You have problems, I have advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated — in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love.

In August 2015, I boldly proclaimed that I would become a "deadlifting badarse". In my own world, that meant being able to deadlift 136kg. I struggled with 93kg at the time, so 136kg felt like a dream goal, the kind a four-year-old might blurt out. Then, last week I finally deadlifted 125kg for the first time!

Talking about your goals publicly can be a good way to motivate yourself to do better. However, you may want to wait until you've taken the first step before making an announcement to really take advantage of the effect.

We all have goals. Some might be career orientated, others may involve learning a new hobby or reigniting an old one.

It can sometimes be hard to achieve them. Maybe you're too busy ("Down time? What's that?") or find it difficult to get started. Perhaps motivation becomes a problem after you get started.

The excuses stop now — you can find time if you really want something to happen. And we're here to help.

Goals are easy to set but hard to reach, and maintaining your motivation is everything (which is why focusing on a system is so much better than focusing on the goal itself). A recent study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology sheds some light on what motivates us best.

When you want to change your life, you probably have a specific goal in mind. However, if you only adopt new habits to meet that goal and then stop, you'll end up back where you started. Instead, focus on building whole new habits.

It's comforting to believe that you can control everything, but you'll be disappointed when you fail despite your best efforts. To prepare yourself for the inevitable failure once in a while, use reserve clauses when describing your plans.

I started running a year ago. I had just begun a new job after leaving my own startup. I was tired of being a founder and desperately needed a break. I wanted to have a calmer lifestyle and I wanted a hobby. Running seemed like a great choice for a hobby. As a computer programmer, my brain gets a great workout but my butt sits in a computer chair all day. I thought that a little bit of exercise would balance it out.

If you want to get stuff done, you have to stay focused. One way to do that? Work with smaller milestones. For example, instead of making a list of all your goals for the year, break it down to what you want to focus on in the next few months. And this three-step system can help.

I tend to view a good life as being one that's full of good investments. If you use your resources (money, time, energy, etc.) in a smart way, they're going to give far more value back to you in return.

How many things are vying for your attention right now? Your phone? Email? Slack? Twitter? That nagging to-do list that just seems to keep growing? Modern technology has given us so many amazing things, but one of the awkward side effects has always been its ability to get in our face whether we want it to or not.

In our day to day, it can be hard to focus on the truly important things when everything seems important and to-do lists can be their own sort of hell. Instead of dealing with overwhelm, start by answering, "What would make today great?" to define the things that would make you happy that you did them.

People thrive when they're working against some kind of force — even if that force isn't real. If you're looking for a way to motivate yourself, try giving yourself an imaginary scapegoat.

If you can swing it, paying off your mortgage early sounds like a smart enough idea. But some prefer to invest rather than throw cash at outstanding, low-interest debt. The idea is, if your debt's interest rate is lower than your investment return, you come out ahead. Here's a simple way to decide if this route is right for you.

When things don't go your way, "looking on the bright side" is a real test of your ability to show gratitude. No one is perfect at showing gratitude at first, but here's an idea that can help: Keep a "jar of awesome" in plain sight to remind you that good things — and a lot of them — have happened when life gets you down.

Creating a healthy habit takes time. You have to know why you want to achieve a certain goal. Then it takes deliberate action each and every day, consistently, to make it stick. Instead of overwhelming yourself with the bigger picture goal, try breaking your habit down into "actions per day". Here's how.

Sometimes it's interesting to think about life in terms of our limited time. If you knew today was your last day, would you be happy with what you're doing? It's an interesting question, but not a very practical one. When you think in terms of an expiration date, it can be problematic for a couple of reasons.

There's nothing like an ambitious goal to focus your training, and running a marathon definitely fits the bill. Plenty of mere mortals have completed the 42km race, but it takes time, planning and, of course, an appropriate level of fitness. Here's how to know if a marathon is a realistic goal for you.

Web: There are a million ways to track your habits, but Daybook takes a very simple approach. You add the habits you want to build, then click a counter each time you do the activity and that's it. No dates, no stats, nothing fancy.