How to stay motivated to achieve your goals

how to stay motivated

5 tips on how to stay motivated in life

In this article on how to stay motivated to achieve your goals, I share with you effective strategies to keep you motivated even in the most difficult times.

These tips will not only help you regain your motivation to achieve your goals but also help you progress even faster and more efficiently in your personal development journey.

Discover my tips now.

1 – Check if you are not making the problem too complex

Staying motivated depends not only on what is happening in your personal and professional life but also on how you interpret the events.

If you perceive the problem as more complex than it is you are less likely to solve it.

Your brain can make the situation more complex because in order to protect you it can focus on all the negative possibilities of a given situation.

The important thing is to understand that there is a difference between what you perceive, feel, interpret and the actual reality of the situation.

If you understand that you are making the problem worse it then becomes necessary to rebalance the situation.

An effective way to do this is to be factual and write down in black and white what the problem is in a rational way without attaching your emotions.

To facilitate the process, imagine that it is another person’s problem and summarize that person’s problem in one sentence.

Doing this will allow you to emotionally detach from the situation and make it easier to take action.

If you are afraid to take action, I invite you to read my article on how to overcome the fear of taking action.

Now that you have defined the problem in one sentence, try to answer the following question.

How am I contributing to this problem?

After answering this question, it is important to understand what you can do practically to act on your problem. This is the subject of the next tip.

2 – Focus on what is in your control

Your level of motivation depends on your level of control over a given situation.

If you think you have no control or if you objectively have no control, you will have little motivation to do anything to change your situation for the better.

On the other hand, if you believe that a situation is in your control and that you can act on it, you will be more motivated to take action.

When you experience a drop in motivation, you may believe that you can’t change anything in your life.

Even then, it is only a problem of perception.

Again, staying rational will allow you to distinguish between what is outside your responsibility and what is up to you.

From the sentence that summarizes your problem, build a table with four columns:

  • the first column is about what does not depend on you
  • the second, what is 100% up to you
  • the third is the level of difficulty required to take action
  • the fourth is the price to pay if you don’t act

Doing this will allow you to direct your energies on aspects that you can control and change.

You will thus avoid losing your energies in unproductive activities.

Being aware of the cost of inaction is also important to get your motivation back.

This is especially important because your brain is programmed to avoid suffering.

But if you are not aware of the consequences of not taking action, you will not be able to take advantage of this additional motivation.

Now that you understand what’s in your control and know the consequences of not taking action, it’s time to start planning for your professional and personal success.

That’s what the next tip is all about.

3 – Prioritize and schedule your actions

In order to prioritize and schedule efficiently the actions that will allow you to reach your goals, it is essential to add to the previous table two other elements:

  • the price you will pay if you take action
  • the potential benefits of acting now

You can prioritize your actions in different ways.

It all depends on your situation and the importance of your goal.

Ideally, it would be better to prioritize your actions in terms of the impact of those actions on your goal.

An alternative is to prioritize in terms of the difficulty of the task and for example, you can start with an action that is easy to perform and continue by increasing the difficulty of the task.

The most important thing is to choose an action, schedule it and execute it as quickly as possible.

Remember that if you procrastinate you will reduce your chances of success.

If you have a problem with procrastination, I suggest you read the article 10 tips to stop procrastinating.

Another enemy of action is perfectionism. If you are waiting for the perfect moment to take any action that you have been putting off for a long time, I advise you to read the article How to stop being a perfectionist at work and in your private life.

As you can see, it is better to take imperfect action and then adapt your strategy to the situation, than to keep putting off until tomorrow what you can do now.

To go further on prioritization, I suggest you read my article on how to prioritize your tasks at work and in your private life.

When it comes to scheduling tasks, I recommend that you first write down your to-do list and then transfer these tasks to your agenda.

Be careful not to schedule too many tasks and remember to allow breaks between each task. Doing this will improve your productivity.

Now that you have prioritized and planned your tasks, it is time to take action and measure their effectiveness. That’s what the next tip is all about.

4 – Measure your results

After taking action, it is important to take the time to evaluate if they have been effective.

I advise you to do this at least once a week.

If you don’t do this and you notice that you are not progressing after a longer period of time, you may become demotivated and give up on your projects.

If you have taken actions in the past and failed, it is not because of a lack of skills but rather because you did not adjust your strategy quickly.

Congratulate yourself on your positive results but be nice to yourself when things don’t go as you planned.

Take the position of a neutral observer again and identify what you need to start changing in your strategy to get closer to your goal faster.

Take quick, imperfect action and continue to improve.

Don’t stress yourself, but instead use your energies to adapt to the situation as best you can.

Then, prioritize, plan and execute regular actions that will allow you to adjust your strategy.

In the next tip, I explain what to do when you are not enough motivated.

5 – Go further with good habits

Staying motivated to achieve your goals is important, but there will be days when you will not be so motivated.

You will want to focus on more enjoyable activities instead of working on your most important projects.

There will also be days when unforeseen events or major difficulties in your life will drain your physical and mental energy.

When you face all these situations, your best intentions will not keep you motivated.

But fortunately, you can count on something that is complementary to motivation.

It is about your habits.

If you want to achieve your goals you need to develop better habits that will compensate for the inevitable drops in motivation.

Conclusion on how to stay motivated to achieve your goals

You now have five effective strategies to accomplish your most important projects and stay motivated.

To take advantage of the expertise of a coach, write to us using our contact form, call us at +33 6 69 46 03 79 or contact us on WhatsApp at +33 6 69 46 03 79.

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This article is also available in other languages

Français Comment rester motivé pour atteindre ses objectifs

ItalianoCome rimanere motivati: 5 consigli efficaci

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