It’s all about you — Easy Ways to Stay Motivated
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You know what it’s like. You set yourself a goal, something you want to achieve. You are excited and ready to take on the world, and then a few months later you can’t even be bothered to spend 10 minutes working towards achieving it. Well, welcome to being human! It is so easy to go from excitement to complete apathy but there are things you can do to ensure you stay motivated towards your goal and the following are seven great ones!
1. Is Your Reason WHY Large Enough?
If we take losing weight as an example. Setting a goal to look great in clothes is big, but not big enough. Losing weight to look great is good, but it is not sustainable. But if you shift your focus to losing weight because you want to stay healthy, then it will be a much BIGGER reason to continue. It is a reason that is not solely directed on right now, but a goal the looks after the future.
Stop and think about your reason WHY? What reason is big enough to keep you motivated at times when you want to give up and/or give in?
2. Create a visual and emotional image of what you want
Writing your goals down is an essential tool but not always enough to keep focused. Writing your goals down and having a visual image of you completing that goal adds fuel to the motivational fire. Writing goals down, having a visual image of your completed goal, AND connecting this image with your emotions is the power of 3 that will ensure your motivation remains high. At any point during the day, or at any time when you are feeling in need of encouragement, you can simply stop, close your eyes, see your goal, and evoke all the emotions achieving that goal holds for you. Nothing is more powerful!
3. Questions to ask before, during, and after!
It is important to know not only why you are doing something but also WHAT. What achieving this goal will provide for yourself and your family. It is easy to believe that what you want is to make a million, but for many, it is the lifestyle and the time freedom that this money has the potential to provide that will be the real motivation.
Spend time asking yourself questions that will help you identify what achieving your goal will provide. Questions such as:
•What will it bring me?
•What will it do for me, my family, and/or friends?
•What kind of lifestyle will I be able to have?
•What sacrifices will I need to make?
•What will be the impact on my current routine?
•What will be the impact on my family?
•What outcome do I want to achieve?
•What contributions will I be able to make
Motivation and staying motivated is easy when you know what the achievement of your goal will provide for you and we only really lose motivation when we lose sight of our goal or end result.
4. Creating a visual representation of what you want
Keep the motivational fires burning by creating a collage with the family of what your end result will look like, or paint a picture, write a poem, sing a song, or whatever creative endeavor excites you enough to complete it.
Leave yourself reminders on your fridge door, on your bathroom mirror, in your car. The more places you are able to leave yourself little notes and reminders about what you want to achieve the better. Doing this will help your unconscious mind bring you the results you desire, whilst also supporting you in staying focused and motivated towards achieving your goal.
5.Get Support from people around you
Support from family and friends is important but also consider what other support is available to you. Books, mentoring, work colleagues, life coaching, forums — these are all things that can support you as you work towards achieving your goal. Also, think about WHO can support you in staying motivated, can you buddy up with someone, do you have a boss or lecturer who will be happy to help you keep accountable.
One thing I recommend is that you tell as many people as you know about what you want to achieve, this has the effect of keeping you motivated to complete your goal because you have told so many people. However, a word of caution is needed here because it is easy for people to trample your dreams and fail to support you. You must first pick and choose carefully those people you know will want to support you, but also you must gain enough inner personal strength to be able to continue no matter what negative comments may come your way.
6.Develop Inner Personal Strength
Ultimately, the person who will determine whether you stay motivated and achieve your goal will be you. Your thoughts will determine your behavior which determines your results. Developing a strong inner personal strength about your ability to achieve and your ability to motivate yourself when you are in an unproductive state of mind is essential. Being able to see setbacks and failures as opportunities for continued growth and upset and emotional turmoil as opportunities to discover what you want and need, will determine how you view life. One of the best ways to inner personal strength is to read and listen to audios that inspire and motivate you. Continued learning is an essential part of being able to stay motivated.
7. Support from Continued Learning
If you are going to need to learn new skills to ensure you complete your goal then it is a good idea to identify what learning you will need to undertake as early as possible. If you have planned out how you will achieve your outcome then you will already be aware of any areas where you need to strengthen your skills or outsource to others who will be able to fulfill what you need.
There is nothing worse than getting halfway towards the completion of a goal and to be stopped because you are not able to complete something because of a lack of knowledge and/or skills. This is a surefire way of dampening your excitement and your motivation.
Make a list of what you can and can’t do and who might be able to help you. Knowing this in advance can help you avoid getting frustrated because things aren’t getting done. If you are serious about developing your personal and professional life then I recommend getting yourself a Mentor or Life Coach, to ensure you stay on track.
You should also look at continued learning as it relates to your own personal development, continuing with your own personal development will ensure you are able to work through setbacks quickly and stay motivated.
Staying motivated when you are looking to achieve your goals is essential for ultimate success. The seven easy steps are basic fundamentals in staying motivated. Some of them such as creating a collage will be activities you perform occasionally, but others, such as continuing your personal development will be a continuous learning process. There is not one single thing that will determine your success in staying motivated but a combination of many, finding the combination that is right for you will change from goal to goal and will be an ongoing (fun-filled) exploration.
