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Motivation is what guides our goal-oriented behavior and one of the most difficult things to do is to try and stay motivated toward achieving some sort of long-term goal. Many people make goals for their life but not many will stick with it for the long term, because it's too easy to get distracted, forget, fall behind, and move on to something new. 

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Motivation is naturally going to fade over time, and finding ways to refresh your interest and inspiration toward working on achieving your goals is going to help to pay off in the long run. Motivation is the underlying and fundamental force that is going to fuel our actions and prompt us to make any changes in our life if we want to.

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It's because of the natural tendency of motivation to fade over time, that is the reason that you need to regularly try to encourage and find a way to motivate yourself. Motivation is closely linked to the question of why, why are you aiming for the goals that you are. 
## Keeping Incentives In Mind... 
Taking the time to actively think about what you want in your future and why you want to achieve the different goals that you do, will help you have a better chance to stay extrinsically motivated toward achieving your goal you've set for yourself.

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One of the most popular new years resolutions that has been set this year is that people want to spend less/save more for themselves. Well, if you want to save more money in the new year then focus on why you want to have some extra money. Want a comfortable retirement? Want a nice vacation for Christmas? Need a new car? Thinking about why you are doing it/setting that goal, will help to motivate you to continue to make the daily changes. 

Focusing on your debt/bills/problems is just going to bring you down and easily lead you to feel discouraged. Staying focused on the positive rather than the negative, can be a much more effective method for staying motivated. 

## Tiny Habits Of Success

When it comes to goals we want to achieve, relying on motivation entirely might not be the best avenue to take. As most of what we do is daily routine and so our success then is going to rest in the daily habits that we have built for our lives. But it's certainly not to be overlooked, as strong motivation can help to introduce and strengthen new habits in our lives. 

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 There are many successful people in the world who got to where they are because they developed the right habits to get them there (saving, showing up on time, sacrifice, working hard etc). 

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With professional athletes for example, as young children they will often sacrifice many hours practicing in order to perfect their craft. Motivation to achieve some long term goal is what initially started them on that path to achieve some certain level of success some day, but it isn't what kept them going every single day. Their habits that they developed are greatly responsible for where they ended-up. 

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Motivation is linked to every decision that we make and that is why sometimes we will be more motivated to sleep rather than feeling like we want to stay later and do that extra work, or we'll be motivated to spend money we don't have etc. So our motivation can sometimes lead us in a direction that we might not want to go. Trying to stay actively engaged with entertaining the thought about why we are doing what we are doing, might help us to stay on track toward building the habits that we need in order to achieve some long term goal. 

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Related:
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@doitvoluntarily/bringing-about-change-by-building-tiny-habits