5 Steps to Staying Motivated to Complete a Major Goal

5 Steps to Staying Motivated to Complete a Major Goal

To piggyback on my article “Anything Worth Doing,” I thought I’d share 5 steps to staying motivated to accomplish a major goal.

During our lifetime, we’ll most likely have several huge goals we wish to accomplish.  Sometimes these may seem so overwhelming that we can’t face getting started, so we procrastinate.

The next time you have a challenging or large goal to conquer, try taking these 5 steps to improve your motivation so you can more easily achieve the goal.

Define your WHY – Without a strong why there’s very little to get inspired about. When the going gets tough, we need to be able to look back at the important reason why we are spending our time and effort trying to accomplish this goal. Understanding and reviewing your why makes it easier to stay motivated to keep moving forward.

I remind myself daily why I have started this company and what I hope to accomplish. Much like the process I took in training and completing the various Spartan races, I imagine the outcome, how I would feel, and the person I would grow into because I took on the challenge.

Prioritize your goals– Too often we try to take on too much at once. When we do this, it’s hard to keep up with all the various action steps for each goal, so we end up running ourselves ragged and often just give up in exhaustion. Minimize the number of large goals you are trying to achieve so you can easily manage the daily, weekly and monthly tasks associated with them (see the next tip). I try to have no more than 3 large goals at one time. This may be developing an online school, hitting my fitness goal, and planning for a big upcoming event. I know all these take energy and resources every day in order to reach them, but if I schedule my time (even if it’s as an appointment with myself), I know I can achieve them. If 3 large goals are overwhelming, it may be best to just focus on one. Be clear about it’s importance to you and have a time frame when you want to reach it. This will help keep you focused and avoid overwhelm.

I try to have no more than 3 large goals at one time. This may be developing an online school, hitting my fitness goal, and planning for a big upcoming event. I know all these take energy and resources every day in order to reach them, but if I schedule my time (even if it’s as an appointment with myself), I know I can achieve them. If 3 large goals are overwhelming, it may be best to just focus on one. Be clear about it’s importance to you and have a time frame when you want to reach it. This will help keep you focused and avoid overwhelm.

Break large goals into small steps – Becoming overwhelmed is one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome when attempting to complete a major goal in our lives. When we bite off more than we can chew, we get tired of all the struggling to make things happen. One excellent way to make sure this doesn’t happen is to break down the goal into smaller chunks. Then, break down each step into one action step. Then, each day, focus on getting at least one of those mini-steps completed. So long, overwhelm!

Start small – It’s human nature to want to jump in with both feet when we decide to take on a major goal. But when we do, we end up wearing ourselves out and frequently give up all too soon. As mentioned above, focus on taking one small step each and every day. Instead of promising to go to the gym to work out for an hour every single day, try taking a brisk 15-minute walk every day. That’s easier to fit into any schedule, and you are much more likely to do it. Which makes you feel successful. Feeling successful leads to more motivation.

Celebrate each small victory – Once you’ve completed a few days in a row or a week of small steps towards your goal, celebrate yourself and your dedication to your objective. You can celebrate in small or big ways. You might take yourself out for a nice, healthy dinner, get a massage, or take a 30 minute Netflix break. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it feels like a celebration to you.

Your goals are your ticket to leaving a legacy and living the life you truly deserve! Don’t shy away from the big goals. Have those bucket lists, just prioritize them, schedule them, and celebrate along the way!

To your success!