How to Stay Motivated to Work on Your Goals

woman wearing sports clothes
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

It can be difficult to stay motivated to work on your goals, especially when you are not seeing results yet. Perhaps you started a new business, and you haven’t made as many sales as you hoped, or maybe you have been working out but still not losing the weight you wanted. This is the moment many people quit. In this blog post, I share some tips to help you stick to your vision for a longer period of time.

1. Write down your wins

The thought of “not being good enough” makes us feel frustrated and doesn’t let us appreciate what we have already achieved.

Whenever I feel like giving up because things aren’t going how I hoped they would, I remind myself of how far I have come. For example, the other day I was feeling a bit discouraged because my business wasn’t making the big bucks as I hoped it would be by now. I then changed my perspective, and instead focused on how much my business has grown over the past year.

When you feel like this, pause and write down a list of your wins. Whether you got one new customer, lost 1 pound, managed to eat healthy for the entire week, or studied for 10 minutes each day, it needs to be constantly recognized.

A win is a win. It doesn’t matter how small it is. Click To Tweet

2. Find an accountability buddy or group

If you are trying to lose weight, but you’re afraid you won’t stick to your workout routine, ask a friend to keep you accountable. You can also invite him/her to work out with you. This way, you won’t find an excuse to cancel your workout routine. I go for a thirty-minute walk with my neighbor every day. This helps me get out of the house and get some fresh air. If I hadn’t committed to her, I would probably sit at my desk all day.

If you find it hard to find local friends to keep you accountable, you can join an online group. Facebook groups are great for this!

3. Focus on one thing at a time

Write down your area of focus and commit to working on it for at least one month. Once you’ve mastered one area you can move to the next one. Having ONE thing to focus on will help you stay on track and will prevent you from juggling too many things at once.

4. Take breaks

I’m guessing that I don’t exactly have to remind you about this one. But in case you’ve been omitting it, having breaks is very important for keeping up with your productivity levels. Work in blocks of times that best work for you (30, 60, or 90 minutes) and then take a break.

During your break, try to do things that recharge you. You need to clear your mind from work, so if you have been working on marketing for hours, don’t go and listen to a podcast on marketing in your break time. Here is a list of some things you can do during your break.

5. Reflect on your bad habits

At the end of the day, reflect on your bad habits and why you did what you did, and think about a solution for next time. If you ate the chips, perhaps it was because you ran out of healthy snacks. And because you are aware of the “why”, you will get rid of junk food and stock your pantry with healthy snacks. If you got up late, maybe it is because you binge-watched on Netflix and went to bed late. By being aware of this behavior, you’ll know that you need to go to bed earlier if you want to win the morning.

You can also write down a list of things you need to stop doing and why. For example, “I need to stop comparing myself to other artists because it distracts me from my goals.”

I know this is simple, but many times we just do what we do without stopping for a moment to ask ourselves why we are even doing it in the first place.

6. Evaluate your week

Set aside 30 minutes of your weekend to reflect on your week. Ask yourself questions such as “What’s working?” and “What isn’t?”

After you’ve reflected on your week, you might realize that you need to swap your boring workout routine for one that you actually enjoy. Perhaps you need to dedicate more time to creating content and less to Facebook.

7. Have fun

It’s not about being a productivity machine all the time. Working hard is good, but make sure to have some fun along the way.

If we allow ourselves to have fun while working on our goals, our journey towards living the life that we want will be much more enjoyable.

8. Be consistent

The more you work towards your goal, the more you’re priming yourself to become the person you want to be. Consistency is everything. It doesn’t matter whether you workout for 15 or 30 minutes a day, as long as you are consistent at it, you’ll see results.

“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do consistently. ” Marie Forleo

9. Make a vision board

A vision board typically contains images of the things you want to achieve during a particular period of time. You can cut out pictures from magazines or you can print your own!

If you’re not a crafty person, you can also make a digital collage with photos that inspire you and set it as a desktop background. The collage could include a destination you want to travel to, your dream house, or a photo of your family.

Having this visual element around your working area will remind you of your vision. And you’ll want to turn the things on that board into a reality.

10. Celebrate small victories

You wrote a new blog post? Perfect, give yourself a pat on the back! Ran 1 kilometer? Do a short victory dance! Ate healthy for a whole day? Give yourself a high five!

Celebrating small victories will help you build momentum and you will start achieving bigger goals in no time.

The takeaway

Finally, I would like to remind you to be patient. Every little step you take adds up, every push up, every phone call, every paper you write. Results might not be visible yet, but your hard work will pay off with time.

I hope these tips have motivated you to keep working on your goals. Make sure to comment below to share which one you would like to start applying.

 

 

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Author: Jessica Araus

Jessica Araus is a mixed media artist and illustrator living in the Netherlands.

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