10 Motivational Tips – Reach your goals faster
“The Best View comes after the hardest climb!
Isn’t that true?“
Tip #1 – Set a Goal
When it comes to getting motivated, nothing is more important than setting goals. Setting goals allows you to fix your attention on a single idea—something that you truly want to achieve, but will not achieve in the near future.
Above all else, having goals allows you to visualize how your life will be different when you accomplish them. Perhaps your workload will be lighter; or your appearance will improve; or your business will perform better in the long run.
So start by setting some goals today. Decide what it is that you truly want to accomplish; and then write that thing down on paper.
Tip #2 – Ignore Obstacles
It’s true that the world is filled with many obstacles. And these obstacles often make it hard to accomplish our goals. But what’s also true is that we suffer from cognitive biases that prevent us from taking action simply because obstacles exist. That is—we place an inordinate amount of weight on the significance of obstacles, even if they aren’t very challenging.
So, from now on, ignore those obstacles. Don’t allow yourself to fixate on them; and don’t allow yourself to procrastinate when you think about how difficult the challenges will be.
Instead, you should stay fixed on your goals; and pretend that the obstacles don’t exist. When it’s time to confront them, deal with them then, but before then, simply pretend that they don’t exist and push forward with your goals.
Tip #3 – Think in Terms of Benefits
When you think about your goals, try to visualize the benefits that will come from them. Focusing on benefits, rather than abstract goals will help you to understand how accomplishing your goals will palpably improve your life.
For instance, when you think about a goal, you might consider:
1. How accomplishing it will make you feel
2. How accomplishing it will improve your business
3. How accomplishing it will make you richer
4. How accomplishing it will your schedule freer, so that you have more free time to spend with your family
Focusing on these benefits will help you develop a clearer, stronger rationalize for accomplishing your goals.
Tip #4 – Relish Small Victories
Staying motivated is often harder than getting motivated in the first place. This is why it is important to find daily ways in which you can celebrate your achievements; and use these achievements to gain momentum, so that you can stay motivated in the long run.
You can start by defining your goals more clearly. Decide exactly what it is that you want to accomplish; and then break those goals down into a series of objectives that you want to achieve along the way.
Each time you achieve one of these objectives, you should make it a point to celebrate your successes. Give yourself a small reward, take a break, or let others know about what you have accomplished. This will make you feel better about yourself; and will reinforce your achievement of additional objectives.
Tip #5 – Create a Detailed Plan
Confusion and disorganization often makes it hard to get motivated. When we don’t know what’s coming next, it’s hard to move from step to the next without getting lost.
Instead, we have to follow an entirely ad hoc path. At each point in time, we must make new decisions about what we should be doing; and if we haven’t thought it out in advance, there’s a good chance these will be bad decisions.
This is why it is important to map out a detailed plan before you attempt to achieve some goal. As soon as you have a break in your schedule, you can look at the plan to find out what you should do next. This will prevent you from sitting around for long periods of time without any work to occupy you.
Another benefit of having a detailed plan in advance is that it will emerge from long-term thinking and considerations. This is much more likely to lead you in the right direction than a plan that emerges from minute-to-minute considerations without focusing on where you should be at the end of the day.
Tip #6 – Start Small
Whenever you set goals, you should always start small. If you accomplish your small goal too quickly, you can always set another. But if you get stuck on a “big” goal that you can’t accomplish, chances are you will give up—and perhaps without making any progress towards the smaller goals.
So start small. If you’re learning to play the guitar, learn one chord at time. Get good at that and then move to the next. If you’re learning how to do calculus, set a small goal of working through textbook chapter every two weeks. Or if you’re planning to boost traffic to an Internet-based business you own, then set a goal to increase your traffic by 10% over the course of the next month.
Again, aim small. If the goal turns out to be too easy, then you’ll only be more encouraged by your progress when you surpass your goal easily. But if you start out big, you could find yourself highly discouraged.
Tip #7 – Think Positively
Thinking positively may sound like generic advice that has no value, but in fact, it is a critical component of success in our life, our personal relationships, and our work. Thinking positively shapes how you see the world, how you make decisions, and how you feel about those decisions at the end of the day.
So, next time you start thinking “I can’t do this,” think again. Start with the premise that you can do it; and then figure out how. For instance, maybe you can’t do the task by yourself, but if you ask for the help of others, you may find that the task is trivial.
No matter what you do, don’t give in to negativity. Thinking negatively will drain your motivation; and make it much harder to achieve your goals.
Tip #8 – Break Big Goals Down into Little Goals
As I’ve mentioned in other tips, it’s important to break your big goals down into little goals. Big goals, by themselves, are not necessarily a bad thing. But if they aren’t approached correctly, they are likely to lead to disappointment and frustration.
So, do yourself a favor: break your big goals down into goals that are manageable. If your “big goal” is to have a multi-million dollar business, start building that plan month-by-month.
For instance, decide what you want your business to be able to achieve in the next month; and then the month after that. String these goals together, so that they all achieve your final goal in the end.
Tip #9 – Read About People Who Have Had Success
One of the best ways to get motivated is to read about others who have had success in your field. The reason for this is that reading about other people who are successful will make their goals and stories seem more real to you.
There’s another good reason to read about other people’s successes. If you’re like most people, you can visualize yourself being successful, but along the way, you probably have a harder time visualizing how you will overcome all of the challenges along the way. Reading about how others faced challenges and overcame them will help you to see how you can do it, too.
Tip #10 – Don’t Give Up Easily
In some situations, it makes sense to quit. For instance, if you are implementing a new marketing plan for your business; and it turns out to be enormously expensive and generates no profits, it may be a good idea to give up on it and try something else.
In many, many other situations, however, we give up when there is no good reason to do so. Perhaps we’re about to finish some very difficult task, but we run into an unusually long string of snags right before we complete it. As a result, we get so discouraged that we simply give up.
Well, it’s time to put an end to this. No matter how tired you are, no matter how discouraged you are, don’t give up. If you can’t finish something tonight, give yourself a break, and finish it up the following day.