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 following are
seven great ones!
1. Is Your Reason WHY Large Enough?
When I wanted to lose weight setting a goal to look
great in clothes was not big enough, what didn't help
was the fact that I loved who I was and what I looked
like, but my health had begun to show signs of being
affected by my excess weight and this is the WHY I
used to ensure I stayed on track. I started with 6
weeks of no diary, no wheat and red meat only once a
week. Do you think I needed a big why to stay
committed to such a regime??!! I knew that health is
my true wealth. Having been unwell for 6 months and
hardly able to walk had taught me that without my
health my goals were useless. So maintaining a healthy
body that would allow me to enjoy the fulfillment of
my goals was the big WHY that kept me on track.
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.
Whatever you create keep it in a place where you can
see it constantly, I remember listening to someone
talk about sticking a poster of making their first
100,000 on their ceiling so that as they woke up it
was the first thing they saw each morning, and the
last image in their mind before falling asleep.
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 you 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 out source 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 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 set backs quickly and stay
motivated.
Staying motivated when you are looking to achieve your
goals is essential for ultimate success. I have
provided you with seven practical ways to achieve
continued motivation and I recommend you use them all.
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.
