Momentum + Motivation: The Super Team That Give You an Edge
You’ve heard the adage “slow and steady wins the race”? It comes from the story of the tortoise and the hare. Where the tortoise won the race not because he was the fastest (!!!) or the smartest. But because he kept putting one foot in front of the other. His dogged persistence and determination and focus on the end result won in him the race.
And that’s how we need to think about our journey towards our goals. Like the turtle. Be determined. It may go slow, but just keep going. We may experience plateaus, setbacks, and even relapses into addictive habits – these are completely normal especially when it comes to making and permanently establishing life-changing goals. So it’s important to keep that fire inside us lit during the our journey.
Consider one of these strategies to maintain motivation and build your momentum:
- Take action daily. This is the single best step you can take in order to further your momentum. Taking action ensures that you’re making progress, no matter how small. Even if you don’t know exactly what action you’ll be taking, just do something, anything, to further yourself. Baby steps count!
- Find inspirational or motivational nuggets. Take a few minutes each day to read, look at or listen to something inspiring, whether it’s motivational quotes or affirmations to keep your confidence going. Motivational quotes can inspire you can help transcend your mindset away from the daily grind and onto things that are bigger than yourself! Consider a Willpaper! =)
- Check (and track) your progress. If you’re feeling stuck or like you’re not moving forward, review the goal that you’re trying to accomplish. Think about where you started and reflect on where you are today. You might be surprised and how much you’ve progressed. Instead of thinking about how far you are from your goal, try to think positively about how much closer you are to it than you were.
- Talk to someone. Find another person (or people) who has already achieved goals similar to the ones you’re working on. Find a community of like-minded folks that you can share your journey with. Extract all the wisdom, advice and helpful tidbits that you can from their stories.
- Plan your ahead. Your day. Your week. Your month. Scheduling time to work on things related to your health and wellness goals is crucial. We use schedules for everything else in our lives, so there’s no reason that time devoted to working on emotional coping skills, and eating habits and goals cannot be included as well. =)
- Reward yourself. Small rewards have been shown to motivate everyone from kids to older adults. Rewards act as a positive reinforcement, and even affirmation of a job well done. When we’re being rewarded, we tend to continue pressing on towards our goals. Just make sure it’s an appropriate reward, that doesn’t take you further from your goals.
These are just a few of the things that we can do on a regular basis to keep motivation and ensure that we’re continually making progress.
The key word is “progress.” If we’re taking some action or doing even just one thing on a daily basis that furthers us along in our goals, we’ll feel better about ourselves and be able to keep that momentum.
Other things that we can do on a regular basis to keep momentum and motivation alive is to write in a journal, listen to inspiring talks, join a support group related to our goals, spend a few minutes in quiet meditation on our life’s purpose, or even posting daily reminders.
