Sustaining hunger is often thought to be unachievable. We get passionate about a goal, move toward it through motivation and focus. And then, regardless of the success, tend to have a trough that follows closely afterwards. A lull of sorts, a plateau, and a number of weeks (if not months) where we fall back into the day-to-day mundane lifestyle.

The question is, can we overcome this? Can we sustain a desire to win? How do you maintain the hunger?

The short answer; it’s hard! And requires dedication. But there are tools you can use to have that laser-like focus, tools to keep you engaged towards the next dream and the bigger vision. These 8 steps will move you toward ingraining the resilience required to be a bigger, better version of you.

1. Set goals that excite you. Sounds simple right? It really isn’t. Set outcomes that you truly really want. How much money do you want to earn? Some people throw around $1M a year, but do you actually want that? Do you truly want to drive yourself toward achieving that? Don’t be mediocre in this. Don’t be humble with your goals. Set the vision high. Only you can define where you put the stake in the ground with your goals. I saw an advertisement for the new Alladin movie coming out later this year the other day – consider this: if you had genie, your very own genie, what would you wish for? Would it be mediocre? Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge. Your subconscious is what’s responsible for your imagination and your emotion. Kids have this in volumes. As adults we lose sight of it. Set some audicious goals that give you a vision you will yurn to achieve. Ask yourself this – WHAT DO YOU TRULY WANT? Write. It. Down. Have the courage to set the blueprint of where you want to be.
2. Get thoroughly pissed off with the status quo. Don’t be content. Compare yourself to what you wrote down in step one. Get disgusted with your diet. Get disgusted with how you exercise or lack thereof. Get disgusted with how little effort you put into your relationships – which ultimately is the key pillar of your growth and support. Tell yourself what facts of life you dont like. I don’t like my level of anxiety when XXX happens. I don’t like that I need to work on weekend to support my family. I don’t like XXX because it gets me angry. Being frustrated helps you. It drives passion. Evaluate your life. What isn’t it the way you would like to be? Do you wake up late? Do you miss out on having an extra 2 hrs in your day between 5-7am because you’re sleeping? Do you always tell people things are great when they ask you regardless of how they really are? Don’t act like everything is perfect. Identify the painful emotions now and be honest with yourself. Face it. Own it. Accept the pain of reality.
3. Change the definition of success. Failure is settling for how things are right now. As soon as I hit my vision, I’m still not settled. Success is about always getting better. Success is movement. There isn’t an end point of success. You don’t hit a goal and then stop. You’ll immediately lose the hunger.
4. Get away from key toxins. People. Get away from people that are ok with living life just the way it is. They’ve stopped growing and they’re ok with it. They don’t have stretch goals or ambitions. When you voice your goals and ambitions, they have a way of questioning you or shutting you down. They make you weak. Refuse to be around these people. They are mentally soft. You can’t be around them. Change your environment. Get away from the negatives.
5. Get in front of people whose results make you feel inadequate. Be apart of people who are driving success. Get around people who make you feel like you’re not doing enough.
6. Get a coach. Get a mentor. Get someone to raise your standard. Get someone to be a catalyst of drive. Get someone to hold you accountable. Get into the habit of having next-level discipline.
7. Buy books. Read books. As much as you can. Never stop learning. Read biographies. Read business books. Read health books. Read to learn something new and expand your vision. Focus on improvement and movement. Constantly be growing. Learn something about yourself and ways to improve your life every single day.
8. Re-define pain. Look at pain as a good thing. As a signal. Pain is merely an emotion which tells you that you need to evolve. What do you need to do to grow? Recognise pain as your catalyst for change. Life is about growth. Pain will guide you. When you feel it, move!

The defining characteristic of each of the 8 elements above is that we need to learn to never settle. There is more. And you need to remind yourself that there’s always more. And you need to always want more out of yourself. We need to sustain the drive. With drive comes human growth and our potential is limitless.

Live the life you love.