We all have those days when our routine becomes just that — routine. When we lose touch with just how much we love what we do.

I was reading some material Letha Barnes — the director of Milady’s Career Institute — wrote for instructors on staying motivated. She explains that the key is identifying your goals and desires. Unless you channel your energy in a specific direction, it can evaporate, she warns. “For motivation to be effective and active, it must focus on a specific need, goal, or aim,” she says.

She offers this quick to-do list to help you stay positively self-motivated:

• Do things that you enjoy doing.

• Associate with positive, motivated, successful people. You are likely to adopt some of the same positive behaviors.

• Identify motivating activities and situations.

• Improve your physical fitness. As you become more healthy and fit, your energy level will soar.

• Listen to motivational tapes and read inspirational publications.

• Eliminate “I can’t” from your vocabulary. In reality, you can do almost anything you set your mind to and are willing to work to achieve.

• Change “I wish” to “I will.”

• Identify major life goals or desires.

• Reaffirm your goals daily and have an action plan to attain them.

— Judy