"It is not what they say about you that matters, it is what YOU say about YOU that threatens your destiny. You will never be defeated by what they say about you, you will be defeated by what YOU say about YOU" - T.D. Jakes
On January first hundreds of people make a promise to themselves but only the minority will be able to keep that promise. They have a good start that lasts for some time, a month or two, before the excuses start coming to light. "I've lost all my motivation", "I don't have enough time", I don't have the discipline", "I've set myself an unrealistic goal" Motivation
Motivation is a wave, it comes and it goes. You don't choose when it comes, nor do you choose when it goes. But you do have the choice of how you act when motivation is present or when it's absent. You can ride the wave at its' present, but you'll have to swim in its' absent. Don't rely on motivation to achieve your goals, it's outside of your control! Rely on what you are able to control. Just take advantage of it then it's present, and rely on your discipline when motivation has decided to f*** off.
Time
Don't have enough time? Everybody has the same hours on any given day. How you spend those hours is up to you. Don't get me wrong, some people have more stuff to do on a daily basis compared to others, leaving less time to achieve some of their goals. But like with everything else, goals also have a hierarchy of importance. The higher on the priority list, the more time should be devoted to that goal, whatever that goal might be. Sometimes less important goals have to suffer in order for the more important ones to be achieved. So if you absolutely have to cancel your promise of cooking dinner with your mother in law, in an attempt of making her happy, because that is the only time you'll be able to make it to the gym — given that the gym is more important than your mother in law (which it absolutely should be) —, then that is exactly what you have to do. It's called priorities. For someone to be able to make that decision they'll have to be disciplined and have big balls, because I'm pretty sure we're all aware of how much power your mother in law has in your relationship with your significant other... Too much.
Dedication and discipline
Any athlete needs both. Dedication to thrive in what he/she loves and discipline in pushing through what he/she dislikes. When you ride on the wave of motivation you thrive in your dedication, but when the wave has moved on you withdraw from your discipline account. You can choose how much of your discipline you want to utilise on any given task, unlike motivation.
Goals
You've heard a million times that you need to have realistic goals. You should, but you should probably also have "unrealistic" goals. By "unrealistic" goals I mean dreams. How often haven't you experienced waking up in the morning with no doubt in your mind that what you dreamt was reality? But when you then think about it again you laugh at yourself. Jumping from building to building as if you're spider-man fighting crime along with Morgan Freeman as your sidekick??? Now, that is truly unrealistic. But how much would you give for that to be a reality, exactly! Why not take the same concept of believing something big and "unrealistic", like Olympic Gold? Out snatch Lasha, but in the 61kg category? The point is, don't be afraid of dreaming big!
The realistic goals, on the other hand, are a bit more complicated. They need to be big enough for your brain to go "holy sh*t, that will be hard", yet at the same time it will go "But if I put enough effort into it I'll be able to achieve it". It should spark something inside of you. Because when you achieve whatever realistic goal you set yourself you should be proud of that achievement. People tend to think that when a goal is reached they will get another spike of motivation. NO, as mentioned earlier, you don't decide when you get your motivation, motivation does. When you eventually get there it won't be motivation you're feeling, it's inspiration — a big difference! Inspiration is a driving force, while motivation is a pulling force. Let's repeat that, Inspiration is a driving force, while motivation is a pulling force. Once you reach a goal you're driven to achieve more. It's like chocolate, it always tastes of 'more'.
There are 3 types of goals, and all of them fall into two categories. The three types are short, medium, and long term goals. The two categories are intrinsic and extrinsic. You should have all types of goals, and they should all be placed in both the intrinsic and extrinsic category. Your short term goals are normally on a daily to weekly basis, your medium goals are usually on a monthly basis, and long term is on a yearly basis. Simple. Making sure they're in both the intrinsic category (difficult) and the extrinsic (less difficult) category is the challenging bit. Intrinsic goals are all about doing or chasing something that’s personally meaningful to you. These goals fuel your core needs and wants — who you are as a person. They pertain to your passions, interests, core values, as well as your relationships and your personal growth. Where extrinsic goals help you achieve something outside of yourself. They are often about obtaining other people’s validation and approval or external signs of self-worth. They are more about the outcome as a result of a journey, compared to the intrinsic, where the goal is the journey itself.
You
Finally, it's up to you to decide whether or not you will succeed in whatever it is you're doing. So I'll leave you with this.