Do you ever wake up in the morning and think to yourself, "It's time to make a change?" Maybe you'd like to go back to school, land yourself that promotion, lose some weight, or just make time for a new hobby. If you're like most of us, you may have put off doing something you'd really like to do. So how can you stop dreaming and start taking action? The key is getting--and staying--motivated. Follow these 4 steps and you could wake up to the life of your dreams.

Once upon a time, the rite of passage between college and your first job involved changing the outgoing message on your answering machine. These days it might mean changing the message on your MySpace account, Facebook, your personal website, your blog…