Goal Planning & Finding Motivation

Over the past few weeks we’ve discussed a proven method for planning and setting goals. This same method was the topic of our most recent goal setting seminar that happened at the beginning of January. We would like to build of these seminars each time we do them so if you missed the first one you can read all these posts and catch up on what was discussed and be fully prepared for the next seminar. Check out the links below to catch up on the past posts!

1. Goal Setting: Tell Your Excuses to F*CK off!
2. Step 1: Planning
3. Step 2: Congruence & Consequences
4. Step 3: Develop Your Plan of Action

Today we are going to touch on a final thought in relation to above 4 posts, motivation. Motivation can be a funny thing. It can also be a very dangerous thing, especially if you try to rely on it all the time. Fact: motivation will only get you so far. You have to create habits that keep you going especially on the days that motivation is at a low. I discussed this topic in a personal blog post, “Habits Are Greater Than Motivation” if you’d like to dive in a little deeper on that subject. Despite that, it’s still good to lay out some motivators to remind you of why you started this journey in the first place, whatever that journey may be. Here’s a few ways to find some motivation while developing your goals:

• Act Small but Think Big
  • Thinking big about your goal helps you see the big picture. It encourages you to build a vision and become a possibility thinker. This can be incredibly motivating and inspiring. However, if big thinking isn’t coupled together with small action steps, then it can quickly turn into an unrealistic dream that never comes to fruition. The take home point: Create small steps to reach your HUGE dream!
• Make Goals Fun and Challenging
  • You must make the process of pursuing your goals an enjoyable experience. And joy comes through challenge. You must learn to love the process of attaining the goal instead of constantly looking at the end range.
• Focus Only on Critical Activities
  • Irrelevant tasks and activities can often sidetrack us. In turn, we get distracted we lose focus and progress will begin to stagnate. As a result, we no longer make forward progress, and that is when our motivation levels dissipate.
• Find Your Inspiration
  • This is a big one of the ones listed. We need motivation to keep us focused in the present moment, and inspiration to keep us focused over the long-run. To find your inspiration create a vision board or mind map poster that showcases your goal using key visuals and words. Vision boards may be hokey, but its proven that constantly reminding yourself of your goal daily through visual reinforcement makes things happen.
• Generate a Sense of Urgency
  • When you set a more stringent timeframe for accomplishing a particular task, you are at that moment challenging yourself to think differently. You begin to think outside the box, and subsequently, you find a way to accomplish that task within that timeframe.
• Find an Accountability Partner
  • Going through anything alone is ALWAYS daunting. It helps to have someone to share the load with and be able to complain to that will “get it”, but also be around to celebrate the small wins that happen on your way to the end range.

There’s so many ways to create or find motivation to keep going when thinking about achieving your goals. I would recommend thinking about all the possibilities when creating a goal, but also think about what has worked or not worked for you in the past when developing them. This will help to keep it simple and assure you’re not walking down the same path of failure as before.

Be on the lookout for our next seminar where we will utilize what has been discussed here and talk about visualization, creating small actionable tasks, and finally go thru the actual process of creating a goal in detail.

Nutrition Talk: Doing the work & Weight Fluctuations

Sometimes when you want to diet you just need to DO IT! Be actionable, follow the plan, and stop planning out cheat meals. Oh, and weight fluctuations are totally normal!