How to Motivate Yourself on the Way to FIRE

NOTE: Before getting to our article today, I want to let you know that there is a super cool, one of a kind FIRE project that I’m stoked to tell you about at the end of the post. Read on to find out what it is…

FIRE is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. It takes years of hard work, discipline, and commitment.  And just like a marathon, the first few miles feel amazing. You feel pumped. You obsess over your budget. You open a brokerage account. You cut out Netflix, restaurants, shopping, and throw everything penny you save into your investments. You’re a tornado of efficiency.

But then you hit mile 13, the boring middle. Excitement wanes. The fun is over. Your legs are jelly, your lungs are on fire, and you’re so exhausted you could fall asleep standing. Suddenly, blowing most of your paycheque to rent that fancy condo with the oceanfront view sounds mighty tempting. Suddenly, the stock market plummets, cratering your portfolio and pushing your FI goal post into another galaxy.

All you want to do is throw up your hands and say “Screw this! I’m out!”

You are not alone. This happens to all of us on the way to FI. What you need is something to motivate you to push on through and get to the finish line, no matter how impossibly far out it seems.

Here are 5 techniques I used that will hopefully help you get through “the boring middle” and prevent you from burning it all down (no pun intended).

Symbolize Your “Why”

Why are you on this FIRE journey? Is it to escape a bad job? To spend more time with family? To become a traveller? To follow your passion without worrying about bills?

Find the reason, symbolize it, and put it somewhere where you can see it every day.

It could be a picture of your family. A postcard of somewhere you want to travel to. A special pen to symbolize your dream of becoming an author.

My symbol was the invincibility star from Super Mario. You know the one that makes Mario all shiny and rainbow colored, lets him run through enemies and hazards without taking any damage, while speeding up and changing the background music?

I printed out a picture of that star and tacked it onto my cubical wall. That way whenever I had to work overtime, got yelled at by my boss, or fought with a toxic co-worker, I could look up and be reminded that after getting to FI, I’d be invincible. No more worrying about layoffs, no more giving a shit about my boss’s orders, no more losing sleep over TPS reports. Then I’d hum the invincibility star tune and continue with my day.

It’s easy to give up if you don’t know your “why.”

Find your own version of the invincibility star.

Focus on the Journey, not the Result

For most of my life, I’ve been obsessed with “results.” As a child, I was pitted by my parents against other kids for marks. A good one meant praise, a bad one meant beatings and public shaming. Hobbies were a waste of time, unless they lead to an income. Unsurprisingly, this caused a ton of insecurity, anxiety, and shame. I crashed hard in my 30s by popping anxiety meds and antidepressants after losing the ability to sleep.

After becoming FI, I’ve realized that focusing on results and external validation just leads to burnout. The journey itself should matter more than the result.

Now, some of you might argue that work is about results, and you have no choice because if you don’t have results, you get fired. I agree with you that while you can’t completely ignore the importance of results, only focusing on that and not on the journey/process to get there, makes the whole thing unsustainable.

Just like when you’re trying to lose weight and get healthier, if you only focus on the results, you’ll inevitable regain the weight you lost. Whereas if you focus on becoming a healthier person and making lifestyle changes that are enjoyable and aligned with your personality, even if you don’t get to an extreme weight loss goal, you’ll be able to keep those changes and feel happier over the long term.

The same can be said about parenting. If you focus on the end result of your kid taking care of you in your old age, or having them become very accomplished so you can live vicariously through them or by bragging about them, you’ll be inevitably disappointed. Not only as these things out of our control, it takes decades to reap the rewards. But if you enjoy the process of parenting, then the sleepless nights, endless cleanups, and constant meltdowns don’t seem so bad. You can focus on their cuddles, silliness, and mind-blowing milestones, turning from a inactive potato into an incredible little person.

By the way, if you’re on the fence about having kids, only have them if you enjoy the process of raising kids. Otherwise, parenting becomes a huge disappointment. It’s too much hard work for too long to rely on results. Kids aren’t for everyone. Don’t let other people or society push you into it.

Your FIRE journey will be sustainable only if you enjoy the process and not just the result.

Don’t Do it Alone

One of the reasons why we’re able to get things done at work is because we work in teams. You’re more likely to get to FIRE if you’re part of a tribe and that social aspect keeps you motivated. And when I say “tribe,” I don’t mean the bigger the better. Just one other person, a “ride or die” FIRE buddy will make the journey to FIRE a lot more fun.

Growing up, I didn’t have a ton of friends. But just having 2-3 close relationships was enough to get through the hard times. You don’t need a whole squadron. Find a few “ride and die” FIRE buddies to enjoy your time to FI. You can do this by joining the ChooseFI or Rebel Finance facebook groups or simply create your own in your area.

This also helps after FIRE, because once you quit your job, the freedom of time you gain can feel hollow unless you can synchronize it with people you want to hang out with. If you can find a few “ride or die” FIRE buddies, it’s the best feeling ever, because not only do you have a flexible schedule, you get to work on your passion projects, and hang out with them whenever you want to.

Realize the Time Will Pass Anyway

One of the most useful sayings we heard while trying to get published is “the time will pass anyway”. Even though it took us 7 years before we finally published our first book, that 7 years would’ve passed whether we worked on it or not. When we started and our writing teachers told us, on average, it takes 7-10 years, we were horrified. That long?! But that’s so much time! What’s the point of even starting? But she reminded us, the time will pass anyway, so might as well get started. In 10 years, you’ll be glad you spend that time working towards something you wanted, because you can’t stop time.

Use Music to Stay Motivated

They say life is like a toilet paper roll—it gets faster the closer it gets to the end.

This is because of how our brains perceive time. The minutes, hours, days don’t pass faster. They just feel faster because of how our brains work.

When we were kids, a day stretched on forever. Everything was novel and our brains soaked it all up, constantly. But as we aged, got into routines and went to work, the days blended into one other. Our brains simply filtered everything out. This is by design. Our brains have evolved to only detect differences in our environment, in order to avoid being eaten by lions.

This is why the days felt so slow and yet years flew by during the pandemic. Milestones and celebrations disappeared and so did the time.  

This is why travel makes it feel like you’re living multiple lifetimes because of all the new sensory input. Every day is different.

This is why, when I was working long hours in my cubical, the only thing that made the time bearable was listening to the radio. My brain was no longer fixated on the clock, and it minimized my awareness of the time passing, making the day feel less long and tedious. Music also has been shown by studies to trigger dopamine release in the brain because it’s engaging in stimulus rather than focusing on time passing.

This is why working out or going on long car rides makes the time pass faster with music.

Sadly, I didn’t have a FIRE soundtrack back then, so I just listened to random pop music at my desk.

The good news and the thing I’m super excited to share with you today is that unlike me, you are lucky enough to be able to download an entire FIRE soundtrack!

My friends Alan, Katie, and Finn have gotten together and created a band called the Rebelutionaries and their first FIRE album is coming out this Friday, March 21!

I’ve heard of FIRE songs in the past, but it’s usually only one song and I don’t remember the tune later on. This album is different. I find myself humming tunes from it all the time, even if I hadn’t heard it for a few days. Also, there are so many different styles of music—hip hop, jazz, rock, etc, so there’s an option for every musical preference.

To give you a taste, you can access 3 FREE tracks here to make your workday go faster.

Remember how I talked about “the boring middle”? Well, there’s a song about that and it’s one of my favourites in the album. And guess what? They even made a Quit Like a Millionaire single and you can click on the MP3 player below and listen to it right here!

Giveaway

We’re excited to give away the album to 3 lucky readers today. To win a copy, simply comment below and tell me “what motivates you on your FIRE journey?” Winners will be announced next Monday.

If you’re as excited as I am to get the entire album, you can pre-order it here on iTunes or BandCamp. We want to get the word about FIRE out there, so what better way than for a FIRE album to chart on the top 40 list! Let’s try to make it happen by telling as many people about it as possible and pre-ordering it. You can follow the band here on Spotify and Apple Music.

Here’s the album trailer with samples of multiple songs:

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