“Develop a single exciting mental picture of where you want to be in five years,” says Don Chambers, author of Money Basics for Young Adults. “Each day as you pull out of your driveway on the way to work think about that image,” he says. Maybe this sounds a little silly, but visualization is an effective motivational technique. It might feel like you’re just daydreaming, but you’re planting the seed of an idea in your brain. Even when you’re not actively thinking about it, that image is going to stay in the back of your mind.
The fastest way to move forward is not to focus on a to-do list of rational steps to move forward but instead to clarify in detail the outcome that you want,” Chambers says. “When that same outcome is kept top of mind for a sustained period of time, your attitude shifts … when you apply this consistently over time, real progress is made.”