The way I sum up motivation is what do you do when presented with a problem?
If you are standing at the side of the road and you want to cross it because you need to get to the other side. That is motivation enough for you to cross the road.
It's no mystery as to what motivation is. What is mysterious is if you want to be successful why aren't you working towards it?
There are many excuses, and they could all be very valid, but these are the very things that stop you from leading the life you really want to lead.
The harshest lesson of all is that getting where you want to go isn't always a pleasure cruise. There are tests along the way. But if you follow a plan you get better and better at achieving your desires.
I will give you one of my experiences. As some of you may know I started an exercise regime, September of last year. My goal was to lose 30 kilos (66 pounds). I didn't put a date on it because I knew that wouldn't work for me but what I did do was figure out that I am going to lose this weight slowly over time.
It's really funny when you think about it. If I said that you would gain 10 kilos (22 pounds) over one year, you would get upset. But if I told you that you could lose that over one year, you would also be upset. Why? Because you think that you should lose that in 2 months.
So to be motivated set one goal that you are willing to do each and every day until it becomes a habit. Only one!
Let's see what gets your juices flowing...
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Here is my story of savings paying off and following my dream to get into real estate.
I work for state government in Alaska. We have much higher gross than net salary because so much goes into retirement. I always hoped all the money in retirement would pay off someday. That someday is here hopefully.
If all goes according to plan, my husband and I can use our retirement accounts here to buy a 4-plex. Our offer has already been accepted. When buying a multi-unit property you can (for some loans) use the income from rents to qualify for the mortgage loan. You may need to have 6 months worth of mortgage payments available on your own however in case of vacancies. In our case that is over $20,000! Our retirement accounts meet that need on paper. We will not touch them but they are there and will let the lender know we are "good' for the payments no matter what. The units are already rented so there is no danger of having them all vacant but this assures the lender we will not fail.
So, our retirement accounts are paying off big time right now even without touching them! My husband would get so frustrated feeling like we were broke and worrying that the stock market would crash or something would happen and that money would not do us any good. I kept telling him it would and that we would be successful one day.
Also, the home loan qualification is based on gross not net income and if you live in the building yourself you get lower interest rates, and better financing. We also resisted temptation to get new cars and have been fixing up our old ones. So, no car loans either. All these little things added up to our ability to qualify to buy a property worth over $600,000. Of course this is mostly due to the fact my husband served in the U.S. Marine Corps and has the full value of the VA loan available to use. Alaska is a high cost area so the loan limit is very high. With no money down, seller paying closing costs etc. we are on our way to making this happen.
