The Motivation Journal is a tool that will help you work towards your goals and dreams. Learning a new skill or improving anything in our lives can be a real challenge. It could be anything – learning a language, starting and running a business, getting fit or bringing up kids. All of these things require us to be focused. And to maintain focus and ensure you reach your goals, you need motivation. The Motivation Journal’s author’s research and conversations with people who have succeeded in achieving their goals have taught her that motivation is linked to and can be improved by three major things: – Staying on track – Looking ahead – Celebrating success Staying on track is about maintaining focus and knowing, at any given point of your journey towards your goals, where you are in relation to where you want to be. It’s about moving forward and not letting your fear of failure or desire to procrastinate take over. It’s about sticking with it because commitment is one of the most important ingredients of success. Looking ahead is about being able to see what’s in front of you, being able to spot opportunities for development, identify challenges and determine actions that will help you move forward. It’s about stretching yourself and always aiming for something greater than what you’ve already achieved. Being able to look ahead allows you to see your vision of where you want to be clearly and to walk in the direction of it confidently. Celebrating success is about looking back and evaluating, and recognising the effort you’ve already put into achieving your goals. It’s about celebrating the small achievements on the way towards the bigger ones. There’s nothing more motivating and empowering than knowing that you’re already good at something. It helps you believe that you can achieve so much more. The Motivation Journal is a tool you can use to leverage these three ingredients of motivation, maximise the likelihood of achieving your goals and ensure that you don’t get distracted. You can start using the Motivation Journal at any point of the year. The journal contains a brief introductory section explaining how it can be used. This is followed by 52 weeks where you will write your goals and evaluate them. You’re encouraged to fill out the sections for each week at the start and at the end of each week. The aim of the Motivation Journal is to help you realise that there is no goal that’s too big for you to achieve. Learning to drive, building a house or writing a book are very ambitious goals but they can be less overwhelming if you tackle them one week at a time. Big goals are not achieved overnight. They require your work, commitment and perseverance. You can make that happen. Good luck!