similar post i posted on... hope it helps

The simple answer is to pick projects which interest you!

It starts with Integrity. That ensures correct Vision, from which come the only effective goals. If these are in focus and in proper organization, the motivation does come... even if it takes and hour or two to wake up in the morning.

I procrastinate when I have too many thoughts running through my head (Don't we all). I have 24 minutes of quite time in the morning (1 minute for each hour of the day) to quiet my mind. In this overstimulated society of instant this and instant that learning the art of stillness is critical.

Money/material/success as a motivator has never worked for me.

This thread went great!

I know it's been a while since I posted in it, but here is some progress I've made so far (over half a year after!)

- I started to exercise regularly

This helps me meditate. be it even doing normal push ups or a very short jog (1 mile) -- it helps you relax, gets the blood flowing and makes you think more clearly on what's important.

- I decided not to push projects that don't take off

What I did after starting this thread is plant several "seeds" into different projects. Saw which seeds grew, and focused on those.

I completely cut off the projects that didn't work. The one's that I was emotionally committed to, but spent way too much time on with no return. I cut them off. Plain and simple.

- I don't do stuff that I don't like

Yes, I am sort of good with php & mysql, but it frustrates me every time to work in it. So I don't. Find likeminded people to partner up with, and share the workload, or plain outsource it.

- Listen to music

It really helps. Get Spotify or last.fm or a similar service. Find your favorite songs from your youth, make an awesome album. Before going to sleep, dive into these albums and just enjoy. What I found is that sometimes at 11pm when I do this, I get a crazy idea and just do it. Sometimes it works out really well

- Planning sucks

Contrary to what most people posted in this thread, I don't do planning. I don't do strategies. What I do is see opportunities and take them.


This way I have made over $50k already with a partner in the last couple of months. We both found something that took off, and are now dynamically scaling it upwards.

I hope this post helps some people!

I use sticky notes and place them everywhere around my office. I put specific goals that I want to achieve, so everytime i see a sticky note it keeps me motivated and inspired and focused on what is important that actually brings money in. It helps me focus on NOT browsing the web and actually "working"

Hey... I had the same problem when i just started Internet Marketing a few years ago. I would have several projects on which I concentrated on to which none would come to fruition. This would continue for about 5 months. My head was spinning.

I realized exactly what the problem was and swore to myself to take things slow and one at a time.
I motivated myself by making a promise that I will stick to one project at a time and let it evolve to see whether or not it was good for me.

If you continue this trend you are constantly going to keep failing and losing interest and jumping on a new product each week.

Give yourself time and patience, you will get there

Yury

I just recently started IM and was (and slightly am) still having the same problems. I had to learn rather quickly to: 1.) Take breaks. 2.) Only read, learn and study from things that make sense. If I am surfing for something and its not what I was looking for- I don't waste my time on it, so 3.) Don't waste time reading stuff that isn't giving you answers you need. Its a great way to get overwhelmed. 4.) Act instead of just read . and 5.) have goals.

Establish goals. and Do not stop until you reach your gola. Make it small..

Like finish project 1. Then get It done and take a break.

Figure out what you liken doing and then outsource the rest or hire an employee to handle the things you do not like, but must complete.

You will find that training another person on how you want it done, will really push you to decide what you want to accomplish. This way all you should have to do is generate new plans and than see them through execution.

You goal is to systematically complete projects and make more income or time freedom depending on your goal.

You should not lose your interest in your keen project, if you are loosing your interest you should say I can do this, and just relax for some time, then u will get motivated and u wont lose your interest...

I really need help with this too. I think that what I need to do is write things down and this can really help me in the short run and long run.

I break my projects down into manageable tasks. I find if I do this I can build momentum and get to a point where I feel energy about the project again.

the best motivation is to think about how is your life going to change after you've reached your goals..

you should also think about taking responsibility .. that is powerful too

I was never a "goal" setting person. Finally tried it wrote down all my goals on a journal and look at it everyday. Now I find myself actually getting things done that I planned on. Anyone that needs motivation just try it. Right now go right down your goals on piece of paper don't use an excuse like I'm tired I'll do it tomorrow do it now!