I had some beers with a good friend of mine tonight and something he said really stuck with me, and I thought I’d relate them on the blog. He said that Success is someone who can fail a hundred times and still stay motivated

I thought about that for a while…. what keeps you motivated after so many failures? How do you keep the energy up? My wife mentioned passion, and I think that has a lot to do with it, but I’d like to give a list (everyone likes lists!) of some key pieces to what I believe can bring you back after you start to slump from a weekend of passionate coding, or whatever it is that you do:

1) Music

You’ve got to find the right music that picks you back up and pushes you to keep dreaming big and engages you again. You have your songs… I’m stuck on 80’s ( eye of the tiger ) and 90’s ( ska and early punk like The Offspring do it for me ) that keep you going and burning through the tedious mundane work.

2) Posters / fake checks / pictures of awesome stuff

I’m a visual guy, things that I see on a daily basis work well for reminding me of why I’m constantly pushing myself through the sludge of things like “forgot password” pages and tedious “does it work in IE 6?” crap that bring you down. It’s so easy to just set stuff aside for a bit because you’ve got other stuff you need to get done, or you just need a break, and then you never get back to your original goal or dream. Make those visual reminders. Quick side story: Jim Carrey used to walk around with a $10 million check in his wallet in the early days to motivate himself.

3) Friends and Family

If you’ve got people that expect something from you. Whether it be a certain way that you act, or something that you’ve been telling them you are going to do, they will ask you about it from time to time. Those little guilt trips that you get when you have to say… ah, no, I haven’t gotten further on that, will help push you. People who care about you, or think your idea is good will inspire you to get passed the tedious beginnings of your half-baked idea.

4) Movies

Watch Rambo, Gladiator, Chariots of Fire, Top Gun. Whatever it takes. Whatever gets you pumped and living vicariously through Hollywood fluff to be something, or get somewhere you aren’t yet. These things will impact you in ways you can’t believe until you watch them again. I know you’ve seen them, that’s why watching them again will bring you out of your slump, because right after you go “hell yeah, I can do that, I can do anything!” That’s an emotion you need, the movies do help you with that.

5) Other Success Stories

You always can learn a lot from others. Everyone knows this. But when you find out that someone has done something in your exact position (or even in worse conditions) it helps to reenergize that piece in you you had at the beginning. The truth is, everyone started small, just like you. All great things have been accomplished through even greater effort. You already know this, but reminding yourself from time to time can help.

6) Focus on Failure

Think about what quitting actually means. Feel inside what it is to actually stop what you are doing and give up. Does that make you better? Does that make you happier? Be ruthless. You’ve already thought about success, and dreamed about the big house. Now dream about never having it. Imagine never being a source of inspiration or passion in others. What you do affects so many people, both good and bad. If you can be a beacon, a cover story, a legend in the legacy of your family… what is that worth? The time you have now, reading this blog, you could be doing that which would make your life more meaningful, more historic. More of who you wish yourself to be.

7) For your dreams

When you think about quitting, you think about how you feel now. You’ve got a lot of reasons to stop. But none of those reasons will matter tomorrow, or the day after. In fact, that piece of pie, or that extra TV show, or that other relaxing thing you’ve needed, wanted, and deserved, is going to be something of the past tomorrow. Of course you should take breaks, but so long as at the start of the break you know it’s a break. Because once it’s done the point of a break is to reinvigorate your bones to begin working again. It’s not the start of an end. Don’t forget what you’ve promised yourself. Don’t forget your dream. More than you owing yourself time to relax, you owe yourself the dream. That’s going to take work. We aren’t in kindergarten anymore. Just because you deserve something, doesn’t mean you get it. Breaks work the same way. Don’t let the dream die.

All I can say at this point is that I hope some of those thoughts have inspired you a bit to keep going. I have found all of them, and sometimes a combination of them, have helped me push past the barrier between initial passion, and real success. Getting from Alpha to Beta is easy, getting from Beta to Omega is work. You will need to find something that pushes you beyond the fun part at the beginning.

Any thoughts?