March has crept up on us but it has definitely arrived with a welcoming air of change, with lighter mornings and a stretch in the evenings. Daffodils and spring flowers are sprinkling colour in the previously grey days. And your #goals? What about your goals? Hopefully you are feeling a sense of satisfied achievement that you are still taking small, actionable steps that are bringing you closer to your bigger goals each day. Some of you, however, might have found January and February a bit long and uninspiring. It’s not easy to keep up the #motivated energy that you felt when you rang in 2020 and set your inspiring goals. Motivation will be up and down and if we could, we'd bottle it up and take a swig whenever we felt it dip. Staying motivated takes more work than that, but don’t give up on your goals; remember where you want to be and don’t dwell on where you are, there is still time to smash those 2020 goals! Here are my top tips on staying #motivated:
1. Remember your 'Why'
If it feels like it's all just becoming a chore and you want to give up, remind yourself of your 'Why.' Why did you set this goal in the first place? Why do you want to achieve it? Ask yourself once again, why you want to achieve this goal and write down a list of the reasons. Writing things down means there is a much greater chance that you will remember them. When you write something with pen and paper you are engaging your brain more actively than if you make an electronic list on your phone or computer and you will make a stronger connection with what you have just put down on paper.
2. Go back to your vision
Connected with your why is the vision that you had when you set your goal. Go back to it and visualise it once again, down to the tiniest detail. What does it look like when you have achieved it? What can you see, hear, smell and how do you feel? The vision is where you want to be and making an effort to visualise every part of how you believe you will feel when you finally reach that point should spark some new connections and motivate you once again to work towards the goal. Why not grab a pen and paper right now and write down the following: "It's December 31st, 2020 (or maybe it's a longer term goal, feel free to play with the date) and I am..." Leave nothing out, write down every aspect of your life as you see it when you have reached your goal.
3. Set long-term and short-term goals
A long-term goal is important to have but it can feel like a hard slog when the end is not in sight. Including short-term goals in your goal setting process gives you a taste of how satisfying it feels to achieve what you set out to do. Don't forget to celebrate all your wins and reward yourself when you achieve your smaller goals, too. This will help motivate you to carry on pushing to achieve your long-term goals. When it comes to the long-term goals, keep breaking them down into smaller steps, setting achievable targets that are all linked to the big, meaty goal. The brain likes rewards and each small target you hit will release a small amount of dopamine and inspire you to keep going.
4. Find your tribe
Surrounding yourself with like-minded people and people who are already doing what you want to do will help motivate you to keep going. They didn't get there easily either, it takes hard work and a positive mindset to carry on working to achieve your goals and create the life you want to live. Spending time with people who have a positive, can-do outlook on life will help you maintain the same attitude. Surround yourself with negative, fixed mindset people and you, too, will find yourself feeling more negative and you will lose momentum. Stay focused on what you want and seek out people who inspire you and who are motivated. Your positive attitude will also make them want to be around you more, 'Your vibe attracts your tribe.' I actively seek out networking opportunities and meet ups where I will be surrounded by coaches, people working within wellness, people building up their own businesses and side hustles and people who want to inspire leadership within early years education. I have never come away from these uninspired or lacking motivation to carry on working to reach my goals.
5. Set yourself mini challenges
Finally, if you are the type who likes some healthy competition with yourself, then set yourself mini challenges and see if they inspire you to keep up momentum. One example is when I'm lacking inspiration to keep posting on social media, then I'll set myself a challenge that for one week I will post a photo of a message on a post-it note or take a photo of my feet in different shoes and places and write something inspiring. I look at it as a fun challenge, but I end up thinking of what I can do next and my social media visibility that week is increased as a result. When I wanted to practice yoga regularly at home, I set myself a challenge to do something every day, even if it was just one sun salutation and took 5 minutes. It got my head back in the yoga zone, I didn't have to set aside a whole evening to do it but I committed to doing something and without the pressure of finding time to do a 90 minute class, I was practicing more yoga than ever before and eventually started practicing for longer.
Hopefully these tips will help you to stay on course to achieve the goals you set back in January. If you have fallen off the course, now is a great time to act and think about slowly getting back on it. You've got this!
Comments