How can athletes wake up every day at 4:00 a.m. to practice for many hours, day after day? If you ask them, most would admit it’s brutally exhausting...
Why do you think they can endure this?
The answer: they have a burning desire to become champions. And that desire is far much stronger than the pain! They think about their goal all the time.
When your burning desire is bigger than the effort, you’ll take action.
What about you? Do you have a clear goal? Can you picture your future self—the confident version of you who speaks your target language, or master an important skill? Can you see all the nice opportunities it opens up?
This matters because your burning desire is the fuel that gets you out of bed. If you can’t answer in 10 seconds, your vision may have faded a little bit. A quick refresher could be useful.
Here’s a simple two-step exercise to fuel that desire.
Step 1 — Visualize your future self
Where are you? What just became possible? How proud do you feel? Imagine how your life improves—your friendships, your career, your finances.
Picture yourself. The clearer the picture, the stronger the feeling, the stronger your motivation fire will burn.
Challenge: Schedule 2 minutes each day to imagine and feel your future self.
Step 2 — Write it as a statement
Put your future self into words—just one sentence. This sets it in stone. It's a promise to yourself. It creates accountability.
For example:
In 2 years, I’ll be working in Japan, enjoying the local culture, having made new awesome Japanese friends traveling the country speaking mostly in Japanese.