5 Ways to Stay Motivated in Pursuing Your Passion

How often do we hear those words follow your dreams. It’s a statement that leads many to believe how easy and happy you will be once you make that commitment. But often what we don’t hear are the struggles, discouraging moments and disappointments along the way while following them. It can be super tough amongst all of the other daily commitments of life to stay motivated in pursuing your passion. Finding out what your passion may be fairly easy, but keeping drive behind it can be tough at times. What about the times you aren’t showing the progress that you want. Or when you don’t have the support of people close to you; and you feel all alone. There will always be factors hindering your pursuit, but the key is to keep pursuing. Here are 5 tips that can help you stay motivated in those uninspiring times.

1. Get an AccountabilIty Partner

This is an important factor I believe can help a lot of people. We all know it can be hard to stay motivated on your own, or you just may fall off the wagon from time to time. Having someone keeping you accountable to the goals you’ve set can be rewarding and fun. Its like having your own personal cheerleader. The important thing to remember is to choose someone with lots of discipline. You need someone who will continuously encourage and motivate you,not join in your pity party.

2. Find Inspiration:

Inspiration is what I believe to be the foundation to motivating your passion. We all want to feel inspired right? Now this I’ve broken down into two parts. I believe inspiration is best found in these two forms.

a) Surround Yourself with Like-Minded Individuals– One form is in people. Most of us have people who inspire us for different reasons.; you must identify who those key people are. Characteristics of these people doesn’t just mean being celebrity or rich. Those people should be people whose drive, work or lives inspire you often. It usually helps if this person is at a somewhat higher level than you; preferably like a mentor. This helps keep you on track if you are aspiring to goals they have already achieved.

As a blogger, I follow other bloggers who inspire me, who understand the field and can encourage me when needed. I can’t expect my dentist friend to care about my fashion pictures like a fellow blogger or fashion enthusiast would.

You can’t expect the blind to see your vision.

B) Visual: Inspiration can also be in visual form or art. Keeping yourself visually engaged helps keep you motivated. Look for inspiration in all aspects of life. Look at art, listen to music, follow peer creatives. If you continuously feed yourself with inspo it often helps when you have a road block or feel uninspired in your passion. Just be careful that the inspiration remains just that. Don’t be a carbon copy. Take what has inspired you and adjust to your own personal and unique point of view.

3. Pick Daily Affirmations

Life and death lies in the power of the tongue. Meaning YOU have the power to speak things into existence. If you continuously speak doubt and negative dispositions about what you’re doing; eventually you will start to believe it. If you speak positive affirmations over dreams, it will eventually become your mindset. Mindset is key in keeping motivation. For if you believe wholeheartedly that you will be successful, it will spark the motivation to bring it to fruition. Your mind is the spark, your actions are the match and your passion is the flame that ignites.

4. Know Your Reason Why/Be Consistent

There’s simply no way of getting around this one. I know we hear consistency is key in success, but it really is true. Having passion requires you to do something even when you don’t feel like it. It requires you to show up and keep working whether you have 10 followers or 1000. Whether you have 1 patient or 50. Usually when you’re passionate about something, no one has to force you to do that thing. You do it willingly and happily because its your passion. If you don’t feel this way, you may need to reevaluate if you’re truly passionate about something or if you just need a little reigniting. Once you figure that out, show up and show out every day even if you show up alone with no one watching. Passion doesn’t require an audience, just a player.

And you stay consistent by knowing your reason why. It could be a lifelong dream, your family, or any reason that makes you want to go hard every day. This is what will keep you motivated even when you don’t feel like it.

Don’t Compare Yourself to Others-

I placed this tip last because it is one I feel is soooo important and something I hear and see often.When I first started blogging I would look and say wow my feed looks a lot different than the others. I thought I would grow at a faster rate if I changed my feed from color central to a sea of neutrals. But I soon realized that the only success in comparison is to see what you don’t want to do. If I change based on others, I would not be being my unique and authentic self.

Its okay to take some pointers from others and some comparison is good; but should be to use as a strategy. But it’s easy for people to look at where other are or what they have and get discouraged. You must remember that everyone has their time and what’s meant for you is meant just for you.

So next time you hear the phrase “follow your dreams” remember that is just one piece of the puzzle. Don’t just aim to follow, but pursue. Follow is an action that often can get left within the context of our minds. Pursuit requires action; to actively take steps. Usually by any means necessary; despite detours, and discouraging moments.

Im reminded of one of my favorite movies The Pursuit of Happyness. Chris Gardner didn’t just follow happiness, but in spite of many hardships he actively pursued it until his dream came to fruition.