1. Settle your "Why"
This is the first and most important thing. Your "why" is what you will look back to and what you will get your strength from. It's not enough to know the goal, or "What" you want to achieve (e.g. becoming a Doctor), "Why" you want to achieve it (e.g. I want to save lives) is what will light the fire in you.
2. Keep a to-do list
Now that you've settled your why, it's important to list down the steps to get there. Fleshing out our goals into concrete, actionable steps turns an abstract objective into a broken down list of things to accomplish. Ticking off tasks also gives a rush of happy hormones that make accomplishing tasks as fun as other things that give instant gratification. So it's important to keep tasks as broken down as complete as possible, to keep the happy feedback loop often and spread out during the day.
3. Understand yourself
Motivation is a long game. It is not enough to be raging with fire one day and then forgetting about it the next. Understanding what will keep us engaged for long periods of time will be key. For most people, a useful exercise would be looking back on the day (or your to-do list), and focusing on the things that you were able to accomplish. For me, it's the opposite - looking at my to-do list and seeing the challenges I still have to face tomorrow. I see these as enemies I have to pulverize the next day, and I look forward to facing them. It is useful to find a metaphor that suits you. For me it is a fight against my enemies (open tasks in my to-do list). For others it can be a novel that you're writing, a dance with each step being a task, or a long drive towards your goal. Visualizing your journey through metaphors help turn daily, boring tasks into a fight for survival, a romantic novel, an upbeat dance, or a road to adventure.
4. Exercise
Not a lot of people know this, but exercising your body physically also helps the brain mentally. Physical exertion allows better blood circulation, which in turn leads to more oxygen being fed to the brain. Exercise also leads to more energy throughout the day, which is one of the raw ingredients to motivation, and learning how to manage it is just as important as managing your time.
5. Build your discipline muscle
I have to repeat this again - motivation is a long game. To accomplish great goals, you need motivation to light the fire, and discipline to keep the fire burning. Sometimes, discipline can even be more important to success than motivation. Some of the most motivated and successful people I know are also the most disciplined. On the other hand, those who seem bursting with motivation at times but unsuccessful are those who are also not disciplied. A mentor I am learning from works 14 hours a day during weekdays and 8 hours during weekends. While you can say he is "passionate" and "motivated" about his work, it really takes more discipline than passion.
6. Simplify your life
The most successful people I know are those who've taken radical steps to simplify their lives. Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs take this to the extreme by even removing a decision point every morning - what to wear. Simplifying your life frees up more time for you to accomplish your goal. During my time in a Jesuit institution, I was taught the concept of "unfreedoms" - superfluous things that actually bound me to the world, instead of allowing me to maximize my freedom. During the exercise, I undentified my phone, social media, games, and other addictive things that were binding me every day and preventing me to be totally free to accomplish the thing I wanted the most - to be a successful social entrepreneur. This concept allowed me to look at freedom in a different way - freedom is not the ability to do anything I want, but the ability to do the things I want the most. And playing my life away was certainly not what I wanted the most.
7. Keep learning
The moment I wake up, I read a few articles from Fastcompany and Harvard Business Review. On my commute to work, I listen to a podcast from Stanford Entrepreneurial Ventures or Harvard Ideacast. Right before I sleep, I spend my last 30 minutes reading a few more articles from my favorite tech news sites. In a Jesuit institution I was taught the term "Magis" (which I named my company after), which meant "more" or "better", and originated from the exercise St. Ignatius encouraged people to do every night: 1. What have I done [for God]? 2. What am I doing?, and 3. What MORE can I do? (or how can I do it better?)
8. Read success stories
Finding out how people who've already "made it", did it when they were still like you helps humanize their success and make it that much more achievable. When I attended high school in Don Bosco, we were always fed with stories of the Saints - it helped tremendously in seeing them as humans and not as extraordinary angels on Earth. Humanizing people who have achieved your goal reminds you that if they can do it, you can too.
9. Be prepared to work
I'll repeat it for the third time - motivation is a long game. And if you want to achieve whatever goal you have, you better be prepared to work for it. If you think your idols got there without sacrificing and trading off a lot of things, you know you're wrong. If you think you can just magically achieve your goal with motivation alone, you know you're wrong. Recognizing and being familiar with this truth helps you get into the proper mindset.
10. Look back at your "Why"
When it all gets difficult and you feel burnt-out, always look back at your why. It is the reason why you chose to do this. And it will always stay the same reason regardless of your current state - whether you're tired, sad, happy, or elated, your why is still that same why. And if you've settled your why long ago, you'll always want to work for it. It is always helpful to visualize the "Who" as well. Often, your "why" has a "who" component in it - if you want to save lives by being a Doctor, you can visualize people you know who might be your patients in the future - their name, their face, their families and their dreams. My Why is improving the lives of the marginalized through software. And everytime I get tired, I visualize the farmers and fisherfolk from far away, the people suffering from urban poverty and lack of access to healthcare. And everytime I get tired, I visualize Nanay Rosie who I visited in an urban poor community in Quezon City. She told me of abuses done to her. How life was difficult and unfair to everyone, but much more if you're not born with a silver spoon. She has two children, some of whom I played chess with, I remember her dog who can't stop licking my hands, her small house, her little sari-sari store, her dream of making it with her sewing business, how she juggled two jobs, how she fed me with a can of sardines and lots of rice, her old and tired face, her resilient smile, and how her only dream is to have her children finish college. Only one out of twenty people graduate college in the Philippines, and almost 0% of them come from her socio-economic class. How heartbreaking would it be to know that at that moment.
I remember my "Why", my "Who", I visualize my battle against my to-do list, and start gathering myself once again. The battle is everywhere. The battle is difficult. The battle is tiring. Battered and bruised I may be from the daily battle, I pick up my weapon, and look behind me once more at Nanay Rosie, tired, poor, but still smiling resiliently... "She will achieve her dream for her children" I say to myself defiantly.
I look back towards my tasks, and stare at each one. "I'll make sure of it," I say, half-determined, half-pleading. Free to choose, I choose to pick up my weapon.
And with a deep breath, I charge into tomorrow.