Struggling to stay motivated?

Struggling to stay motivated?

It’s easy to lose your mojo when you are working towards a goal however big or small.  If you’ve ever set yourself a challenge or goal then you’ve probably experienced a point where your motivation waivers, which is normal.  Keeping focussed when you are doing something new or different can be hard.  Here’s my top tips to help keep you on track.

Keep your eyes on the prize

Whatever your end goal is its key to never lose sight of where you want to be.  Whether it’s a job promotion, weight loss or saving for that dream house remind yourself regularly of what it is you are striving for.  If you are starting to feel demotivated and need a reminder of the bigger picture, then create a visual reminder of your goal and set it as your screen saver so every time you reach for your phone you see it.  Write down a daily positive affirmation linked to your goal, if it’s weight loss then it might be something like; ‘I’m getting fit and eating healthy’.  Doing this will help you get excited again.   Remind yourself of what motivated you in the first place and try to imagine how you are going to feel when you reach that goal.

Recognise how far you’ve come

Whatever your goals are, recognising your progress is key to keeping motivated.  Small steps can sometimes be big gains.  To stay motivated you need to recognise your progress and not just track it.  The difference when you do this is that you look at the bigger picture, realise where you are and how much further you have to go.  I often get carried away with the excitement of a new challenge and don’t always recognise progress but when I do it’s a real game changer as it reminds me of where I am with my plan.

Reward yourself

The easiest and most powerful way to stay motivated is to set yourself small goals along the way and when you reach them treat yourself.  Setting milestones and having something enjoyable to look forward to helps keep you focussed.

Cut out distractions

We’ve all been there, calling friends, flicking through social media and finding anything to do except the task in hand but if you are serious about your goals you need to steer away from things and people that will set you off course.  It’s hard to stay motivated if we engage in the things that don’t help us get to where we want to be so think about the choices you are making. When you find it hard to focus switch your phone to silent, turn off your email alerts, sharpen up your to do list and block out the time to get on with the task in hand.

If you are working towards a goal right now, best of luck, remind yourself why you’ve set that goal and keep at it.