CLIP's Tips

I tend to get discouraged easily when it comes to goals that I set, especially at work.  Sometimes they can seem so difficult to attain, and it is easy to give up.

If you want to achieve your goals, learning the skill of self-motivation is absolutely necessary. 

In that light, I want to provide you with a helpful article about motivation.  The article is written by mega-successful personal growth blogger Leo Babauta.  The post contains 8 Ways to Motivate Yourself From the Beginning and 20 Ways to Sustain Motivation When You’re Struggling. 

Read it here: 

The Ultimate Guide to Motivation – How to Achieve Any Goal

Application Action:  The article is long.  I don’t necessarily recommend reading the whole thing right now, unless you feel like it.  This is what I want to encourage you to do:  Print and file or save this article somewhere where you will be able to find it .  Then, put a note on your calendar during the middle of each month on your 2010 calendar that says, “Read Motivation Article".”  Regularly reviewing something like this has the power to create unexpected motivation in the midst of the daily grind.

Here are some of the tricks that work best for me.

Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly.  For example, when I wanted to run my first marathon, I started writing a column about it in my local daily newspaper. The entire island of Guam (pop. 160K) knew about my goal. I couldn’t back down, and even though my motivation came and went, I stuck with it and completed it. Now, you don’t have to commit to your goal in your daily newspaper, but you can do it with friends and family and co-workers, and you can do it on your blog if you have one. And hold yourself accountable — don’t just commit once, but commit to giving progress updates to everyone every week or so.

Just start. There are some days when you don’t feel like heading out the door for a run, or figuring out your budget, or whatever it is you’re supposed to do that day for your goal. Well, instead of thinking about how hard it is, and how long it will take, tell yourself that you just have to start. I have a rule that I just have to put on my running shoes and close the door behind me. After that, it all flows naturally. It’s when you’re sitting in your house, thinking about running and feeling tired, that it seems hard. Once you start, it is never as hard as you thought it would be. This tip works for me every time.

Read about it. When I lose motivation, I just read a book or blog about my goal. It inspires me and reinvigorates me. For some reason, reading helps motivate and focus you on whatever you’re reading about. So read about your goal every day, if you can, especially when you’re not feeling motivated.

Go for mini-goals. Sometimes large or longer-term goals can be overwhelming. After a couple weeks, we may lose motivation, because we still have several months or a year or more left to accomplish the goal. It’s hard to maintain motivation for a single goal for such a long time. Solution: have smaller goals along the way.

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