How to stay motivated today - focus on your WHY

byGail-UK

3.2K followers

Updated 7 years ago

One thing I learned when I was training as a life coach was that in order to keep people on track, they need to constantly be reminded about their own motivation. This means more than just setting goals - that's the easy part - staying focused and motivated on achieving your goal every day is more difficult.

Motivation is what gets you started on something in the first place and what keeps you going so that you achieve your goals. People are generally motivated by one of 2 things - pain or pleasure, the stick or the carrot, the fear or losing something or the joy they will get from gaining something else.

However you must ensure that the focus for your motivation is coming from the right place in order to truly succeed. What I mean by that is that you should focus on the things that you will GET from achieving your goals rather than focusing on the things that you will LOSE. That way, you will invite many other positive forces into play in your life rather than negative ones.

We are what we think about, so constantly thinking about what we might lose, is no motivation for going forward, since we will usually just get more of that fear.

I suggest a 3-pronged approach: So do this today:

1. SET YOUR SMART GOAL

Write down your goal using the SMART goal criteria - writing down a goal helps make it achievable. SMART stands for something that is:

• Specific - ie, clear and detailed (not waffle!)
  
• Measurable - you can measure your success against something (e.g. money, number of visitors, number of sales)
  
• Achievable - it must be something that you can actually achieve but there are not many things that you could not achieve given the right mindset - I wouldn't be able to run for US president for example because I'm a Brit (but then I'd never want to do that!)
  
• Realistic - make sure your goals are something that are realistic in the timeframe you set yourself - no one is going to lose 6 stone in weight in a week!
  
• Timed - you should set yourself a realistic timeframe - in other words, a deadline for achieving your goal.
  

2. WRITE DOWN THE REASONS YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL

This is what is going to keep you motivated and is probably the most important thing to read every day. The great motivator, Tony Robbins, advocated a way of setting goals and things to do on a daily basis that always included reading the reasons why you wanted to achieve the goals.

So take some time and think about the why - close your eyes and imagine yourself having achieved the particular goal and then write down all the things you will get and benefit of having achieved it. It could be to help your family, give you more time, more money but push further and really think about what having more time with your family will mean to you. Does it mean that you can feel more accomplished as a parent, or will having the latest car create a feeling of pride within you or a feeling of being the best?

Using these end results, feel what they feel like and focus on these feelings for a few minutes every day. Really allow yourself to soak up the amazing way you are going to feel when you reach your goal. For example, imagine:

• the sights,
  
• the smells,
  
• the sounds,
  
• the friends,
  
• the location
  
• the impact on others
  
• what people will say to you
• the congratulations you'll receive
  
• the pride in yourself
  
• the feeling of gratitude and awe you know you are going to get from doing this thing.

3. FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT - TRICK YOURSELF INTO BELIEVING IT'S DONE

This a technique to help you create the feelings from step 2. There are many things you can do here but doing something practical is a good start. You could:

• create a vision board showing the car or house you want
  
• get a holiday brochure for the destination of your choice
  
• create an imaginary cheque showing the amount of money you want to receive
  
• book a test drive in your dream car so you know how it feels to actually drive it
  
• write an imaginary newspaper article about yourself and your achievement
  

Look at these things every day to help you to get into the feelings outlined in step 2.

Then focus on those feelings and things for a few minutes every day and you will have made a wonderful start.

Here's to your success.

Gail