If you constantly live your life trying to push yourself beyond you limits, it can exhaust you. If you focus on the things you're good at and never try to expand your horizons, you're not going to get very far. There is a happy medium in between the two that following can help you balance a healthy lifestyle. This isn't a new concept to anyone, it's a well known factor. It is said that, " humans experience peak motivation when working on tasks that are right on the edge of their current abilities. Not too hard. Not too easy. Just right." That's what keeps us going, that perfect balance. So where can we apply this in our own lives?

If you want to learn how to stay motivated to reach your goals, then there is a second piece of the motivation puzzle that is crucial to understand. It has to do with achieving that perfect blend of hard work and happiness. On the other hand, if a challenge is too easy, or simple, the individual will lose interest and will, again, not complete it. However, when presented with a challenge that is 'just right' it has been found that this establishes the peak productivity and motivational levels for a person.

The Goldilocks Rule can be applied to literally any activity you do. It can be applied to work, to studying, to exercise or even to cleaning your house. Let's say you're a runner. You run a 5k every week. Someone who is a better runner than you challenges you to run two a week. This is way out of your comfort zone and too much of a challenge. Now take another person, who is in terrible shape. They don't even know what a 5k is. They ask you to run 2 laps around the track. Half a mile. To you this is simple. It's not even a challenge.

The space in between these two extremes is where motivation and challenge happen. Push yourself a little farther to get better and increase your distance at a steady rate.

Not only can the Goldilocks rule improve your motivation it had been proven that living by this rule can make you happier. This is because when you are performing tasks that are at your peak productivity level, you enter a state of flow which is difficult to reach if you're performing tasks that are too easy or too difficult. During a state of flow you reach your peak productivity levels and are therefore making progress and achieving your goals very quickly, which makes you happier.

The goldilocks story is something we all learned as a kid. It's something that follows us past our childhood and continues to be something we can all live by in our lives. If you use the goldilocks rule in your life, it can make you more successful, if applied in the right way – and this is to push yourself just outside your comfort zone every day.