So, it’s coming up to the last week in January and your motivation is starting to fade.
The enthusiasm you were feeling, has evaporated into the cold grey days.
But wait, don’t give up!
This blog is about how to sustain motivation when we feel we're not getting anywhere.
Change is challenging. When we change our habits, we often rely on willpower and resolutions to motivate us. When momentum wains and our actions have yet to show improvement, it’s hard to keep that motivation going.
Knowing this is the case, how can we keep on track and move in the direction of our goals?
Scheduling
We may have become more productive but lack consistency. We may feel tired trying to manage our new tasks and find the motivation to keep going.
Without a structure our energy goes in many directions. Often we can feel motivated one minute and deflated the next.
Scheduling your tasks provides consistent motivation. This may sound counter intuitive. Surely you have to be motivated in order to do the tasks.
Actually this isn’t the case. Start the task and the motivation comes.
When you declutter one room, you’ll want to do more. When you organise your week, you’ll start planning ahead.
Make it easy to start by scheduling your tasks. Decisions are made in advance, meaning there's no umming and ahhring, should I or shouldn’t I, when and where.
Instead, your schedule says:
Saturday/ 2:00pm: Declutter hall
Friday/ 5:00pm: make a meal plan.
You now have instructions to follow, Your intentions are anchored to a time and place, making it easy to act.
Instead of finding the motivation, you've created the structure which enables the motivation.
Accomplished List
Another way of sustaining motivation is to log achievements. We may think we’re failing because we’re focusing on what we haven’t done. When we write down all we have done, we can see we’re doing better than we thought.
Write a list of habits and tasks you’ve completed the previous day. Repeat this daily.
-Cleared kitchen draw
-Went to the gym
-Learned routine
-Planned dinner
-Took the stairs instead of the lift.
You may be thinking ‘I HAVEN’T GOT TIME FOR THAT!’ - fair point, but do you have 5 mins to change your mindset and the course of your day?
By acknowledging our positive actions, our perspective changes. We are more able to see and value our efforts, which motivates us to keep going.
Chart your progress
Sometimes working towards a goal can feel relentless and boring. This is when we need to chart our progress daily. Having a wall chart is motivating because you can see how far you’ve come.
Break down your goal into tasks. For example decluttering a whole house, can be split into rooms, then into specifics (such as wardrobe, draws, desk).
When you’ve completed an action, tick it off (for example = decluttered a draw)
It’s simple and very effective- our brains love ticking things off!
We feel a sense of accomplishment and motivation to keep moving towards our goals.
I hope this has given some ideas about how to sustain motivation. Change is challenging, so make it as easy and be kind to yourself.
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