Ever find yourself looking up how to stay motivated to complete a goal? Or to even start working on said goal? Everyone says to keep thinking about the end goal to stay motivated. Just keep dreaming about being in shape, making more money, having that perfect house or the most well behaved and brilliant children anyone has ever seen.
Trouble is sometimes we’re just so very far from our ideal that it feels impossible that we’d ever get there. In fact I’d bet many who now feel like they’ve completed their goal aren’t exactly in the position they dreamed about when starting out. When you have long term goals you need more than motivation to keep going.
Motivation will wain
There comes a time between the initial surge of starting something new and developing a routine, where motivation is the lowest. You haven’t seen much, if any, progress towards your goal and the idea of putting in the work is no longer exciting. You can begin to wonder if it’s worth the effort to keep going.
Your motivation for something is only going to push you so far. Eventually you will feel very little motivation to put in the extra work. You can hope to rekindle it through various methods but ultimately you’ll need to be sure you can just do the work regardless of motivation.
Self discipline
I know you’ve heard it before but good advice always bears repeating. Discipline is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes. You won’t WANT to get up extra early and also use that time to go work out. But you’ll need to if you want to get into shape. So how do we do what we don’t want to? We cultivate enough discipline to ignore temporary emotions for the sake of long term fulfillment.
Love the process
By dreaming of yourself in the process and not just standing at the finish line you’ll realize you actually can accomplish what you’ve set out to do. Stop thinking about how amazing you’ll look in that new dress or at the beach. Start picturing yourself actually waking up early to go to the gym. No fancy gym clothes and lean muscles either! As you are right now. Picture it every day. Then picture you liking it cause ‘it gives you energy and you feel so good after’ like everyone says it will one day.
Imagine how you’re going to have to move all the furniture to finally paint the ugly paneling in the dining room. And then all the clean up after the work is done. Revel in it. Learn to love the idea of putting in the work and not just gaining the reward.
If you’re a competitive person start a challenge with yourself. Welcome the feeling of not wanting to do the work and crush it anyway. Record that moment. Remember it next time the want to avoid the hard work comes around. Embrace the process of getting things done and not just lazily dreaming about the end goal.
