If you’ve made the courageous decision to pursue trying to make money by doing what you love, you may have realized that being an Inspired Money Maker is not always easy. If fact, unlike just going out there and getting a “regular job”, making money doing what we love is often hard.

How can we stay motivated and inspired during those times when things just don’t seem to be moving forward?

One of the first things you should realize is that you are not alone. I get emails all the time from people who have been trying to make money doing what they love and it’s a struggle. This is only natural. Nobody said that following your true passion and purpose in life is going to be easy. Realize that you are not alone. There are countless others who are desperately trying to do the same thing as you are, to make money by doing what they love to do.

The second thing you should realize is that even though the path of the Inspired Money Maker is not an easy path, it is ultimately the only path that will ever bring you the fulfillment and inner harmony and peace you desire. It is a path worth pursuing even if it takes an entire lifetime to achieve.

I’d like to offer you some advice on how you can stay motivated and inspired to stick to your dreams and to keep moving forward.

Start a success journal for your path.

For example, lets say that your dream is to become a writer / blogger. What you would do is you would start a success journal that keeps track of EVERYTHING you’ve ever done to move you along the path of becoming a writer. Here is a fictitious example of what a success journal may look like:

June 1, 2005 – Wrote my first essay, submitted it into essay writing contest, won 3rd place.
July 12, 2005 – Launched my own blog. Wrote my first article available for viewing to the whole world.
July 15, 2005 – Received my very first comment on my article.
July 29, 2005 – Someone from my personal life found my article, read it and liked it.
Aug 15, 2005 – Completed writing 10 articles for my blog.
Sept 19, 2005 – 100 articles written. Blog received 1,000th comment.
Oct 1, 2005 – Write my first 100 page eBook.
Oct 2, 2005 – Sold my first copy of my eBook. Thanks Mom!
etc.

Keep track of whatever items you feel are moving you forward towards your dream, even if you don’t think the items are very big. Wrote your first article? Track it. Composed your first song? Track it. Got your yellow belt in Karate? Track it.

Just start tracking every small success you have on your path, no matter how insignificant you think it may be right now. Tracking your progress will help you to realize that you’re building momentum and momentum is very hard to see. It’s an invisible force that works its magic beneath the surface. If you can bring it to the forefront and see it making it’s mark, it will be way easier for you to feel inspired and motivated to continue moving forward.

Trophies

Another great way to celebrate your success is to give yourself a trophy of some sort. It can be a certificate you print out, an actual trophy you order from a trophy store, or anything else you decide to use to celebrate your success. For example, lets stick to the writer / blogger example for a bit longer here so I can offer an example.

Let’s say that you just started your blog and your first big goal is to write 100 articles. Well, you could design a certificate for yourself for reaching that goal and print it out and put it on the wall as soon as you hit your goal of writing 100 articles.

Let’s say that you currently have 2 RSS subscribers and you would be completely blown away if you could build your RSS subscribers to 1,000. Well, why not make a deal with yourself that you’ll order a trophy for yourself once you hit 1,000 RSS subscribers? I know it sounds really stupid ordering your own trophy right? But think about it. Who’s going to motivate you to make money doing what you love? Your boss? Your spouse? Your friends? Your relatives? Not a chance. YOU have to become your own best motivator!

If you don’t feel comfortable with trophies like that, use something else as a reward. The point though is to maximize the amount of positive reinforcement you receive on your path towards becoming an Inspired Money Maker.

All or Nothing Will Kill You

Most of us have an “All or Nothing” attitude towards our inspired paths. For example, if your dream is to be a famous musician, the only success that you allow yourself to celebrate is completely making it as a famous musician. Meaning, once you get a multi-million dollar contract, you’ll celebrate, right? Good luck. It’s so hard to stay motivated if we don’t celebrate our successes along the way.

This is why most of us gravitate towards a job environment where we AT LEAST get recognized every two weeks or so with a paycheck which recognizes the fact that we DID SOMETHING in the previous two weeks.

Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t have the attitude of “I haven’t done anything MAJOR yet, but once I succeed completely at being an Inspired Money Maker, I’ll celebrate big time”.

Test Your Celebration Index

Here’s an easy way to see if you’re celebrating your successes enough on your path towards being an Inspired Money Maker. How many times have you looked at, recorded and celebrated some form of success along your path to making money by doing what you love in the last 100-250 hours you put into your passion?

If you answered 0, I think it’s obvious where the problem lies, right?

How can you expect to keep going for 100′s of hours, dumping energy into your passion and stay motivated if you’re not taking any time to pause, reflect, record and celebrate your successes? At work you would have gotten at least a couple of paychecks in during that, and possibly a few “Good Job” comments from your boss as well.

Start Today. Start Now.

Start now. Start a success journal and write out everything you’ve accomplished along your path so far. Who cares if you haven’t fully “made it” yet. You’ve probably done a lot more than you think. You deserve to be recognized for your efforts.

I can help.

If you’d like, post a reply comment telling me 3-5 things you’ve accomplished so far on your path towards making money by doing what you love and I’ll recognize you for it! C’mon, it’ll be fun. I want to know what you’ve done!