With winter creeping in and the festive season swiftly approaching (not to mention the doom and gloom of the economic downturn) it is hard, and will get harder, to keep up your motivation and keep persevering with that important 'project'.
So to try and help you and myself through any wavering of will power, I wanted to give my top 10 strategies for staying motivated and focused on the things that are important to us.
1. Keep reevaluating your reasons.
Don't be afraid to change the reasons for sticking with a 'project'. We all evolve, especially if we're pushing the boundaries, and learning new things. So your reasons for staying in the 'flow' may evolve. Change your motivating factors if you need to…
2. Be clear on what you want.
Yes, have a clear picture of what it is that you want to get out of this. If it is a one-off project, have a clear deliverable at the end of it. If it is an ongoing thing (like to keep fit), then create milestones at consistent intervals, to allow you to measure your success.
3. Reward yourself regularly.
This one you've heard of often - that's because it works. It's all psychological - a reward, gives you a reason, a stimuli…
There is a caveat to this strategy though - make sure the reward is appropriate for the effort exerted and it doesn't hinder the outcome you desire.
I mean that if you're trying to lose weight, your reward should be good/tempting enough to drive you forward, but it should not be obstructing your goal of losing weight, i.e. if you reach your milestone goal for weight loss, reward yourself with an hour full body massage, not a full size cheese cake ;o)
4. Schedule it in.
Yes, some of you may think this is resembling a work project - and you'd be right! In today's 'high-speed-everything' we have to do so much in the same amount of time, that if you don't schedule something, you're unlikely to get to do it, especially on a daily basis.
Don't be afraid to set a time, for your exercises for example, and treat that just like you would an important appointment. If it's important to you - it should be in your planner.
5. Be selfish.
Now that you've scheduled this project you want to stick with, the key to sticking with it is to be selfish. Bear in mind that it is unlikely this project is more important to anyone else than you (psychologically, we all hate to fail). So don't be scared to tell others you have to go. They'll try and persuade you to leave it…
Picture this, you're at work, just before lunch break on a Friday. All your colleagues are off to the pub (as usual), but you have scheduled a gym session for this lunch time… Your colleagues, are highly unlikely going to say "Oh, you should really go to the gym now, you owe it to yourself because you want to reach you r goal…"
So I'm saying, know when things are important to you and don't be afraid to ignore public pressure that may sway you away from your goal and injure your motivation.
6. Find a buddy.
This is a POWER STRATEGY. It is so much easier to be motivated when you're accountable to someone else. It's a mutual feeling - you feel you can't let your buddy down, and he/she feels she can't either. So you both end up down at the beach front at 6 am in your running gear, ready for your day's gym session :o) Ahhh magic!
What makes this an even more powerful motivational strategy is if you have more than one buddy. That's why I love going to group gym classes - it is very hard to stop 10 minutes into the class and walk out the room…
7. Make your goals public.
Another POWER TIP. We all have it built in us - the need to be right and to never fail. OK, the difference is that some of us handle failure better than others, but it's all the same - we hate being seen to fail. So by telling everyone that cares about your new goal, it boosts your motivation every time you think of the consequences if you give up.
The caveat to this point is: if your friends don't care that you fail, tell someone else…
8. Take note - notice:
How you feel when you're doing well?
How do you feel when you have no motivation?
Who makes you motivated?
How do you feel when you get your motivation back?
The reason this is important is because when you're aware of the effects something is having on you, you can choose to curb the negative experiences, and to put yourself in the path of more positive ones.
A good way to stay motivated, is to pick a good feeling that is significant to you and to focus on it's entirety - this becomes the 'spark' to your 'flame'.
For example - if exercising makes you feel like 'a million dollars' afterward, when you find it difficult to start an exercise session, visualise this 'million dollar' feeling, really get into it… I can bet you would be moving your feet before you've opened your eyes :o)
9. Make it fun.
Fun means different things to different people. You know yourself - so create an environment for your 'project' that is fun and you will be motivated to keep going. No one ever ran away from having fun right?
10. Be proud.
This is crucial!!! If you cannot be proud of what you are doing, or what you've done (once you finish the project), you should not be doing it!
I know it's harsh to face, but if you think about it, you will see it's impossible to enjoy something and stay motivated, and to keep doing it, if it doesn't make you feel good, proud, happy!
Well, these are the strategies I use most often to keep my motivation going.
Sometimes I fail miserably, and please understand that it is perfectly OK to have these failures, but most of the time, I'm back on the proverbial horse and riding in to the sunset of my goal…
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