We’re in this season of goals: talking about goals and trying to achieve goals. I want to share a few tips on how to stay motivated because I know with everything going on in your life – you’ve got kids, a partner, and a career – everything’s competing. When things compete, it can get tough to continue to feel motivated. Here I have a few tips on how to stay motivated as you work towards achieving your goals.
Ensure You Have A Goal
The first step is to make sure you have a goal and that you visualize the outcome. Take your goal, think about what it will feel like and look like when you have achieved that goal, really ground that into yourself. If you don’t take a moment to visualize what your outcome is going to be, you’re not going to be able to stay motivated. It’s as simple as that: visualize the outcome and feel it.
Write Down Your “Whys”
Once you ensure you have a goal and you have those motivating feelings deep inside, write down your whys. Write down all the reasons you want to achieve your goal. The easy one to talk about is weight loss because so many people want to lose weight. If you want to lose 10 pounds, there could be several reasons why you want to do it, right?
You might want :
- To do it to feel sexier just for yourself.
- Because you’ve been dying to fit into that dress in a certain way.
- So you’ll feel sexy around your partner.
- To lose weight because you have health problems, and you need to get off the meds.
- Feel more energized and be able to interact with your kids more often.
Whatever the why’s are for your goal, write them down.
Find A Cheerleader
Find someone that you trust who can help to motivate you along the way as you achieve your goal. Begin by sharing your goal with your cheerleader, the outcome you have visualized, and lastly, the why’s. Then tell them, “I’m sharing this with you, and it’s a little scary to share it with you because these things are extremely personal to me. I’m sharing this with you because when things get tough, I want you to help me remember the why’s and how excited I am right now at this moment.” Ask your cheerleader to check in with you regularly. Then when you’re feeling down, let them know, “I’m struggling with this goal, and I’m struggling to stay motivated.” They’ll be right there with that list, “Remember that you want life to be easier, you want to feel sexy around your partner, you want to be able to run after those kids and get off the meds. Remember all of that.” You will remember how excited you were, it will reignite a flame within you, and it will help push you closer to achieving your weight loss goal.
Make A Game Plan
Predetermine what you’re going to do when you feel a lack of motivation. We must be realistic and acknowledge that there will be times when you lack motivation. As mentioned above, make sure that you work with your cheerleader. However, that’s not enough, so what else are you going to do? You’re going to feel down at some point. The road is going to get tough. How are you going to keep on moving? This isn’t defeatist thinking. This is a realistic planning approach because there will always be instances that lead us to feel unmotivated. So what are you going to do? Are you going to take a two-day break from working towards your goal? Are you going to reward yourself with something big? Will you plow on because you’ve committed? Are you going to reevaluate the goal and break down the steps that you have in place? Are you going to get a coach? What is it that you’re going to do to help you continue to stay motivated?
Think about that now, when you’re feeling motivated, and then when you’re not as motivated, it’ll be a lot easier.
Reward Yourself
Ensure that you reward yourself in big and small ways as you move through your goals. Some goals can be achieved in a week, and that’s awesome. However, most goals, the big goals, take time, and you don’t want to wait until you achieve your goal to high-five yourself. You should be high-fiving yourself along the way. So come up with some small milestones and significant milestones that you can reward yourself in small ways and big ways as you work to achieve your goal.
If you’re like me, you think, well, the reward is in the achievement, right? Yes, it’s true. However, even though our heads might think that way, our hearts don’t think that way. Therefore, you need to high-five yourself along the way by creating a reward system for yourself as you work through milestones to achieve your goal.
Take Action
If I had to encourage you to do one thing, it would be to find your cheerleader and share your why’s with them so that they can help keep you going. Do that today. Who is your cheerleader, and what ways are you going to share your goal with them? When are you going to reach out to them? Write it down and then do it.
Everyone who is working towards a goal will, at some point, lack motivation, and I want to see you all achieve your goals. The best way to do that is to stay motivated.
For more tips on setting and attaining goals check out, Three Questions Working Moms Should Ask About Their Goals.
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Learn to ask for support and free your time without letting go of our responsibilities at How To Get Unstuck.