Staying Motivated-Be Stronger than your X-excuses-!

Staying motivated towards what we set out to do is not easy. Once the initial enthusiasm wears off, many people tend to leave their goals mid way. Whenever we try to do something that takes efforts our brain and body come up with excuses for not doing it. Let me take the example of working out!

Every day in the morning I just want to sleep five minutes more…. which turns to an hour. I know it happens with many of us. Even when I have woken up I find so much to do, it seems like missing the workout could be a good idea. But on everyday when I put aside these excuses and pulled my mat to workout I felt good about it.

It is human nature to avoid what can be avoided. Many of us lack that strong motivation. And as a result we all have a negative inner voice telling us to be passive to not act. After all body for its best interests must save its energy.

Even people who are strongly motivated, remain so because they have their eyes on the goal. They know what they want to achieve and they have a plan how to achieve it. Having a detailed plan is in fact the sure shot way to succeed.

There can be a thousand reasons for not doing something, but only one reason you do it – Because you wanted to.

This is one of my favourite quotes. We may give a million excuses ( quotes as reasons) for not having done something. But the reason we did it would only be the strong burning desire to do it. What it meant to us!

Giving up for reasons is so easy but holding on and working towards your goals even when everything else is not in your favour is tough.

So how can you overcome these excuses and be determined to achieve what you want to?

Know your Why

It is most important to know why you want to do something. Having a reason makes us more determined to pursue our goals. Everytime you find yourself faltering all you need to do is to remind yourself why you set on the path.

Set a goal

Having a goal makes one more determined to stay on the path. You know where you want to go. The long term goal should be broken down into a series of short term goals. Short term goals help you evaluate the results and see your progress. The results further keep you motivated towards your goals. Goals must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and Time bound)

Have a Plan

The next step to achieving a goal is to have a plan. Say talking about working out once again, you must know every day what is your objective for the day. So for a workout it would be a workout plan for the day. Also specify a time for workout and 10 minutes before the time all you need to do is get up and set your space or leave for the gym or whatever preparation you need to do to get started.

Have Deadlines

Once we know by when we need to get finished it keeps us fueled towards our goals. Deadlines are actually very good in helping us achieve our goals. So in terms of fitness one can have a deadline like working out at least 5 days a week. For someone studying, it could be completing x chapters by a certain day.

Have a buddy to help you Stay motivated

When you are working towards goals it is awesome to have a buddy to pair with. It brings certain amount of accountability in your goal. That way you are less like to make an excuse and procrastinate. Working towards your goals with a buddy is like to keep you motivated.

Apart for having a buddy you may also join a class or a group of people with same or similar goal.

Rewards help big time to staying motivated

Each goal can be associated with a reward. That is a great way to fuel up your motivation. Everytime you find yourself making an excuse look at the reward you had get on completion of the goal. You can also have tiny weekly , fortnightly or monthly goals or just a big reward at the achievement of end results.

Whatever works best for you.

We all have the tendency to procrastinate. We cover up our procrastination with excuses. We can stay motivated to our goals only by making effort at staying motivated. Keeping a vision to where we want to reach and what it means to us.

If you feel that you lack motivation working with a coach is helpful. A coach can help you draft your why, your goals and help you track progress and work on keeping you motivated.

Success is sweet but obviously it takes hard work. And like I said in the beginning….. We ought to be stronger than our excuses!

I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z and this post corresponds to letter X!