So, as you may all be able to tell by now, I LOVE writing about motivation, the future, and giving life advice. I love sharing my experiences with others, no matter what the circumstance may be. I'm just very open like that. Some people ask me, "Rachel, how do you stay so motivated?" Well, I use this one simple secret.

Most of you right now are reading this article on a smartphone. I don't care if you have an iPhone, Android, or whatever. My guess is you most likely can set a reminder, alarm, or an alert on there. Now think about the amount of time each day you spend looking at your phone. For most of us, it's probably more than we would like to spend. Though our phones are known to be big distractions, I would take advantage of the attention you pay to your phone and set reminders on there to get you back on track of what you need to do.

I have reminders on my phone that aren't only regular reminders like 'take your pill' or 'take the weekly quiz', but I also have some that say, 'have you written your Odyssey article yet?' or 'Did you read something beneficial to you today?'. The most important reminder to me that I have set at nine p.m. sharp is 'Did you write today?'

I will admit not every day I follow through with some of the reminders, but especially the one 'did you write today?' is the one that guilts me the most about missing. I have motivational reminders to keep me thinking that I do have a job to do to better myself. And if I miss it, I use that to some sort of 'guilt myself' into feeling bad about missing it and knowing that in the back of my head that I need to be working on myself and improving my skills and pursuing my passions.

So, my advice to you is, set up some reminders. They may sound funny to type out, or that you say to yourself 'I'll remember' (which usually isn't effective) but just swallow some pride. You'll thank yourself later. Investing in yourself is the greatest investment you will ever make, and the little things that you do will help you significantly in the long run.