In my opinion, motivation and focus are the keys to success. No matter what your end goal is, when you are motivated, you have a perseverance to keep on going. Being focused also helps when things aren’t as smooth as anticipated.
In this blog post I will share 3 simple steps that help me stay motivated and focused. Those tips work for anything you would like to achieve in your life, career goals, education goals, fitness goals, money goals etc.
1. Set a goal
This is probably the most important thing you can do to help yourself. When you know what you want to achieve, you are able to find a way to do it.
And remember, every big goal is in reality a bunch of smaller ones. So dream big, and then set much smaller goals that will help you reach your dream.
For example, let’s say you want to run a marathon. You need to start running first. (1st small goal) When you have a routine in place (2nd small goal) , then maybe run in a local 5k (3rd small goal), 10k (4th small goal) and then reaching your big dream of running a marathon might be next! Smaller goals are amazing. They give us a boost of confidence and power to go further. They are also less overwhelming, meaning we have a bigger chance of not abandoning them. Those small goals are essentially a little bricks that are building your path to the big dream.
*I noticed that small goals sometimes have a side effect: they may open the doors to unexpected opportunities, which you haven’t even thought of. From my experience, it’s good to say “yes” to those opportunities. You never know what they might bring.
It’s also worth mentioning, that sometimes it’s OK to abandon our goal. We change and grow all the time, and growing apart with the goals we set in the past happens. The important thing is evaluating WHY we want to abandon it. Is it because we found a new goal we feel more passionate about? Or is it just because we find it hard to achieve it? Be true to yourself, and if it’s the first, leave the goal in the past and don’t feel bad, but if it’s the latter, maybe try to set yourself a path of much smaller goals.
2. Don’t overthink
It may sound weird, but it really works! (for me at least) When you know you have to do something, just do it. Do not start to think how much you don’t want to do it or how tired you are. Like the shoe ad says: JUST DO IT. Let’s go with our running example again. So you have started running, and set yourself a routine to go for. a jog every day after work. It 5 pm, you had a busy day and you much rather just sit on the couch and watch a movie on Netflix. Instead of trying to think of every possible excuse not to go for a run, or bargaining with yourself that you will go after just one episode (yeah, right), just put those running shoes on, and leave the house without thinking.
If you are really struggling, then tell yourself to do that thing you’re really dreading to do for a shorter amount of time than usually. I can bet with you that once you have started, you might actually finish it in a regular time.
Our brains will find a way to stay comfortable, even at a cost of jeopardising our goals, so don’t get into a fight with your brain and just do what you set yourself to do.
3. Celebrate
Celebrate EVERY little goal. When you accomplish something, recognise it and reward yourself! Order a take-away, run a bubble bath, buy a box of fancy chocolates… What ever makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be huge or expensive, just something for you to feel special. Celebrating releases a dopamine, a feel-good chemical. This will give us a boost of confidence and motivation to reach another goal in the future.
And remember, forward is forward, no matter how slow you’re going!
Illustrations used in the post are Croods collection from Blush.design
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