I always find it funny to see just how many motivational videos there are online and what an insane number of views they have. In fact, we’ve created some on our Duomo channel and they’re our most-watched videos.

This is because people will often know they need to do something, but just won’t feel the motivation to do it. They believe watching, reading or listening to something will kickstart that motivation and they’ll smash their to-do list.

But most of the time, it just doesn’t work that way. All you do is procrastinate by watching motivational videos!

You see, motivation doesn’t consistently appear by itself. In fact, most of the time it builds as a result of taking action and gaining momentum.

You take action, make progress and that leads to you gaining the motivation to keep going.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, if we want to achieve a goal, in most cases we know what we need to do. It’s just that we don’t want to do it. For example, we know deliberate practice is the way to build a skill, but it can be boring, repetitive and not as enjoyable as repeatedly doing the things we’re already good at.

So the question is, how do we motivate ourselves to do these things?

The answer is to build momentum.

Long-term goals are great, but a lot of the time they’re just too big to allow you to build momentum. You’re motivated at the beginning, but after a while, the goal is still far away and the initial ignition is gone. This is when momentum dies out.

Instead, set shorter-term goals. Like a 2-week goal. What is something you can focus on achieving in the next 2 weeks?

The key to achieving a long-term goal is to keep the rhythm going — to set the pace and keep going. One way to do that is to reach the end of each objective just as you’re feeling energised from it and wanting more. That way, the start of the next objective will be much smoother and the momentum will continue.

So, think about what your 2-week goal could be, perhaps en route to an even bigger goal — and then let that be your focus when you begin work for the day.

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