Focus on your goals

The goal of achieving and keeping a good and stable mental and emotional state for the long term is not a bad thing and can be very beneficial. The challenge is to balance all the many pressures on the mind at any one time with an overall mental awareness. Deciding what your goals are and what you intend to achieve and achieving them are often more important in achieving long term success than the actual day to day goals you may have.

"If people care enough about the future, they can overcome their fears of failing and of being unable to attain their goals."

Make your goals concrete and relevant to your life. It's not just to make you think, but to make you act and adapt, and that's very important. Try your best to stick to what you are passionate about, at least at the start. It will make life easier as you grow older. When you don't have time to train, don't let fitness magazines or blogs frighten you away. Physical training will make you a better, stronger person. Don't make this the fallback strategy when life gets tough, but simply on top of the other strategies.

In life it's easy to think about the future, but when you lose your job it's hard to do anything about it, so all your happiness comes down to this immediate period. So, get a few simple goals in life that will ensure that you stay happy and sane. They should be very achievable and get you excited to keep working on them for the rest of your life. Also, think about what you'd be willing to do to achieve these goals.

You cannot achieve a goal until you've achieved the first step towards it. Keep the following points in mind when focusing on your goals: Take a picture of your goal. Pictures are powerful because we know what we're trying to achieve. Look around you at your possessions. List the things you want. Write a letter to yourself about your goal. Show how you want to achieve your goal. If you work hard at something, you will become that much more dedicated.

You have to be creative and flexible, and you can't be on top of everything all the time. You have to have contingency plans, and being on top of things will cause friction and stress and de-motivation. Not even trying is hard to do. I usually have one moment of inspiration every morning, that's about all I can think of to keep my motivation up. At that point, you should simply add one item to your long term goal list.

Remember to look at your life goals like you would a date: a piece of cake without frosting and with all the fixings – hunger and the best way to satisfy it. However, once you are able to afford a piece of cake, why not want more? It takes work and commitment but if you focus on a plan and think of all the effort you're willing to invest to get what you want, it will eventually happen.