Motivation is Nothing without action and action is wasted energy without consistency.

Another year and another January 1st. Changing the 2017 calendar of the worlds cutest dogs for the cutest dogs of 2018 is motivating you for change. What happened to the promises for change in 2017? Are you starting over in 2018? Or worse, are you further behind to start 2018? Why do so many New Year’s resolutions fail?

They fail because motivation is the easiest part. You may watch a youtube video, read a book or scroll through inspirational memes and quotes on your Instagram. There are a million ways to get motivated. If only that was all it took to actually achieve your goals. Motivation isn’t useless however. Without it you wouldn’t have thought about the changes you wish to make.
However…..

Motivation is NOTHING without action.

You could have all of the motivation in the world. You could have Eric Thomas personally wake you up every morning yelling “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” The thing is… WE ALL WANT TO SUCCEED! Nobody sets a goal hoping to fail. Nobody says “Oh boy I can’t wait to fail today!”

What separates success from failure is ACTION. If you don’t take action, you will NEVER succeed. It’s impossible. You can’t finish a marathon without starting first. So many resolutions fail before they even start. Why? Why can’t we start? The answer in most cases is fear. Fear kills so many resolutions, ideas and dreams. People are often crippled by what they believe to be a fear of failure. However, the fear is much deeper than that. We fear pain. Not just the pain of failure. The pain of the journey. Whether it be painful workouts or painfully long hours of work, we naturally want to take the path of least resistance and avoid that pain. Knowing this, how do you push past this fear of pain.

This can be done by believing. Believing in yourself. Believing that the pleasure of success trumps any pain you face along the way. Which it absolutely does! Choose positivity over negativity. Don’t doubt yourself, believe in yourself and don’t ever stop (To paraphrase the song by Journey). Think of the great things to come when you finally achieve your goals. Overcome your fears with belief and positive thinking.

Action is wasted energy without consistency.

So you started. You took action. That’s not enough. Now you need to add consistency. Once isn’t enough, and neither is every once in awhile. You will just see the work you put in go to waste. In order to succeed you will need to be consistent. In my opinion this is the most difficult. During this phase you will face the same fears that you faced when you decided to start. You will face them several times. You will have also experienced the pain of your journey first hand. Success will not come overnight. You will have to remain positive and keep believing all the way through. Consistency may not come right away. You may struggle with that, but if you keep going and don’t quit, you will get better. You will get more consistent. You will get more results and eventually, you will succeed.

2018 is your year! Get motivated, take action, be consistent and then succeed!